2,530<\/strong>, to be exact.\u00a0 Keep in mind that most minor league seasons are shorter than major league seasons, so he needed more seasons to reach that figure than a major league manager would need.\u00a0 Also, in the affiliated minor leagues, managers are more devoted to developing players than winning games, so playing to win is not a given.\u00a0 Had Wasiak been a major league manager, he would likely be in the Hall of Fame along with Connie Mack (3,731 wins), Tony LaRussa (2,884), and John McGraw (2,763).<\/p>\nNow I understand that the big leagues is THE SHOW, the minor leagues a sideshow.\u00a0 Nevertheless, let\u2019s lift the flap on the tent and go inside to inspect Wasiak and take a peek at some other outstanding minor league managers.<\/p>\n
Stan Wasiak was born in Chicago in 1920 and never played major league baseball.\u00a0 In fact, he never got close.\u00a0 He was a minor league catcher and infielder from 1940 to 1942.\u00a0 After three years in the military, he returned to the minors for three seasons.\u00a0 Following the 1949 season, Branch Rickey named him player\/manager of the Dodgers\u2019 Valdosta affiliate in the Class D Georgia-Florida League.\u00a0 The Valdosta franchise was just one of eight Class D teams affiliated with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, in 1949 the Dodgers had a farm system of 27 teams, so it was easy for Wasiak to get lost in the shuffle.\u00a0 It was certainly a low-key beginning to a managerial career that would span 37 seasons.\u00a0 Now it would take up a lot of space to delineate all the stops during his career.\u00a0 So let\u2019s just hit the highlights.<\/p>\n
During most of his career, Wasniak was managing in the Dodger organization.\u00a0 The exceptions were 1955 through 1957 when he was managing Detroit affiliates, and 1966 through 1969 when he was managing White Sox affiliates.\u00a0 The highest level he reached was the Albuquerque Dukes of the Pacific Coast League from 1973 through 1976.\u00a0 His longest gig was managing the Vero Beach Dodgers from 1980 through 1986, the last year of his career.\u00a0 In 1985 he won the King of Baseball Award.\u00a0 Inaugurated in 1951, this annual award recognized lifetime achievement in the minor leagues.\u00a0 The award enjoyed a good run, lasting till 2019.\u00a0 After Covid passed, it did not return.<\/p>\n
One might wonder why Wasiak never ascended to the big-league Dodgers.\u00a0 Well, one reason is that there was no room at the top.\u00a0 Walt Alston was the manager in Brooklyn and Los Angeles from 1954 through 1976.\u00a0 His successor was Tommy Lasorda, who led the Dodgers through 1996.\u00a0 Both are in the Hall of Fame.\u00a0 There was little to no chance of Wasiak or anyone else dislodging either.<\/p>\n
Of course, any other major league team could have offered Wasiak a job in the Show \u2013 and perhaps some did so.\u00a0 When major league pay was much less than it is today, many minor league players preferred to stay with their old teams rather than move up to the big leagues.\u00a0 More than likely, the same applied to managers.\u00a0 Did Wasiak prefer to remain in the Dodger organization, bleed Dodger blue, and teach \u201cThe Dodger Way\u201d even if he had zero chance of managing in Brooklyn or Los Angeles?\u00a0 Was there more status in being a Dodger lifer than, say, a Washington Senators lifer?\u00a0 Is there more status in being a janitor at Harvard than at Sleepytown Community College?<\/p>\n
Another possible explanation for the baseball lifer is that a minor league manager often suffers from type-casting along with most of his players.\u00a0 It is pretty obvious that some minor league players are on a fast track to the major leagues.\u00a0 Top draft picks get the big bucks and the hoopla.\u00a0 Most of their teammates are second-class players.\u00a0 If they overachieve, they may one day arrive at the big leagues.\u00a0 Most of the others will wash out, but a select few will become organizational players.<\/p>\n
They will remain in the minors longer than their peers and one day the organization will offer them jobs as coaches or managers with low-level minor league teams.\u00a0 They often end up as troubleshooters, moving up and down the minor league system, going wherever needed, as a coach, manager, or instructor.\u00a0 Their longevity indicates their proficiency, and some will even become big league coaches, but they will rarely be considered for major league managerial jobs.\u00a0 The long odds of an unheralded minor league player becoming a big-league player also apply to minor league managers with big-league aspirations.<\/p>\n
