Tanner is best known as a manager, having managed four teams from 1970 to 1988. His overall managerial record was 1,352–1,381 in 17 full seasons and parts of two others.
Minor leagues Tanner spent his entire Minor League managing career in the
Angels' system. In 1963, Tanner began his managerial career with the single-A
Quad Cities Angels in the
Midwest League, and spent the next seven seasons climbing the Angels' organizational ladder, including managing the El Paso Sun Kings (1965-1966 and 1968), and Seattle Angels (1967). He won the Texas League title with El Paso in 1968. In 1970 he led the AAA
Hawaii Islanders to 98 wins in 146 games and a berth in the
Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship series.
Chicago White Sox Both Tanner and
Roland Hemond joined the
Chicago White Sox from the Angels on September 4, 1970, when general manager
Stu Holcomb hired them as
manager and director of player personnel respectively. Tanner, who signed a two-year contract, replaced
Don Gutteridge who had been dismissed two days prior. Due to the Islanders qualifying for the
PCL championship series, he was unable to make his White Sox managerial debut until September 15, requiring
Bill Adair to serve in the interim. Tanner did not retain Adair for his staff after the season, but he named
Al Monchak and
Joe Lonnett as his first- and third-base
coaches respectively on October 2, 1970. All three went on to serve in similar capacities together with the White Sox (
1971–
75),
Oakland Athletics (
1976) and
Pittsburgh Pirates (
1977–
84), with Monchak continuing as Tanner's first-base coach with the
Atlanta Braves from
1986 to
1988. With the White Sox, Tanner managed such star players as
Wilbur Wood,
Carlos May,
Bill Melton, and the temperamental
Dick Allen, who like Tanner was a native of
Lawrence County, Pennsylvania by way of
Wampum. His most successful season with the Sox came in 1972, when he managed them to a close second-place finish behind the eventual World Series champion
Oakland Athletics in the
American League (AL) Western Division. The pitching staff was led by 24-game winner Wood, whom Tanner had converted from a reliever to a starter. According to
Tommy John, "Tanner never liked to use a knuckleballer in relief, because of the way the knuckler danced and moved all over. He solved that by making Wood a starter." Tanner was voted that year's
The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award. John said that "Chuck Tanner once told me he never forgot the fact that he was a player. When he became a manager, he remembered how he wanted his manager to treat him."
Oakland Athletics One day later on December 18, 1975, Tanner was hired to succeed
Alvin Dark as manager of the
Oakland Athletics.
Pittsburgh Pirates Tanner returned to his
Western Pennsylvania roots when he was traded by the A's to the
Pittsburgh Pirates for
Manny Sanguillén and $100,000 on November 5, 1976. He succeeded the recently retired
Danny Murtaugh as Pirates manager. This was the third instance in major-league history where a manager has been part of a baseball trade. (
Joe Gordon and
Jimmie Dykes were traded for each other during the 1960 season, and
Gil Hodges was traded by the
Washington Senators to the
New York Mets for pitcher
Bill Denehy and $100,000 in November 1967.) Sanguillén was traded back to the Pirates in . He reached the pinnacle of his managerial career in 1979 as the skipper of the Pirates'
1979 World Series champion team. The team included future Hall of Famers, first baseman
Willie Stargell and pitcher
Bert Blyleven, along with curmudgeonly stars like third baseman
Bill Madlock and outfielder
Dave Parker. Tanner guided the team together, and the players selected the
Sister Sledge hit "
We Are Family" as their theme song. The Pirates were able to win the World Series after falling behind three games to one to the
Baltimore Orioles. Hall of Fame manager
Sparky Anderson wrote of the Pirates, "They do everything with abandon, because that's the way Chuck Tanner wants it. He's an aggressive manager, a manager who doesn't go by the book. That's why Pittsburgh is such an exciting team." It would be the only time Tanner led a team to the postseason. Although it was not apparent at the time, Tanner's managerial career had crested. The next six seasons could not match his 1979 World Series winner, and the
Pittsburgh drug trials showed that serious drug problems beset the team—arguably more so than anyone else in the majors. The most famous Pirate affected by his usage was Parker, whose cocaine habit punched a hole in his offensive production in the middle of his career. Reliever
Rod Scurry had it much worse; his cocaine habit ultimately forced him out of baseball in 1988 and cost him his life in 1992. Following four mediocre seasons in which the Pirates neither lost nor won no more than 84 games, but only finished as high as second place in the division once, they fell to last place two years in a row, bottoming out at 104 losses in 1985, and Tanner was fired. He finished his Pirates career with a record of 711 wins and 685 losses.
Atlanta Braves Tanner was hired by the
Atlanta Braves prior to the 1986 season. This was easily his least successful managerial stop. Tanner's Braves finished last and second to last in the NL West in his two full seasons. Following a 12–27 start to the 1988 season, Tanner was fired by the Braves and replaced by
Russ Nixon. He finished his Braves career with a record of 153 wins and 208 losses.
Managerial record == Front office career ==