Managers Ready to Rumble

Lou Piniella on a rampage.

I thought it was only fair to follow up yesterday's post about Joe West, baseball's worst umpire, with a look at some of the managers who have caused the men in blue to reach for the Rolaids.

In recent seasons, Bobby Cox, who retired after last season as manager of the Atlanta Braves, was king of the tirades. In fact, he's the career leader in ejections. For my money, Ozzie Guillen is the king now. He's bombastic on the field and seems to have no filter between his brain and mouth off the field. Lou Piniella's tirades were scary, if only because you feared for his health as the veins popped out of his head.

There have been a lot of managers who enjoyed kicking dirt, throwing bases and caps and generally making a spectacle of themselves. Leo Durocher is the first I remember who was celebrated (or castigated) for his fiery temper. Leo the Lip had a somewhat checkered career that included stops as a shortstop with teams including the St. Louis Cardinals' colorful Gashouse Gang and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As a manager he was set to lead the Dodgers during Jackie Robinson's inaugural season. But the commissioner suspended him for "the accumulation of unpleasant incident" deemed "detrimental to baseball" just before the regular season started. Some see the suspension as the result of a feud Durocher had with Larry MacPhail, a New York Yankees' executive. Either way Durocher will be remembered for his temper and "nice guys finish last" mentality.

In the 1960s and 1970s, managerial tirades brought to mind two men: Billy Martin and Earl Weaver. Both were winning managers and both were famous for arguing their cases vociferously. Weaver is a YouTube hit. Martin was bombastic back in his days managing the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. He could be caustic off the field. When he was fired and rehired by George Steinbrenner during their long-running soap opera, it was like watching a train wreck. You wanted to look away but just had to keep watching.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

It had to happen eventually. Even in baseball, which is often behind the pop culture times, Twitter had to grab its attention. And Major League Baseball is not amused. It doesn't help that the perpetrator of what's being called baseball's first in-game tweets is Ozzie Guillen.

The White Sox manager has frequently made controversial statements regarding his own players, opponents and those in the media, among others. His tweets have been noted before, but now baseball is taking notice.

Guillen's latest controversy started after he was tossed form last night's game with the Yankees. By the time he hit the clubhouse, Guillen was already sending his thoughts into cyberspace. His mini-diatribe included the phrase "today tough guy show up a yankee stadium," an apparent reference to the ump who gave him the heave-ho. And the grammar is pure Ozzie.