This situation is not unique to organized baseball.\u00a0 In the movies, for example, you can be a superb supporting actor with multiple Oscars (e.g<\/em>., Walter Brennan, who had three of them), but that doesn\u2019t mean you will ever be promoted to leading man.<\/p>\nIf you work in an office for a large or small business, you might have noticed the same phenomenon.\u00a0 Highly competent long-term employees often plateau while others are groomed for better things and rise accordingly.\u00a0 The lifers may hang around long enough to get a gold watch, but they will never be invited into the executive suite.<\/p>\n
So one might well ask why Stan Wasiak would stick it out.\u00a0 The baseball season can be a grind.\u00a0 Those long bus rides are surely a downer, but those long off-seasons are pretty attractive. All things considered, managing a minor league team certainly beats pounding a keyboard in a cubicle, wielding a socket wrench on an assembly line, or driving a forklift in a warehouse.<\/p>\n
Wasniak\u2019s career is exemplary but it is not unique.\u00a0 In fact, there are 12 minor league managers with more than 2,000 victories.\u00a0 Most of them you\u2019ve never heard of.\u00a0 A few are familiar names and some appeared briefly as major league managers.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at some of these long-lived lifers.<\/p>\n
![\"Bob](\"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bob_Coleman_Boston_Braves_3-186x300.jpeg\")
Right behind Wasniak is Bob Coleman<\/strong>, who toiled from 1919 through 1957 and garnered 2,496<\/strong> victories.\u00a0 He actually managed in the big leagues but with an asterisk.\u00a0 After five seasons with the Evansville Bees, the Boston Braves\u2019 affiliate in the Three-I League, he was kicked upstairs to manage the big-league club.\u00a0 This was during the roster-depleted World War II seasons of 1943-1945, however, when baseball was in a holding pattern.\u00a0 Given the pre-war record of the Braves (next to last from 1939-1941), it could be argued that they were already in a holding pattern.<\/p>\nAt any rate, very little was expected of Coleman.\u00a0 After three lackluster seasons (128-165), the Braves fired him as a manager but kept him on the payroll and gave him his old job back with Evansville.\u00a0 Of the final 12 years in his managerial career, 11 were with the Evansville Braves (the outlier year was 1950 when he managed the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association).<\/p>\n
Mike Kelley<\/strong> played one year in the big leagues (with the Louisville Colonels of the National League in 1899) but never made it to the big leagues as a manager.\u00a0 Not that he was stuck in the sticks, as, 29 seasons of his 31-year career (1901-1931) were spent in the American Association, entirely in the Twin Cities area, as he managed both St. Paul and Minneapolis (five championships with the former, none with the latter).\u00a0 The rivalry was known as the Streetcar Series and double-headers were often split between the two cities.<\/p>\nSo home or away, Kelley was always at home.\u00a0 This sort of stability was highly unusual, as a minor league manager is usually all too familiar with the old real estate maxim: \u201cRelocation, relocation, relocation.\u201d\u00a0 Altogether, Kelley won 2,390<\/strong> games.\u00a0 Since 2,226 were for Minneapolis and St. Paul, it is fitting that he was one of the early (1959) inductees into the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame, which was established in 1958.<\/p>\nSince the death of Tommy Lasorda in 2021, Buddy Bailey<\/strong> can lay claim to being the most successful living manager born in Norristown, Pennsylvania.\u00a0 He is the active leader in minor league victories with 2,357<\/strong> (that\u2019s not counting his victories in the Venezuelan Winter League).\u00a0 Bailey got his start in 1983 with the Pulaski Braves.\u00a0 Altogether, he served 8 seasons with the Braves organization, 14 seasons with the Red Sox (he spent the 2000 season as a bench coach with the big club), and 18 seasons with various Cubs affiliates.<\/p>\nHe is currently skippering their Myrtle Beach affiliate in the Carolina League.\u00a0 This brings up the subject of perks in minor league ball.\u00a0 Who wouldn\u2019t want a summer job in Myrtle Beach?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if Buddy Bailey is into saltwater fishing or body surfing, but if he\u2019s a golfer it\u2019s noteworthy that there are more than 80-some courses in the Myrtle Beach area.<\/p>\n
