While the debate goes on in Chicago about how good Kenny Williams is (or isn't) as the current White Sox GM, you don't have to go very far back to remember one of the worst performances of a GM of all time. Ken "Hawk" Harrelson went from the broadcast booth to the Pale Hose GM position for one season - and the results in 1986 were terrible. An 85-77 team in 1985, they slumped to 72-90 in 1986.
One of the first things he did was hire a bunch of guys to spring training as coaches. Unfortunately all of these guys operated independently of each other and ended up giving contradictory instructions to the players. Then, after a poor start to the season, on June 20th, he fired manager Tony LaRussa over largely personal (as opposed to personnel) issues. To make matters worse, Harrelson didn't just fire LaRussa - he actually negotiated with another man, Billy Martin, while LaRussa was still running the team which was inexcusable. If you are going to fire someone, fire him, get an interim manager and then do your search. To turn a bad situation into a soap opera only embarrassed the organization. LaRussa went on to manage World Series championships with Oakland and St. Louis. In an interview with MLB.com, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said of firing La Russa: "It was the second worst decision I ever made. The worst decision was hiring Harrelson as a general manager, and the second worst was letting him fire the manager." Even back then La Russa had already earned considerable respect in the game. He had been the American League Manager of the Year in 1983, with a division-winning Chicago White Sox team.
Harrelson also fired assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski, who eventually became GM of the Expos. Dombrowski moved on to the Marlins, where they won a World Series in 1997 and is now with the Tigers, where they made a World Series appearance in 2006 against Tony LaRussa's Cardinals.
He permanently soured the great Carlton Fisk's relationship with the White Sox encouraging his movement from Catcher to LF. That was Harrelson's idea all the way. LaRussa was the manager but the GM ordered that move to free up room for the great Joel Skinner.
Making the whole affair even more bizarre, Hawk had traded away CF Rudy Law - a decent defender - before the season began. The Fisk "experiment" was definitely Hawk's idea. The team might have been slightly better if Fisk went along with the move, but knowing Fisk's personality and the weight he threw around in the clubhouse, Hawk should have realized he needed to drop the Catcher to LF conversion. Fisk, after having a decent 1985 season, slumped to a horrid .221/.263/.337 season with a flat .600 OPs.
Harrelson's trading was also unique and flawed. He traded away budding superstar and later 6-time All Star Bobby Bonilla to the Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon. He traded away Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver to the Red Sox for infielder Steve "Psycho" Lyons. Hawk also traded Indiana native and local fan favorite Ron Kittle to the Yankees with Joel Skinner (so much for that experiment) and Wayne Tolleson for Ron Hassey, Carlos Martinez and Bill Linsey.
He picked up quick fix Steve Carlton on August 12, 1986, after the Giants released him. The next day he signed Craig Grebeck, which he always pointed to as a positive when confronted with his less than spectacular moves in 1986. If "Little Hurt" is your claim as your best move, you are in trouble. He later picked up a very washed out George Foster who went on to hit .216/.259/.353 with the White Sox before calling it quits.
The damage caused by Hawk's one year as GM, took almost four years to fix. The only highlights in the 1986 season were John Cangelosi's 50 stolen bases and Joe Cowley's no-hitter. Just as an aside: Cowley threw his no-hitter with seven walks against the Angels on September 19, 1986 in a 7-1 victory. Cowley did not win again in 1986, and after 4 win less starts in 1987, he was released by the Philadelphia Phillies. He thus became the only pitcher in major league history to never win another game after pitching a no-hitter. Harrelson's work ethic was questionable at best. It was widely known that one was more likely to find Harrelson on a golf course than in his office. Harrelson is undoubtedly a fan of the White Sox and a fan of the game - but he was a terrible GM. He almost single-handedly sent the team to Florida.
Years later owner Jerry Reinsdorf attempted to explain the hiring to the Chicago TribuneÃs Melissa Issacson: "Eddie [Einhorn -vice chairman of the White Sox] and I would talk to Hawk and (Don) Drysdale at length, and Hawk more so, to identify problems in the organization, we were still neophytes in this business and we were impressed with the way Hawk pointed out our problems. [GM] wasn't something he really wanted him to do, but we urged him to help us out. The mistake was that when you go to a doctor who diagnoses open-heart surgery, you don't have him do the surgery because he diagnosed the problem, you get a heart surgeon. Just because Hawk was able to diagnose our problems did not mean he could solve them. It was a terrible position to put him in, and a year later, he said he wanted out." (Tribune: May 28, 2004)
Worst GMs of all time
Moderator: Padres
