John Vukovich dead at 59

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Link

[TruffleShuffle]

Sad... second player from that 1980 championship team to die from a brain tumor (Tug McGraw).

[rawaction]

Vuk was a former Cubs coach. He was a good guy from all accounts, and a pretty good coach.

[NCCubFan]

He also had a short stint as Cubs interim manager (two games in 1986, after Jim Frey was fired and before Gene Michael took over).

[Derwood]

glad I clicked the link, as I initially thought you were talking about Pete Vukovich from the 1982 Brewers team (my all time favorite team ever)

[3Dog]

Very interesting behind-the-scenes stuff happened involving Vuckovich, Dallas Green, and the Trib boys (Grenesko? Cook?) at the end of 1987.

 

After an abysmal 76-win season, then-President/GM Green seriously entertained the notion of also returning to the field as the manager. The Trib was dead against Dallas holding all 3 titles, although they were willing to let him become manager if he agreed to ceding some of his control and authority to them. Specifically, the Trib wanted all player negotiations and contracts to be run past them before Green acquired anyone.

 

Dallas countered by electing to stay in the front office and naming John Vuckovich as field manager. In late October, a press conference was called to announce Vuckovich's hiring. Right before Green and Vuckovich were to appear before the cameras and microphones, the Trib called them into a quick meeting. Both thought it would be just a harmless pre-conference briefing, but it turned into a nasty confrontation between Green and the Trib about the whole control/authority issue.

 

Eventually the press conference was held, but it was to announce the dismissal of Dallas Green as Cubs President/General Manager. A few days later Jim Frey was named General Manager, Don Zimmer was named field manager, and the team presidency was assumed by one of the Trib boys.

[NCCubFan]

I remember that situation well, although some of the details had escaped me. I remember Green losing out in a power struggle, but I'd forgotten that Vuckovich was going to be named permanent manager. That was a very bad move by the Trib despite the 1989 division title, because Green had done a good job of rebuilding the farm system and I believe most of that progress was undone during the Frey regime.

[tubbfan]

Jim Frey, Hawk Harrelson. . . yes, we've had some bad GM's in this town.