Rick Sweet<\/strong>, current manager of the Nashville Sounds of the International League, has 2,268 <\/strong>minor league victories, second only to Buddy Bailey among active minor league managers. His big-league career as a switch-hitting catcher was modest, consisting of just three seasons (1978, 1982 and 1983), and 815 plate appearances.\u00a0 After serving as a scout for two years, he started his managerial career in 1987 with the Bellingham Mariners of the Northwest League, but most of his career, 23 \u00a0seasons to be exact, has been at the Triple-A level (Tucson, Ottawa, Portland, Louisville, Colorado Springs, San Antonio, and Nashville), and he has won four Manager of the Year awards at that level.<\/p>\nNow 71 years old, he has managed the Nashville Sounds for four seasons, winning more games (321) than any other manager in the history of the franchise.\u00a0 It is curious that so many major league teams have named him to manage their highest affiliates (in 2022 he won the Mike Coolbaugh Award, which is a more recent lifetime achievement award for minor league lifers), yet not one has elevated him to the big time.\u00a0 If Sweet ever had major league ambitions, he has likely outlived them.\u00a0 Yet he still has a chance to write his name into the record book.\u00a0 Will he hang on longer than Buddy Bailey to become the leading active manager, or perhaps even the all-time leader?\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n
Next on the list is Johnny Lipon<\/strong> with 2,185<\/strong> victories.\u00a0 If the name sounds familiar, it\u2019s probably because he played nine seasons (1942, 1946, and 1948-1954) in the big leagues as an infielder, mostly with the Tigers.\u00a0 His minor league managerial career began in 1959 with the Cleveland Indians organization, starting with the Selma Cloverleafs of the Alabama-Florida League.\u00a0 In 1968, he was kicked upstairs to the big Tribe, serving as a coach in Cleveland through 1971.\u00a0 After manager Alvin Dark was fired, Lipon managed the Indians for the last two months of the 1971 season.<\/p>\nHis record (18-41) was not encore-worthy, so he was replaced by Ken Aspromonte in 1972.\u00a0 Returning to minor league ball, Lipon remained there through 1992, managing at various way stations up and down the Pittsburgh and Detroit organizations. \u00a0His last stop was the Lakeland Tigers of the Florida State League in 1992.\u00a0 In 1995 he joined Stan Wasiak as a winner of the King of Baseball award.<\/p>\n
Spencer Abbott<\/strong> started his managerial career with Fargo of the Northern League in 1903 and retired at age 70 after his 1947 season with the Charlotte Hornets of the Tri-State League.\u00a0 His stops along the way included such colorfully named teams as the Hutchinson Salt Packers (1906), the Wellington Dukes (1910), the Lyons Lions (1911), the Pasadena Millionaires (1913), and the Santa Barbara Barbareans (1913).<\/p>\nHe also logged time in some of the upper echelon minors: the International League (1923-1925 and 1927), the American Association (1926), and the Pacific Coast League (1931-1933, 1937).\u00a0 That was as high in the food chain as he got as a manager, though he did serve as a coach for the Washington Senators in 1935.\u00a0 So he had to be content with 2,180<\/strong> minor league victories.<\/p>\nBefore he got into pro baseball, Butch Hobson<\/strong> followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and played baseball and football at the University of Alabama.\u00a0 He served as a backup quarterback under Bear Bryant and got some playing time in the 1972 Orange Bowl. \u00a0He played eight years in MLB, including three as the starting third baseman for the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 He finished his playing career with three seasons (1983-1985) as a member of the Columbus Clippers, the International League affiliate of the Yankees.\u00a0 He began his managerial career with the Columbia Mets of the South Atlantic League in 1987.<\/p>\nReturning to the Red Sox organization, he managed their New Britain and Pawtucket affiliates before returning to Boston to manage the Red Sox for three seasons (1992-1994).\u00a0 After a 54-61 record in the strike-shortened 1994 season, he was replaced by Kevin Kennedy.\u00a0 Hobson then returned to minor league managing.\u00a0 Since 1996 when he was involved in a cocaine bust while managing the Phillies\u2019 Triple-affiliate at Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre, his employment in affiliated ball has been scant.\u00a0 Since 2000, all of his gigs have been in indy ball, save for 2017 when he managed the Kane County Cougars of the Midwest League.<\/p>\n
