RIP Les Moss

He was the Tigers' manager for such a short period that almost nobody remembers him. He was pushed out early in his first season to make room for some guy named Sparky, who led that core of players to the '84 World Series title.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120907/OPINION03/209070349/A-fine-guy-former-Tigers-manager-Les-Moss-victim-bad-timing?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

 

That was an excellent read. RIP.

 

Moss was ridiculously jerked around by the Tigers.

As noted, he had a winning record when he was fired -- with a team which had been in the dumps for most of the 70s.

After taking over, Sparky finished the season with a sizzling 56-50 record, so the evidence he was a huge improvement over Moss is hard to see.

Sparky had been fired by the Reds the previous November, so if Campbell thought bringing him in was such a brilliant idea, he had all winter to do it. Instead, he hired Moss and dumped him after two months.

 

Oh shit, it happens. You hire a loyal organization guy and you come to realize he's not a ML manager. A big part of that is whether the players are going to take him seriously, or if they're just going to think the guy is like a substitute teacher and treat him that way.

Eddie Haas was one of those. So was Vern Rapp.

Jim Campbell realized he had a chance to get Sparky, and he had to hurry before someone else did. The fact that Sparky stayed forever indicates it was the right move.

So does the fact that nobody ever asked Les Moss to manage a ML team again.