RetroSimba

The first manager Mike Matheny played for in the big leagues was nicknamed Scrap Iron. Matheny impressed him by performing like a Man of a Steel.

Matheny, a catcher, reached the majors with the Brewers in 1994 and spent five seasons with them. Phil Garner was manager the entire time.

An infielder for 16 years in the majors, Garner was called Scrap Iron because of his hard-nosed style of play. As a manager, he looked for players who were scrappers, too.

On May 26, 1998, Matheny was batting when Pirates reliever Rich Loiselle lost control of a fastball. Matheny lost sight of the pitch and it struck him square on the left cheek. “It was kind of a numb feeling for a couple of seconds where I didn’t know what had happened,” Matheny recalled to Susan Shemanske of the Racine Journal Times.

Matheny didn’t stagger or fall. He stood stunned for a moment, then “opened his mouth and blood gushed out,” the Associated Press reported.

On-deck batter Jose Valentin rushed over, followed by Garner and team trainers. “He was spitting up blood like it was water,” Valentin said to the Associated Press.

Matheny walked to the dugout unassisted, spitting blood along the way, while a pinch-runner came in for him.

“I got his blood on my batting gloves,” Valentin told Arnie Stapleton of the Associated Press, “and then when I got up to the plate I looked down and saw a pool of blood. There was blood all over the plate. I was trying to kick dirt over it to get that image out of my mind.”

After being checked by medical personnel in the clubhouse and learning his jaw and teeth were intact, Matheny showered before heading to the hospital for stitches to close the wound inside his cheek. Before he left the clubhouse, Matheny stopped by Garner’s office and said, “I can play tomorrow, Skip.”

Scrap Iron smiled. “He’s a throwback,” Garner told the Associated Press. “A man’s man. I hope my daughter marries a guy like him. He’s one tough son of a gun.” Boxscore

The next night, after Matheny took batting practice, he had to get the sutures tightened. Then he tried on the catcher’s mask. It fit over his swollen face. “I might need to adjust the padding, that’s all,” he told the Associated Press.

Garner put Matheny in the lineup and he caught all 10 innings of a 3-2 Brewers victory against the Pirates. Boxscore

In explaining why he didn’t sit out, Matheny said to the Associated Press, “I’m getting paid by the Milwaukee Brewers to play baseball. If I have my health, I have a requirement to do so. I feel an obligation to go out there and play.”

That’s what Garner had come to expect from him. “Matheny is the type of player who will catch a 15-inning game one night and then the next day be back out there taking balls in the dirt before a day game,” Garner said to Dennis Semrau of The Capital Times.

Six years later, in 2004, Garner and Matheny were on opposing teams. Garner was managing the Astros, Matheny was catching for the Cardinals and their clubs were in the playoff series that would determine the National League champion.

Baseball fever

Phil Garner was from the hills of east Tennessee near Knoxville. “My grandmother dipped snuff,” he recalled to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “That’s the way it was.”

Garner’s grandfather and father were Baptist ministers. “My grandfather was the old fire and brimstone type preacher,” Garner said in a Knoxville News-Sentinel article. “He’d stand up there and tell his congregation, ‘I want to throw all the beer in the river. I want to throw all the wine in the river … Now, let us turn to page 229 and sing together, ‘Shall We Gather at the River.’ ”

Baseball had the blessing of the Garner family and Phil developed a passion for the sport. “I dreamed about baseball when other guys my age were dreaming about the girl next door,” Garner said to Marvin West of the News-Sentinel. “I can remember winter evenings after school when I’d get out in the mud or snow and pretend I was fielding ground balls. I’d pivot and throw the ball against a wall, always trying to be quicker.”

Garner eventually got a partial baseball scholarship to the University of Tennessee, twice earned all-Southeastern Conference honors and signed with the Oakland Athletics. After making his way through the farm system, Garner was called up to the defending World Series champion A’s in September 1973.

“I remember the day I walked into the clubhouse,” he told the News-Sentinel. “Reggie Jackson said, ‘Hey, rookie, what’s happening?’ I didn’t know. Sal Bando called me ‘Shorty’ … but they never laughed at me. They knew I was trying. I learned how to win from those guys but, all along, I had their respect.”

Garner played for managers Dick Williams, Alvin Dark and Chuck Tanner in Oakland. His nickname then was Yosemite Sam because of a droopy moustache like the Looney Tunes cartoon character.

