Monday, July 9, 2012

WSC Birth Years: Robin Ventura

Card #111 - Robin Ventura

Born: July 14, 1967

On October 6, 2011, the Chicago White Sox made a move that nobody anticipated and hired Robin Ventura as their new manager. While there were more experienced candidates for the job, Robin had deep ties to the organization. Despite never coaching anywhere in organized professional baseball before, the White Sox had faith that Ventura would be the right man for the job.

After a dismal 2011, under a vacationing Ozzie Guillen and a two game tenure under Don Cooper, the ChiSox took the baseball world by surprise with a nice balance of veteran bounce back years and overachieving rookies. The most surprising rookie may be Ventura himself. He has managed a rare feat, having the same core values as his predecessor without the whirlwind circus act. At the 2012 All-Star break, Robin has his team in first place by three games. This is a remarkable start for a rookie manager that no one expected to know the job very well and a team known more for its amazing freefall ability than its steady winning ways in the past few seasons. It may just be a perfect match.

2 comments:

Jim from Downingtown said...

I always like seeing "new" 1967 cards!

(Do you think Nolan Ryan would've hired Ventura for the Rangers' coaching staff?)

Steve Gierman said...

I doubt it since Ventura had zero experience coaching at any level, but they say keep your enemies close, right? LOL

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