Former major league manager Chuck Tanner dies

PITTSBURGH – For Chuck Tanner, it was all about family, in so many ways.

There was the 1979 World Series when the Pittsburgh Pirates – energized by the thumping anthem “We Are Family” – soared to a title that ended with the players’ wives dancing on the dugout.

And there was Game 5 of that Series, when the great comeback started for a Pirates team facing elimination by Baltimore. Tanner learned his mother had died that morning, but he insisted on managing because he knew she would have wanted him to do the job.

On Friday, Tanner, one of baseball’s relentlessly upbeat figures, died at 82 in his hometown of New Castle, Pa. He died after a long illness at his home after spending time in hospice care.

“In baseball, we will remember his eternal optimism and his passion for the game,” Tanner’s son, former major league pitcher Bruce, said.

He’ll be noted in the record book, too, for a most smashing debut in the majors: Playing for the Milwaukee Braves in 1955, he homered on the first pitch he saw as a big leaguer.

Tanner managed the White Sox, Athletics, Pirates and Braves to a record of 1,352-1,381 from 1970-88. He won one division title and finished second five times.

“It’s hard to win a pennant,” Tanner once said, “but it’s harder to lose one.”

Tanner’s irrepressible faith was tested on that morning of Game 5 in 1979, with the Pirates trailing the Orioles 3-1. Tanner awoke and found out his mother had died in a nursing home in New Castle.

A grieving Tanner stuck with his team. He took a huge gamble by starting left-hander Jim Rooker, who had won four games all season, rather than future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. Rooker held the Orioles to one run over five innings, and the Pirates, led by aging star Willie Stargell, went on to sweep the final three games.

“Chuck was a class act who always carried himself with grace, humility and integrity,” Pirates President Frank Coonelly said in a statement. “While no one had a sharper baseball mind, Chuck was loved by his players and the city of Pittsburgh because he was always positive, enthusiastic and optimistic about his Bucs and life in generally.”

The Pirates had seven winning seasons in Tanner’s first eight years, several after they had terrible starts. Some players later abused the considerable freedom Tanner gave them.

That permissive attitude was cited in part for the Pirates’ drug problems, involving such players as 1978 N.L. MVP Dave Parker, that were revealed during the widely publicized Pittsburgh trials of alleged drug suppliers to major leaguers in 1985.

Tanner testified he had only a cursory knowledge of such drug use.

The Pirates fired Tanner in the aftermath of the drug trials. “I would have fired myself,” Tanner once said.

Tanner had already made his mark in the dugout before joining the Pirates.

While with the White Sox from 1972-75, Tanner, a former major league outfielder, turned modestly successful, knuckleball-throwing reliever Wilbur Wood into a successful and tireless starter and Rich “Goose” Gossage into one of the premier closers of his era. He was one of the first managers to use relievers in situational roles, as all teams do today.