I
wrote about one former Montréal Expos manager yesterday, not remembering what (useless) uniform number he wore; well, apart from
Felipe Alou,
Buck Rodgers is the team's manager I remember most (and most fondly), and I can say for a fact that he wore #37, which makes him fair game for my
Expos Numbers Project with card #293 from
Topps'
1987 Topps set, the first set I ever pulled a
Gary Carter card from:
Of course, the card - signed in black sharpie in the early 1990s - lists him as "Bob" instead of "Buck", but you can't win 'em all. And he hasn't. However, as an Expos boss, he mostly had winning records, with a .510 winning percentage over 7 seasons, including his 1987 title as National League Manager Of The Year.
His best record as manager was with the
Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he kept a .549 record, albeit in parts of just three seasons. As a matter of fact, both on the Brewers and on the
California Angels, he lived through seasons where he started as manager, was replaced, then came back to finish the season - he replaced
George Bamberger (preseason heart attack) with the Brewers, and had a replacement with the Angels himself after the team suffered a bus crash.
To this day,
he's still an Angels fan, the only team he played for in his younger days; he was their catcher from their inaugural season until his knees gave out, nine years later.
