Gil Hodges, The Amazin' Manager Michael Mink
Fri Jul 11, 6:14 PM ET



The New York Mets had a legacy of lovable losers, but Gil Hodges
failed to see the humor.



During his first spring training in 1968 as the team's manager,
Hodges told players and the press that "losing is no laughing
matter," recalled Joe Pignatano, who played and coached with him.

Hodges (1924-72) vowed that anyone planning to watch the Mets for a
chuckle would be disappointed.

He was used to winning as a standout first baseman who played in
seven World Series with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.

As the Mets' manager, he got down to business fast. With a team that
averaged 54 wins each of the previous six seasons, he produced 73
victories his first campaign.

The next spring, he astounded reporters by predicting that the Mets
had the talent to win 85 games.

Hodges' outlook proved amazing.

By the time 1969's season ended, the Amazin' Mets had turned into
the Miracle Mets.

They won 100 games in the regular season, swept the Atlanta Braves
in the National League pennant series and routed the favored
Baltimore Orioles in five World Series games.

Hodges' Mets were champions, completing one of the great turnarounds
in sports history.

How did he do it? The soft-spoken and gentlemanly Hodges emphasized
the mental aspect of the game.

"It's not reasonable for me to think that any player will catch
every ball that is hit to him. But it is reasonable for me to expect
that every player on the field knows how many outs have been made in
the inning," Hodges wrote in "The Game of Baseball," with Frank
Slocum.

"Gil always said, 'Hey, errors, everybody makes (physical) errors.
That's being human. But you can't make mental mistakes, because
you're a professional,'" said Bud Harrelson, the '69 Mets' shortstop
and now the part owner of the minor-league Long Island Ducks. "Gil
was pretty low-key unless you made a stupid mistake, but he would
not embarrass you right there; he'd just talk to you privately after
the game. He made me a smarter player by making me think more."

Hodges managed from field experience. In a playing career that
started in 1943, picked up after the war in 1947 and ran until 1963,
he blasted 370 home runs -- which at the time was the most of any
right-handed hitter in National League history.

Hodges was part of the power behind the great Dodgers teams of the
1950s. His 1,001 runs batted in were the most of any player in the
decade.

He appeared in eight All-Star games, won three Gold Gloves for his
defense and helped the Dodgers win the 1955 and 1959 world titles.

By 1963, he was playing for the Mets and realized, at 39, that his
playing days were over. So early in the season he shed his New York
pinstripes and donned Washington garb to manage the Senators.

The team languished at the bottom of the American League that year,
then slowly rose under Hodges. By 1967, he had the Senators in sixth
place in the 10-team loop.

Two years later, his Met moves earned him National League Manager of
the Year honors and the nickname the Miracle Worker.

"Gil was the difference. He instilled confidence in us and made us
believe we could win," said Cleon Jones, the '69 Mets' left fielder,
as quoted in "Gil Hodges: The Quiet Man," by Marino Amoruso.

Hodges said the essential of baseball strategy was to keep things
simple. "The biggest danger for a manager, and the easiest trap for
him to fall into, is to overmanage," he said.

"Gil stressed two major things -- fundamentals and giving your best
all the time," Frank Howard, who played with him on the Dodgers and
under him on the Senators, said in Amoruso's book.

Hodges' career and life were cut short when he died of a heart
attack in April 1972. He was 48.

The Mets retired his No. 14 in 1982. The pride of Princeton, Ind.,
is beloved by multitudes of former teammates and players. Duke
Snider called him "consistent." Carl Erskine called him "genuine."
Howard and Pee Wee Reese said anyone would want their son to grow up
to be like Hodges.

On the field, Hodges played and learned under three Hall of Fame
skippers: Leo Durocher, Walter Alston and Casey Stengel.

From Alston, Hodges learned that regardless of the criticism from
media and fans, a manager must be true to his instincts. Durocher's
example taught Hodges not to manage against the opposing manager's
moves, but to focus on his own team. "Gil was ahead of everyone
else," Pignatano told IBD. "He knew what he was going to do two,
three innings down the line."

Hodges' philosophy of managing people wasn't complicated, just firm.
He expected his players to conduct themselves like professionals.
This included being in proper physical shape and getting enough
rest. Players who stayed out all night, Hodges said, hurt the
team, "and it's my job to see that they don't hurt the club. If I
let them get away with breaking the rules, I'm inviting the others
to do the same thing."

When it came to rules, Hodges believed in enforcing them across the
board. "His rules applied equally to every man on the club. ... He
played no favorites," said Tom Seaver, the Mets' Cy Young Award
winner in 1969, as quoted by Amoruso.

When Hodges disciplined players, he tried to get them to understand
their mistake. "Meetings shouldn't be for the purpose of bawling
them out or humiliating them. It should be an opportunity for them
to learn. They have questions, and your ability as a manager will be
directly related to your ability to answer those questions," he
wrote.

Hodges, a World War II combat veteran, stayed mentally tough to
serve as a positive example to his team. He felt that if he
complained or lost his cool, his players -- especially his hurlers --
might also lose it.

"If a pitcher loses his temper, he also loses his powers of
reasoning, and that's a luxury that pitchers can afford less than
anybody else on the field," Hodges said.

He instilled in his players to never give up, no matter the score.

"Somebody has to try to keep the hope of winning alive," he
said. "Realistically, chance of victory might be very slim, but ...
the thing for you to see that your players remember is that those
chances do exist."

NOTE--Gil received Bronze Medal as WWII Marine---one of only three
players to both hit for cycle and hit 4 homers in one game