# Most Professional US Sports wins for a General Manager ever and most for a GM with a single Team
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** baseball-mlb
**Created:** [April 11, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912 "2025-04-11T16:19:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/1 "2025-04-11T16:19:00Z")
So Brian Cashman just got win 2500 as Yankees GM. I’m guessing Connie Mack is well ahead of him still, but who else? Any major professional top level US Sport. Though it would be hard to beat baseball by the nature of the games per season. I think Mack can be credited for 3582 wins as GM & Manager.
I think John McGraw might be the only other one ahead of Cashman. I’m not sure if he handled the GM duties for his entire run as Manager.
BTW: Championship Wins is Ed Barrow of the Yankees. He reportedly invented the title of General Manager for sports also.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/2 "2025-04-11T16:29:35Z")
“Most wins” is not a really fair metric since something like baseball and basketball have far more games in a season than football does.
I’d say Jerry West for the NBA, Brian Cashman for MLB and Bill Belichick for the NFL.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/3 "2025-04-11T16:31:27Z")
But it is the metric for this thread. This is a simple numbers game, not a who was the best GM. So your post is basically off-topic as the first reply.
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### Author:  [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/4 "2025-04-11T16:31:40Z")
> **[List of all baseball managers in the major leagues | Baseball-Reference.com |...](https://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/index.shtml)**
>
> Check out the list of all the Baseball Managers in various major leagues on Baseball-Reference.com
~Max
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/5 "2025-04-11T16:33:13Z")
Managers are easy, but this is about General Managers. I can’t find those numbers. It doesn’t answer the question, but I do know only 4 managers have more than 2500 wins.
| Rk | Mgr | Yrs | From | To | W | L | W-L% | Ties | Ejections | WSwon | PennWon | Player/Manager |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Connie Mack HOF | 53 | 1894 | 1950 | 3731 | 3948 | 0.486 | 76 | 1 | 5 | 9 | plyr/mgr: 1894-1896 |
| 2 | Tony La Russa HOF | 35 | 1979 | 2022 | 2884 | 2499 | 0.536 | 4 | 93 | 3 | 6 | |
| 3 | John McGraw HOF | 33 | 1899 | 1932 | 2763 | 1948 | 0.586 | 58 | 121 | 3 | 10 | plyr/mgr: 1899-1906 |
| 4 | Bobby Cox HOF | 29 | 1978 | 2010 | 2504 | 2001 | 0.556 | 3 | 162 | 1 | 5 | |
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### Author:  [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/6 "2025-04-11T16:39:03Z")
Well, IIRC Connie Mack wasn’t technically general manager. His generation predates the distinction between owner/manager/general manager, in fact I think the one-guy-who-does-it-all hat died with him.
~Max
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/7 "2025-04-11T16:41:41Z")
I think he acted as GM for that entire run. So he has to qualify.
It is John McGraw I’m really not sure about.
I guess I should run the numbers on Ed Barrow and George Weiss.
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/8 "2025-04-11T18:13:59Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Bill Belichick for the NFL.
George Halas has him beat.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/9 "2025-04-11T21:44:41Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> I’d say Jerry West for the NBA,
I feel like Auerbach gives him a run for GM wins, but am too lazy to research it.
I don’t understand Popovich’s role over time, but he’s an interesting one.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/10 "2025-04-11T22:01:52Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> I feel like Auerbach gives him a run for GM wins, but am too lazy to research it.
From what I can tell, Auerbach was Celtics GM from 1966 (when he stepped down as head coach) until 1984. It looks like he had 881 wins as a GM. West appears to have had 1166 wins as a GM.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/13 "2025-04-12T00:00:43Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#):
>
> George Halas has him beat.
I consider Halas an owner and not a GM but this gets into that gray area @Max_S mentioned just above.
As a Chicagoan I am cool with Halas taking that crown.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/14 "2025-04-12T00:08:42Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> From what I can tell, Auerbach was Celtics GM from 1966 (when he stepped down as head coach) until 1984
Auerbach was both coach and GM of the Celtics, holding both roles from 1951 to 1984. He had 1738 wins in that time.
[Boston Celtics - General Managers - RetroSeasons.com](https://www.retroseasons.com/teams/boston-celtics/history/general-managers/)
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### Author:  [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2025, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-professional-us-sports-wins-for-a-general-manager-ever-and-most-for-a-gm-with-a-single-team/1016912/15 "2025-04-12T07:10:51Z")
For the NHL, [they’ll just tell you](https://records.nhl.com/records/general-manager-records/wins/gm-wins-career). To nobody’s surprise, they aren’t competitive with MLB due to the short seasons.
- Career: David Poile, WSH/NSH, 1533; I knew he was first because he was with my hometown Predators for forever. Speaking of forever, Lou Lamoriello, NJ/TOR/NYI, is still active and 55 wins away; however, he’s unsigned for 2025-26, is probably leading his team to the lottery, and turns 83 later this year.
- Career including playoffs: Lamoriello, 1650 and counting
- With one team (both with and without playoffs): Harry Sinden, BOS, 1297/1170