Lucchesi was hired to manage the Phillies a few days before the 1969 baseball season ended. It was a period of turmoil for the team. Long-time manager Gene Mauch was fired in the middle of the 1968 season and replaced by Bob Skinner, former Pirate star. Skinner clashed with Dick Allen and failed to produce any on-field improvement and resigned by mid-69. Veteran third base coach George Myatt was a caretaker manager for the rest of 1969. Myatt's lasting legacy as a manager being the line, "I believe God hisself would have trouble handling Richie Allen." On September 26, the Phillies announced they had hired Frank Lucchesi to take the helm for the 1970 season.
Lucchesi had certainly paid his dues. An undersized (5'7") outfielder in the minor leagues for 13 seasons, Lucchesi realized early that his only path to the big leagues would be as a manager. He accepted his first player/manager position at the age of 25 in 1951 with the Medford (Oregon) Rogues of the Class D Far West League. Eventually he was hired by the Phillies as a minor league manager and worked his way through the organization winning six league championships along the way. He had just managed the Phillies top farm team, the Eugene Emeralds, to the Pacific Coast League title when he got the call form the big club.
Lucchesi, who grew up in San Francisco and went to the same high school as Joe Dimaggio, was a popular choice. Friendly, affable, a really fine communicator, but also fiery and tempestuous on the field, Lucchesi seemed to be the manager from central casting in Hollywood. In fact, if you watch actor Vincent Gardenia's performance as the hapless manager in the great baseball movie, Bang the Drum Slowly, you will swear he patterned the performance after Lucchesi. Two weeks after Lucchesi was hired, Dick Allen was traded to St. Louis in the infamous Curt Flood trade. Lucchesi had managed Allen in the minors and rumors were they didn't get along well.
Lucchesi hit all the right notes with the fans, especially the large Italian-American contingent in South Philly. Philadelphia Daily News columnist, Bill Conlin, reported that Lucchesi was hired to "win back the hearts and minds of fans who had abandoned the Phillies in droves." He was the right man for that job.
Sportswriters, who had endured years of the often-surly Mauch, were regaled with stories by genial Frank. And if he sometimes mashed his syntax, that was all part of his charm. He was also open and honest with his players. It was a young team. Sixteen of the players on the 1970 Phillies roster had played for Lucchesi in the minor leagues.
Talking about the team's prospects Frank said, “I am going into this job very optimistically. I’m not making any predictions but let me say this: I think there’s only one man who was more optimistic than Frank Lucchesi. That was General Custer at Little Big Horn who told his men, ‘Don’t take any prisoners.'” Lucchesi gave everyone a lesson in how to pronounce his name (it's Loo-CASE-ee) and also asked everyone to call him "Skipper" Lucchesi, which sounded quaint even in 1969.
On opening day in 1970, Lucchesi got the biggest ovation of all the Phillies introduced by the PA announcer. It had been a long journey for Frank and he doffed his cap and tears came to his eyes. That was another thing about Frank, he wore his heart on his sleeve, or as he put it, he "had Phillies red in his veins." The fans ate it up. His daily radio show was a must listen. Lucchesi was always available for public appearances and hospital visits. He did the job the right way.
One of Lucchesi's biggest fans was Larry Bowa. “Frank takes an interest in everybody. He’ll do little things, thoughtful things, that I don’t think other managers do for their ballplayers. You really couldn’t ask for a better manager,” Bowa always credited Lucchesi with sticking with him when he struggled offensively during his rookie year.
A Lucchesi rhubarb was a sight to behold. He would kick dirt on home plate. He would throw his hat in the air and kick it on the way down. He would go chest to chest with the umpire. Or actually nose to chest because even most of the umpires towered over little Frank. Once, memorably, he got down on his hands and knees in the batters box and started building sand castles on home plate. Another time he picked second base up out of the ground and threw it twenty feet. The funny thing was, with all his antics and angry confrontations, even the umpires seemed to like Lucchesi.
In his single greatest act of fury during a Major League ball game, Lucchesi staged a sit-down strike. On June 27, 1970, the Phillies were in St. Louis playing the Cardinals. The score was tied at 8-8 in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Jim Beauchamp lined a Joe Hoerner pitch to deep center field. The ball reached the wall, 386 feet away, when, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, "two fans reached out and one of them touched the ball." Umpire Tony Venzon ruled the ball a home run. The Phillies thought it should have been ruled a ground rule double due to fan interference.
Lucchesi ran out to join a group of his players surrounding Venzon and arguing the ball had been touched by a fan. Lucchesi asked Venzon to ask the other umpires for help. Venzon refused. The outraged Lucchesi "kicked clouds of dust and gestured wildly," according to the Daily News. Lucchesi was ejected, but instead of leaving the field he plopped himself down on second base and refused to move. "When I sat down on the base, I told [Venzon] I wouldn't move until he asked his buddies. He knew he was wrong and that he hadn't hustled to see the play."
Finally, with the park police about to come and drag Lucchesi off the field, Myatt came out and convinced Lucchesi to vacate the premises. Apparently, Myatt (who Lucchesi kept on after he was hired as manager) had a special code. Whenever the Skipper went too far, Myatt was to come out and say "Luke", which was Lucchesi's signal to get off the field.
All the goodwill and entertainment value were not enough, of course. The Phillies were in rebuilding mode and the young team was not competitive. By July of 1972, with the Phillies off to another poor start, the rumors about Lucchesi's firing swirled around the team. Naturally, the Phillies botched the firing as well. One day general manager Paul Owens assured his long-time friend and colleague his job was safe and the next day Owens fired him and replaced him with none other than Paul Owens.
The fans, and even the sportswriters, were outraged at the Skipper's treatment. They blamed ownership for not giving Lucchesi a team that could win. For his part, Lucchesi was "heartbroken." He had given his life to the organization and the organization ditched him while his back was turned. In this devastating hour, however, Frank Lucchesi showed what kind of man he was. According to David E. Skelton's SABR biography, Lucchesi reached out to a six-year-old boy who had just had open heart surgery. He wanted to assure the boy that, even though he wasn't the manager of the team anymore, the boy and his family were still invited to attend a game as his guest.
Lucchesi went on to manage the Texas Rangers for two years. He stayed in baseball as a coach or scout after that. In 1987, former Phillie Dallas Green hired Frank as a caretaker manager of the Chicago Cubs for the final month of the season. Lucchesi retired from baseball for good in 1989, after 45 years in the game.
Frank Lucchesi died June 8, 2019 at age 93 in Colleyville, Texas.
The following resources were very helpful in compiling this story. For more information on Frank Lucchesi, I suggest you check out these out.
Why Frank Lucchesi caused commotion on call for Cards | RetroSimba
Obituary: Frank Lucchesi (1927-2019) – RIP Baseball
Frank Lucchesi – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)
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