Altogether, he spent 15 seasons in the Atlantic League (6 with the Nashua Pride, 3 with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, and 6 with the Lancaster Barnstormers), 2 seasons in the Can-Am Association (with Nashua), and 6 seasons with the Chicago Dogs of the American Association.\u00a0 Hired as the skipper for the Dogs\u2019 inaugural season of 2018, he is the only manager in the franchise\u2019s history.\u00a0 Remaining with the Dogs in 2024, he is currently sitting on 2,142<\/strong> victories.\u00a0 His son, K.C. Hobson, has played minor league ball since 2010, most recently (2023) with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.<\/p>\nAs a rookie outfielder with the famed 1914 Miracle Braves, Larry Gilbert<\/strong> was the first native of New Orleans to play in the World Series. \u00a0After hitting a less-than-miraculous .151 in 121 plate appearances in 1915, he was sent back to the minors.\u00a0 In 1917 he returned to New Orleans, where he played for the Pelicans of the Southern League.\u00a0 Serving as player-manager from 1923-1925, he remained as manager through 1938.\u00a0 Remaining in the Southern Association, he managed the Nashville Volunteers from 1939 through 1948.\u00a0 Nashville valued his presence so much that he was reportedly the highest paid manager in all of baseball.<\/p>\nUnderstandably, he rebuffed offers from major league teams.\u00a0 It was a remarkably stable career for a minor league manager: one league, two teams, 25 seasons, 2128<\/strong> victories.\u00a0 He was inducted into both the Louisiana and Tennessee Sports Halls of Fame, as well as the Greater New Orleans Baseball Hall of Fame.\u00a0 To this day, you can watch amateur baseball at Larry Gilbert Stadium in New Orleans.\u00a0 His sons, Charlie and Tookie Gilbert, both played major league baseball.<\/p>\nBill Clymer<\/strong> played three games with the 1891 Philadelphia Athletics (then a member of the American Association, which was considered a major league) at age 18.\u00a0 He went 0 for 11, and that was the end of his major league playing career.\u00a0 He then began a minor league playing career that lasted through 1897.\u00a0 He first managed in the minors for the Rochester Patriots\/Ottawa Wanderers at age 25 in 1898, embarking on career that lasted till 1932.\u00a0 From 1900 through 1906 he was a player-manager for the Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons, the Louisville Colonels, and the Columbus Senators.\u00a0 He continued as a manager through 1932, ending his career with the Scranton Miners of the New York-Penn League.\u00a0 Along the way he won 2,122<\/strong> games.<\/p>\nAlthough he is not at the top of the list of career victories, a good case could be made that Jack Dunn<\/strong> is the heavyweight champ of minor league managers based on his career winning percentage of .579.\u00a0 He is renowned as the man who signed Babe Ruth to his first professional contract (and served as his guardian) in 1914 with the minor league Baltimore Orioles, but there is much more to his career than that.\u00a0 Dunn was both a pitcher and a position player during his eight years (1897-1904) in the majors.\u00a0 In the field he played mostly third base and shortstop, but he also logged time at second base and the outfield, giving him broad experience that undoubtedly helped him as a manager.<\/p>\nHe began his managerial career in 1905, spending two seasons with Providence in the Eastern League.\u00a0 In 1907 he transferred to the Baltimore Orioles who at the time were in the same league.\u00a0 In 1910 he took over as team owner (in 1913 the Eastern League rebranded itself as the International League to reflect the addition of teams in Toronto and Montreal) while continuing as manager.\u00a0 Dunn remained in Baltimore through 1928 save for 1915 when he moved the franchise to Richmond because of competition from the Federal League\u2019s Baltimore Terrapins.<\/p>\n
