I know that in the early days of baseball and football there was such a thing as the player-coach. Well, do the rulebooks of those – or any other pro sports – contain some vestigal provision that makes the coach an eligible player?
Hell, in baseball these fat, ancient geezers suit up in the team uniforms for every game. If one of them got sick and tired of watching one of his guys screw up one too many times could he say, “You’re benched, rookie! Let me show you how it’s done!”?
In Pete Rose’s transition from player to manager, he was a player-manager for a while. It’s been done in the NBA a few times, and on rare occasions, an NHL manager has had to put on goalie gear when both his goalies were wounded.
When Mike Dunleavy was an assistant with the Bucks, he suited up for a couple games. He was also just fresh out of his playing days so it wasn`t a real stretch.
Baseball seems to be the most natural sport for managers to also be players. It’s the only professional sport where the managers wear the same uniform as the players.
There is currenty nothing preventing another player-manager or player-coach in Major League Baseball. They could go wild for all MLB would care as long as they kept the roster straight.
It could not happen on the spur of the moment, though. The 25 man roster is set in stone for each game when it starts. They couldn’t suddenly say “I want to bring this new guy in!” and send him out there.
But if a coach was placed on the 25-man roster (and the 40-man roster, too) prior to a game then yes, he could play.
And there’s a rule about that. No kidding.
Anyone, other than the trainers, who steps onto the field must be in uniform. That’s why the coachs and manager wear uniforms.
Who was it…Connie Mack? He always wore a suit in the dugout and therefore had to send out his pitching coach to make pitching changes.
Thanks for all the responses so far.
I fear I did not word my question very well – though Jonathan Chance seems to have answered it in passing, regarding baseball – so let me try again.
Yes, I know you can have player-coaches. What I want to know is whether a coach/manager, simply by virtue of the fact that he/she is a member of the team, is automatically elligible to play.
According to Johnathan’s post it seems like the answer is no, at least in baseball; the ellibible players are locked into a 25 (or 40-man) roster, and if you’re not on the roster – no matter who you are – you can’t play. I just thought that their might be some wacky rule in some sport that made coaches ex officio members of a team’s playing roster.
I’ll add another angle… There are national football and cricket teams that are coached by persons with foreign nationalities. That fact prevents them from taking part as players. I’m not sure how it works at club level.
The full team list in some (and I would assume most) sports are to be handed in to the tournament organizers some time before the start of the match, so the coach in these circumstances can’t really say, “that’s it bud, here’s where I take over”, assuming he didn’t name himself on the card.
As far as the four team sports often refered to as the “major” sports in the U.S. (without starting debate as to whether they are the major sports), Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey, the answer is “no”. All of them have rules and limitations regarding the player roster, and if you aren’t on the “player” list, you don’t get to play. Any player/coach would take a spot on that roster.
Absolutely, emphatically not. Keep in mind that, in America at least, the major professional team sports are unionized, and there are restrictions on player contracts within the basic agreement with the union. So if you did want to insert a manager or coach into a particular game, you would not only have to add him to the active roster–assuming that you had or were willing to create a vacant spot–but would have to first sign him to a valid player contract.
But he (the coach) is NOT a member of the team. He’s the coach. That’s why everyone calls him “Coach.”
I think there were player-coaches in the very early days of the NFL (1920s). But since the rosters were so small and there was so little money involved, that’s not surprising. I think George Halas was a player-coach when he got started with the Bears (or their very early nickname, the Staleys).
The last player-coaches (who were head coaches) in the NBA, that I can think of were Bill Russell (Celtics), Bob Cousy (Royals), and Richie Guerin (Hawks).
In baseball, the nature of player contracts makes it impractical to have a player/manager. There are likely too many conflicts to overcome now.
I believe you are incorrect about players and contracts having to abide by union rules, or that there’s a union membership requirement. Baseball and Football in the US have both had strikes in recent memory where the owners suited up players who were not members of the respective unions. In fact, I believe there are a handful of “scab” baseball players still playing in the majors today, who of course were never given union membership.