It was after his March 1977 trade to the Pirates (where he was reunited with Tanner) that Garner got nicknamed Scrap Iron. In an April 27, 1977, game at Pittsburgh, Garner singled, stole second and looked up to see the name “Scrap Iron Garner” on the Three Rivers Stadium scoreboard. “That’s the first time I ever saw it,” Garner told Russ Franke of The Pittsburgh Press. Boxscore

Pirates broadcaster Milo Hamilton picked up on the nickname and started using it to describe the ballplayer Pittsburgh sports reporter Bob Smizik called “a poor man’s Pete Rose.”

“There was a time I went after baseball with the attitude of a linebacker,” Garner said to reporter Marvin West. “… I was too eager, too aggressive. I try to play under control but with the same determination.”

Garner reached a peak in 1979 when he hit .293 with 32 doubles and eight triples. He finished the season with a 14-game hitting streak, then got a hit in every playoff and World Series game. Garner batted .417, with a home run against Tom Seaver, in the National League Championship Series versus the Reds, and .500 in the World Series the Pirates won against the Orioles. “That little man has a special place in my heart,” Chuck Tanner told the News-Sentinel.

Belief system

After finishing his playing career in 1988, Garner was a coach on the staff of Astros manager Art Howe for three years. Then Garner’s former teammate, Milwaukee general manager Sal Bando, hired him to manage the Brewers.

“He manages like he played,” Tony La Russa said to the Palm Beach Post.

In a 1993 game between Garner’s Brewers and La Russa’s A’s, reliever Dennis Eckersely was ejected for questioning pitch calls. La Russa defended his pitcher and was tossed, too. As La Russa kept arguing, Garner came out to complain about the delay. La Russa turned his anger on Garner. “He had no business there,” La Russa told the Associated Press. Both benches emptied and several brawls ensued. Garner had made his point, though. He wasn’t going to let La Russa intimidate him. Boxscore

The next year, a rookie, Mike Matheny, caught Garner’s eye. Some thought Matheny would be a backup catcher. He was good with the glove but didn’t hit well. Garner, though, saw a player with poise, intelligence, toughness. He showed Matheny how to hit through the ball instead of at it, and Matheny got better.

“One of the things I really like about him is that he’s a hard worker and he’s bright,” Garner told the Racine Journal Times. “He works on all parts of his game.”

In September 1995, Matheny said to Harry Atkins of the Associated Press, “Phil Garner had a lot of faith in me when nobody else did. He saw some things in my approach at the plate that I might not have noticed. I worked on it in winter ball. I feel myself improving. I’ve been a defensive hitter my whole life, and it showed there for a while. Now I’m more aggressive. I’m seeing the ball longer and things are starting to look better for my career.”

Pennant winners

Their career paths took Garner and Matheny in different directions. After being with the Brewers (1992-99), Garner managed the Tigers (2000-02). Matheny went to the Blue Jays in 1999 and joined the Cardinals a year later. Playing for Tony La Russa, Matheny was a Gold Glove winner on contenting teams.

In 2004, when the Astros entered the all-star break at 44-44, 10.5 games behind the division-leading Cardinals, manager Jimy Williams was fired and replaced by Garner. As the Houston Chronicle noted, Garner “changed what had become a relaxed culture under Williams. Suddenly it wasn’t cool to be cool after losses … Garner stood up to club icons.”

The Astros were 48-26 with Garner as manager, qualified for the playoffs and reached the National League finals against the Cardinals. “What he did was very impressive,” La Russa told the Chronicle. “It’s hard to do that.”

The league championship series went the full seven games, with the Cardinals prevailing. After the Red Sox swept St. Louis in the World Series, Matheny became a free agent and signed with the Giants. Yadier Molina became Cardinals catcher.

In a National League finals rematch in 2005, the Astros turned the tables, winning four of six against St. Louis. Garner became the first Astros manager to win a pennant and reach the World Series.

“I could see he was a leader that was engaged with the players and really challenged them,” club owner Drayton McLane told the Chronicle. “He was the first manager I have seen really communicate with the team.”

Seven years later, when Matheny was managing the Cardinals, he recalled to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a lesson learned from Garner. It happened in April 1994. Matheny was entering the dugout after catching the first inning of his first big-league start when Garner demanded to know why the catcher called a certain pitch. Caught off guard, Matheny was slow to respond. “Don’t let me ever hear you have to hesitate with that answer again,” Garner growled.

From then on, Matheny was ready to explain every pitch he called in a game. As Joe Strauss noted, “Matheny eventually established a reputation for preparation and determination as a player.”

In 2013, Matheny managed the Cardinals to a pennant. Two years later, they had a 100-win season. He’s the last Cardinals manager to achieve either feat.