He was not there long, however, as he sold his interest in the Richmond club, bought the International League\u2019s Jersey City franchise, and moved it to Baltimore in 1916 after the Federal League folded.\u00a0 Altogether, he won 1,900 games for Baltimore teams and 2,107<\/strong> total).\u00a0 Next to signing Babe Ruth, his next biggest claim to fame is managing the Orioles to seven consecutive pennants (never achieved before or since by any manager at any level) from 1919 through 1925, finally dropping to a mere second place in 1926.\u00a0 During this 8-year stretch he won more than 100 games every year, peaking with 119 in 1921.\u00a0 Along the way he also won three (1920, 1922 and 1925) Little World Series, as the post-season matchup between the International League and American Association champs was called.\u00a0 A number of pundits asserted that during their dynasty years, the Orioles were as good as if not better than a number of major league teams.<\/p>\nUnlike most minor league owners, Dunn did not need to sell his best players to the major leagues to stay afloat.\u00a0 Famously, Lefty Grove won 108 games for the Orioles in five seasons before he finally made his major league debut with the A\u2019s in 1925 and began his long march toward 300 MLB victories.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the end of Dunn\u2019s career coincided with the end of his life, as he died at age 56 following the 1928 season.\u00a0 He fell victim to a heart attack while on horseback, so he was literally and figuratively in the saddle right up to the end.<\/p>\n
Ironically, he had turned down an offer to manager the Boston Braves earlier in the year.\u00a0 Had he lasted as long as the men listed above, he might have finished at the top of the list.\u00a0 Since he won 1,489 games in the International League, it is no surprise that he was inducted into that league\u2019s Hall of Fame in 1950.\u00a0 The Dunn family influence did not die with Jack Dunn, however, as his wife Mary inherited the team and remained team owner till her death in 1943, at which time his grandson, Jack Dunn III, took over.\u00a0 He managed the team in 1949 and later became the traveling secretary for the major league Orioles in 1954 after the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore.<\/p>\n
Lefty O\u2019Doul<\/strong> was a renowned hitter, hitting coach, and baseball ambassador to Japan (he was the first American inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame).\u00a0 Though he didn\u2019t arrive in the big leagues to stay till he was 31 in 1928, he won National League batting titles in 1929 and 1932, and had a .349 lifetime BA.\u00a0 His best season was 1929 when he batted .398 for the Phillies.\u00a0 With one more hit, he would have joined the charmed .400 circle (.3996865, to be exact, which would round off to .400).\u00a0 \u00a0His 254 hits that season remains the NL record (Bill Terry of the Giants tied the record just one year later).<\/p>\nO\u2019Doul\u2019s achievements at the major league level tend to overshadow his lengthy career as a minor league manager.\u00a0 He won 2,094<\/strong> games, all but 583 of them with his hometown San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.\u00a0 His managerial career with the Seals ran from 1935 to 1951, but he also managed the minor league San Diego Padres (1952-1954), the Oakland Oaks (1955), the Vancouver Mounties (1956), and the Seattle Rainiers (1957).\u00a0 Many pundits feel he deserves a place in Cooperstown.<\/p>\nFittingly, he does have a spot in the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame, since all his managerial victories were in the PCL.\u00a0 Actually, his playing career alone made him worthy of enshrinement as he hit .353 during his PCL tenure.\u00a0 Notably, of his 1,132 hits in that league, 309 were in 1925 when he played for the Salt Lake Bees.\u00a0 His sports bar, Lefty O\u2019Doul\u2019s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, was a longtime favorite in San Francisco from its opening in 1950 till it closed in 2017.<\/p>\n
Andy Gilbert<\/strong> (no relation to the aforementioned Larry Gilbert) won 2,009<\/strong> games in 9 leagues in 29 seasons.\u00a0\u00a0 His major league playing career was brief, one hit in 12 at bats with the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 His career could be described as a cup of coffee in 1942 and a refill in 1946, with military service in-between.\u00a0 He spent most of 1946, as well as 1947 through 1949 playing Triple-A ball.\u00a0 After three seasons with the Giants\u2019 Triple-A affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, he accepted a position as player-manager with the Springfield Giants of the Class D Ohio-Indiana League.<\/p>\nHe continued to manage in the Giants system, closing out his playing career at age 40 in 1955, save for one game in 1959.\u00a0 From 1972 to 1975, he served as a coach with the big club.\u00a0 He remained with the Giants organization through 1980, when he managed the Shreveport Captains of the Texas League.\u00a0 After 31 seasons collecting a paycheck from the Giants, he spent two seasons with the Savannah Braves of the Southern League.<\/p>\n