I can’t find the text of any of the major sports Collective Bargaining Agreements online, but just try and sign a player contract which doesn’t conform to its dictates! Oh my, there would be a world of hurting. A strike, of course, would be in a situation where the CBA has expired, and under those unusual circumstances owners would be free (within labor law guidelines) to set their own contract rules. The point is, you can’t play without a contract, and the contract has to follow certain rules, and that constrains one’s ability to suit up on a spur-of-the-moment whim.
However, under the rules, and getting back to the original post, yes, a coach can take the field, as long has he was listed as part of the roster prior to the start of the game.
If, by some chance, the regular first base coach missed a game and a player wanted to take the position, it would be perfectly legal. And if that player was called out of the coaching box to pinch hit, that would be allowed, too, since the player was on the roster.
I agree, jklann. My point was more that technically union membership or CBA’s weren’t an absolute requirement, and that there have been recent counterexamples.
As a union member myself, I know that in my industry (tv/motion picture production) producers are allowed to hire whoever they want–with the understanding that, as per our contracts, at the same time they also have to hire union members to fill the same jobs. In the film biz this does happen once in a while, but, as you say, it is pretty much a dead certainty it would never happen in professional sports.
Yes, a coach could take the field in major league baseball. But only if he’s listed on the active 25 man roster for that game and he has to be signed to a union-approved contract.
The replacement players only came into play when the previous CBA expiration. At that point non-union members could play MLB.
Near as I can remember there’s only one ‘scab’ player left in the majors. That’s Minnesota Twins pitcher Rick Reed. I think he’s STILL excluded from the players association.
Oh groundskeepers, umpires, policemen can go on the field without a uniform. Yes it was Connie Mack who was the last manager not to wear a uniform and they changed the rule after he retired. But he was not allowed on the field. There used to be a statue of him at the corner of 21st and Lehigh in Philadelphia the home plate corner of Connie Mack Stadium in his characteristic pose standing on the dugout steps, scorecard in hand. I wonder where that is now.
Back to the OP. Playing managers were common in the early days of baseball. Each decade of the 20th C. had fewer playing managers than the previous. The last long-time playing manager was Lou Boudreau, lead-footed shortstop and manager for the Cleveland Indians. He had the area at the SS position in Cleveland Municipal stadium turned into a swamp to try to compensate. Since then there have been an occasional short-term playing managers, but no one who did it for as long as a season I don’t think. But since the 25 places on the roster are golden, especially in these days that teams often carry 12 pitchers, it would not be possible for a manager to decide on the spur of the moment to put himself in.
I have not heard of player/coaches in any other sport and, as mentioned, they are not in uniform. In the early days of basketball, most of the coaches were about 5’4" and would not have dreamed playing and most of the football coaches are too intelligent to play. (I cannot verify this, but I have heard that the average life expectancy of a pro football player is less than 60. And even of a baseball player is something like 65 or 66.)
There are a few more than that. From Tim Kurkjian’s 2002 article in ESPN the Magazine :
" According to the Players Association, the following players on 40-man rosters were replacement players in the spring of 1995 and are not allowed union membership:
Benny Agbayani, Brian Daubach, Brendan Donnelly, Angel Echeverria, Charles Gipson, Matt Herges, Cory Lidle, Kerry Ligtenberg, Ron Mahay, Tom Martin, Walt McKeel, Frank Menechino, Lou Merloni, Kevin Millar, Damian Miller, Eddie Oropeso, Keith Osik, Rick Reed, Chuck Smith, Shane Spencer, Pedro Swann, Jeff Tam, Brian Tollberg, Chris Truby, Jamie Walker. "
The MLBPA’s actions and attitudes regarding these players has been nothing short of disgusting. It doesn’t matter that many of these players were little more than kids desperately trying to make their way into the majors, were mislead and/or preassured by their teams, played in a single spring training game, or in one case had a sick relative and coudn’t be out of work, they are still anathema to the union.
They are barred any appearance and share in merchandising, but there are no rules in place that do not allow them to play.