A look back at Tony Muser

Here’s a question that has been debated for decades: Do managers really make a lot of difference for a ball club? After all, Casey Stengel was just a .439 manager in his nine seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Bees/Braves. He was basically an early version of Ned Yost. He didn’t become “the old perfessor” until he moved to the uber-talented New York Yankees, where in 12 seasons between 1949 and 1960, his clubs won at a .623 clip. He closed his managerial career with four seasons of the expansion New York Mets, which were brutal: 175 wins and 404 losses, good for a .302 winning percentage. Ouch. Talent does matter.

When my daughter was in junior high, she played in a local…