Before ending this essay, it is worth listing three honorable mentions who are still active and within striking distance of 2,000 victories.<\/p>\n
Tom Kotchman<\/strong> has been a minor league manager for 42 years.\u00a0 After two nondescript seasons as a player at Class A, he embarked on his managerial career with the Auburn Red Stars of the New York-Penn League in 1979.\u00a0 In 1984 he took the reins of the Redwood Pioneers, an Angels\u2019 affiliate.\u00a0 He managed at various Angel farm teams through 2012.\u00a0 Since 1990 he has managed exclusively in short-season leagues, thus hindering his ability to amass victories.<\/p>\nNevertheless, he has accrued 1,964<\/strong> wins.\u00a0 Needing just 36 wins to reach 2,000, he could do just that with a good season in 2024 (he is currently with the Florida Complex League Red Sox).\u00a0 Kotchman was in the inaugural class of inductees into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame in 2008.\u00a0 In 2017 he won the Tony Gwynn Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by Baseball America<\/em>. \u00a0His son Casey played 10 seasons (2004-2013) in the major leagues.<\/p>\nStan Cliburn<\/strong> is a classic minor league lifer, based on a lengthy career as a player as well as a manager.\u00a0 He played just part of one season (1980) in the majors as a backup catcher with the Angels, but 14 in the minors (1974-1987), nine in the Angels\u2019 system and five in the Pirates\u2019 system.\u00a0 Following the 1987 season he went into managing and has remained there ever since, splitting his time between affiliated ball (16 seasons) and indy ball (15 seasons), winning 1,962<\/strong> games along the way.\u00a0 Since 2019, he has been the manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.<\/p>\nHe should surpass 2,000 victories at some point in the 2024 season.\u00a0 He is the identical twin brother of Stu Cliburn, who pitched three seasons with the Angels and is currently the pitching coach for Butch Hobson\u2019s Chicago Dogs.\u00a0 Stan himself worked for Hobson in 2014 as a hitting coach with the Lancaster Barnstormers.<\/p>\n
John Shoemaker<\/strong> has bled Dodger blue at assorted minor league venues, 4 as a player, and 29 as a manager.\u00a0 After serving as hitting coach for the Vero Beach Dodgers (where Stan Wasiak was his manager), he was promoted to manager in 1987 at age 30 and went on to manage at every level of affiliated minor league ball.\u00a0 He is currently the manager of the Cucamonga Quakes of the Class-A California League, who won the league championship in 2023.<\/p>\nAt age 67, Shoemaker has 1,780<\/strong> victories.\u00a0 He has a shot at 2,000 if he hangs on a few more years and the Dodgers continue to supply him with decent players. Like Mike Sweet (see above), he also won the Mike Coolbaugh Award (in 2015).\u00a0 Based on his record with the Jacksonville Suns (two championships in five seasons), he was named to the Southern League Hall of Fame in 2016.\u00a0 Fun fact: Shoemaker, who was awarded a basketball scholarship at Miami University, was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the 6th<\/sup> round of the 1978 NBA draft.<\/p>\nSo there we have it, an assortment of lifers who have spent a big chunk of their lives away from the glare of the major league spotlight.\u00a0 \u00a0For the most part, their achievements have been unsung.\u00a0 But there is no doubt they made major contributions to the development of countless major league players who have gone on to fame and fortune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every now and then we read about a scout, coach, or manager who is described as a baseball \u201clifer.\u201d\u00a0 Well, that word also applies to someone serving a life sentence in prison.\u00a0 Read into that what you will. Being a lifer is better than being on death row, I guess.\u00a0 Of course, organized baseball does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34492,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34489\/revisions\/34492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Stan](\"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/WasiakStan-212x300.png\")
Every now and then we read about a scout, coach, or manager who is described as a baseball \u201clifer.\u201d\u00a0 Well, that word also applies to someone serving a life sentence in prison.\u00a0 Read into that what you will.<\/p>\n