The Pecan Park Eagle

Brad Mills (2010-2012): Without a plan, Brad would have been cast as Captain of the Titanic. With a plan, however, he’s Captain of the Firebird, on its way to the ashes to rise again someday in glory. He can only hope that he’s left in charge long enough to enjoy the entire unfolding of Astros-Resurrection.

Sometimes it’s simply fun to look at where we’ve been with the managers in Astros history. For me, this is one of those days.

There have been 19 different men who have had runs as manager of the Houston Colt .45s/Astros over the past half century, but 3 of those were only there as brief interim managers at mid-term or season’s end:

(1) Salty Parker took over for one game from Harry Walker in 1972 as the club awaited the arrival of new manager Leo Durocher. Parker won hi only game, becoming the only manager in franchise history with a perfect undefeated record.

(2) Matt Galante filled in for 27 games in 1999 when manager Larry Dierker went down with a brain seizure. Dierker returned to his post upon sufficient recovery, but Galante finished with a 13-14 record for a winning percentage of .481.

(3) Dave Clark stepped up fired manager Cecil Cooper in 13 games at the tail end of 2009, finishing with a small sample record of 4-9 and a winning percentage of .308.

The 16 Full Season Managers, including Brad Mills in progress, finished in this Winning Percentage order:

(1) Larry Dierker – .556 (435-348) 5 seasons (1997-2001)

(2) Terry Collins – .532 (224-197) 3 seasons (1994-1996)

(3) Phil Garner – .524 (277-252) 4 seasons (2004-2007)

(4) Hal Lanier – .523 (254-232) 3 seasons (1986-1988)

(5) Jimy Williams – .522 (215-197) 3 seasons (2002-2004)

(6) Bob Lillis – .514 (276-261) 4 seasons (1982-1985)

(7) Bill Virdon – .510 (544-522) 8 seasons (1975-1982)

(8) Leo Durocher – .508 (98-95) 2 seasons (1972-1973)

(9) Cecil Cooper – .50147 (171-170) 3 seasons (2007-2009)

(10) Harry Walker – .501412 (355-353) 5 seasons (1968-1972)

(11) Art Howe – .484 (392-418) 5 seasons (1989-1993)

(12) Preston Gomez – .443 (128-161) 2 seasons (1974-1975)

(13) Grady Hatton – .426 (164-221) 3 seasons (1966-1968)

(14) Harry Craft – .406 (191-280) 3 seasons (1962-1964)

(15) Lum Harris – .400 (70-105) 2 seasons (70-105)

(16) Brad Mills – .387 (167-264) 3 seasons and counting (2010-2012 in progress through 8/03/12)

Playoffs …

Four managers have taken Houston to 9 playoff appearances. Success began with Bill Virdon as the Astros made impressive, but heartbreaking appearances in 1980 and 1981 against Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Hal Lanier then led the club to their next playoff loss against the Mets in 1986. – Remember that one?

Then came Larry Dierker and the Astros racked up 4 playoff appearances in his five years at the helm (1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001). Finally, along came Phil Garner and the Astros followed a close loss to St. Louis in 2004 with a win over the Cardinals in 2005 for their first and only pennant and a trip to the World Series, where they lost to a White Sox broom in four straight games,

Now Mr. Mills is on baseball’s version of the clock as the current beleaguered manager of the rebuilding Astros. Will Brad Mills be allowed to hang around long enough to ride the rocket to franchise redemption? Or will hiring a new kind of rocket man for that phase of the job be the final coat of media paint on the new “House That Jeff Built?”

What do you think?

– My thanks again to Baseball Reference.Com for making good information so easily available to those of us who care enough to research and write about baseball.