Who is the most underrated manager in baseball history?
Charles Comiskey. No one ever thinks of him as a manager, but he was one, and he was absolutely brilliant. He won four pennants in a row with St. Louis in the 1880s. The only other managers to do that are current and future Hall of Fame managers (Harry Wright, John McGraw, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Joe Torre). Please note that Comiskey had considerable authority in determining his club’s roster when he managed them. The important thing about Comiskey is that he pioneered an entire approach to winning that has been picked up by numerous other managers and clubs over the years. He prioritized position players who could field their position and pitchers who had superior control. This created a symbiotic relationship between hurler and fielder than led to run prevention units that were greater than the sum of their parts. It’s how his St. Louis teams won, and also how his Chicago White Sox teams won when he owned them. More than that, numerous others have adopted this approach, perh
