Phil Garner Lived Up to His Scrap Iron Nickname as a Player & Manager

Yesterday, former MLB player and manager Phil Garner passed away of pancreatic cancer. He was 76.

A native of Jefferson City, Tennessee, Garner would play collegiate baseball at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. The Montreal Expos would pick Garner in the 8th round of the 1970 MLB draft, but he opted to remain in Tennessee. The following year, Garner would sign with the Oakland A's after being selected third overall in the draft.

Garner would have cups of coffee with the A's in 1973 & 1974 although he would not share in the team's World Series glory. Nicknamed Scrap Iron for his hard-nosed play, Garner would become the team's everyday second baseman in 1975 and would earn an AL All-Star selection in 1976.

Prior to the 1977 season, amid Charlie Finley's deconstruction of the A's, Garner was sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 9-player deal. This was a positive development for Garner as he would follow manager Chuck Tanner to the Steel City. Several months earlier, Finley had traded Tanner to the Pirates in exchange for catcher Manny Sanguillen in a rare manager for player trade. Garner was part of the "We Are Fam-a-lee" Pirates team which won the 1979 World Series splitting his time at second, third and short. While in a Bucs uniform, Garner earned back-to-back NL All-Star Team selections in 1980 & 1981.

Late in the strike-shortened '81 season, Garner would be dealt to the Houston Astros where he would spend the bulk of his career making post-season appearances with the club in both 1981 and 1986. Garner also had brief stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in the 1987 and 1988 seasons. In 1,860 games over 16 seasons, Garner collected 1,594 hits for a lifetime batting average of .260 with 109 HR and 738 RBI along with 225 stolen bases.

Garner would return to the Astros in 1989 as a member of Art Howe's coaching staff where he would remain for three seasons before being named manager of the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 1992 season. Garner would lead the Brew Crew to a 92-win season finishing only 4 games behind the eventual World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. Garner would remain in the Brewers dugout for the rest of the decade but would post seven consecutive losing seasons before being dismissed late in the 1999 season. Despite not earning any post-season appearances during his 8 seasons in Milwaukee, his 563 wins as Brewers' skipper is second most in franchise history with only Craig Counsell topping Garner with 707 wins.

In 2000, Garner took over the helm of the Detroit Tigers but had no further success in the Motor City through two more losing seasons before being dismissed 6 games into the 2002 season. 

Garner's managerial career appeared to be over, but the Astros would unexpectedly hire him to replace Jimy Williams in the middle of the 2004 season. Garner would lead the team to a NL Wild Card berth and came within a heartbeat of besting the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. In 2005, the Astros would struggle out of the gate with a 15-30 record before surging to another NL Wild Card berth. They would face the Redbirds in the NLCS yet again but would prevail in second games winning their first and only NL pennant before their move to the AL. Unfortunately for the Astros, they would be swept by the Chicago White Sox who won their first World Series title in 88 years.

Garner's managerial career ended in late in the 2007 season when the team dismissed him in favor of Cecil Cooper. In 15 seasons as a big-league manager, Garner had a record of 985-1054. Aside from a tenure as a special advisor for the Oakland A's in the early 2010s, Garner's baseball days were behind him as he pursued other interests in the oil & gas, agriculture and cattle ranching.

I remember Garner's distinctive mustache although late in his playing career, he sported a clean-shaven look which rendered him almost unrecognizable. The mustache would return during his managerial career.

Garner's passing comes only 72 hours after the death of former MLB player and manager Davey Lopes. The pair were both part of the 1986 NL West champion Houston Astros. Of further note, it was Lopes who succeeded Garner as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 2000 season.

Phil Garner lived up to his Scrap Iron moniker as both a player and a manager. R.I.P.