Charles Fuqua Manuel Jr. (born January 4, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. During his playing career, he appeared over parts of six Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons for the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Dodgers, before playing another six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Yakult Swallows and Kintetsu Buffaloes. Over four successive seasons in NPB, Manuel hit at least .312 with 37 home runs each season and won the 1979 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award.
After his playing career, he coached and managed the Cleveland Indians and managed the Philadelphia Phillies, winning the 2008 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays and the 2009 National League Championship Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was inducted to the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 2014.
On August 13, 2019, Manuel replaced John Mallee as hitting coach for the Phillies for the remainder of the season.
Early life Although Manuel was born in Northfork, West Virginia, his family was actually living in Virginia at that time and all throughout his childhood. He was born in an automobile while his mother, June, was visiting her mother. Manuel's father, Charles Sr., was a Pentecostal preacher, and the family lived in Wythe and Grayson Counties in Virginia until they settled in Buena Vista, Virginia, when Charlie, the third of 11 children and the oldest son, was 12.
Manuel became a four-sport star at Parry McCluer High School in Buena Vista, playing baseball, football, basketball, and track and field, captaining the baseball and basketball teams. His first love was basketball and he had received scholarship offers in that sport, but his plans and his life would dramatically change just before his high school graduation.
In April 1963, Manuel's father died by suicide due to being severely ill with diabetes and heart problems. Leaving behind a suicide note, he asked that Charlie – who was already married with a child – take care of his mother and siblings. He turned down his basketball scholarship offers, and an academic scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, to consider offers from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and New York Yankees, ultimately signing with the Twins out of high school in for $30,000 ($ in current dollar terms).
Playing career Minor league career In 1971, Manuel hit .372/.462/.764 for the Portland Beavers, leading the Pacific Coast League in each category. In 1974, he batted .329/.433/.600 with 30 home runs and 102 RBIs for the Albuquerque Dukes in the Pacific Coast League. Over 11 seasons in the minor leagues, in 3,430 at bats, Manuel batted .290/.374/.483 with 133 home runs and 624 RBIs.
Major league career Manuel played from to with the Minnesota Twins and in and with the Los Angeles Dodgers, primarily as a pinch-hitter and left fielder. His earliest Topps baseball cards listed him as "Chuck" Manuel. He batted .198 in 384 at bats.
Japanese baseball Manuel's baseball career took off when he left the United States to play in Japan. Wildly popular for his tenacious style of play and his power-hitting abilities, Manuel was dubbed "Aka-Oni" (The Red Devil) by fans and teammates. He was also nicknamed "Uncle Chuck", most likely in reference to some of his Topps cards.
In 1977, he hit .316/.403/.690 (2nd in the league) with 42 home runs (3rd) and 97 runs batted in (5th), helping the Central League's Yakult Swallows reach second place for the first time in franchise history. In 1978, he hit .312/.372/.596 with 39 homers (3rd in the league) and 103 RBIs (5th), powering the Swallows to their first pennant and the Japan Championship Series.
Playing for the Pacific League's Kintetsu Buffaloes, Manuel hit 25 home runs in the first eight weeks of the 1979 season. In a game against the Lotte Orions on June 19, 1979, he was hit by a pitch from Soroku Yagisawa. The pitch broke Manuel's jaw in six places. He was wearing a dental bridge, as a result of an earlier accident in the minor leagues. There was nothing for doctors to wire together, so they inserted three metal plates in his head and removed nerves from his face. Manuel was discharged from the hospital after six weeks and immediately began playing again, against the advice of doctors and worried family. The Buffaloes were struggling to stay in the Pacific League lead and had never won a pennant. To protect his jaw, Manuel wore a helmet equipped with a football facemask. He wore the helmet for the first few games but stopped using it because it obscured his vision at the plate.You Gotta Have Wa, by Robert Whiting, Vintage Departures, 1990, pg 281 He finished the 1979 season with 37 home runs to win the home run title. He led Kintetsu to its first pennant win. He was voted the Most Valuable Player, the first American to receive the honor since 1964, hitting .324/.434 (2nd in the league)/.712 (leading the league) with 65 walks (2nd), 37 home runs (leading the league) and 94 RBIs (5th).
A year later, Manuel returned to lead Kintetsu to the second-half championship and the pennant. He finished the season hitting .325 (5th in the league)/.400/.673 (leading the league), with 88 runs (4th), 48 home runs (leading the league), and 129 RBIs (leading the league). It was one of the best seasons for an American player in Japan up to that point. However, his Buffaloes would fall to the Hiroshima Carp in the Japan Series once again.
In 1981, he returned to the Yakult Swallows after being released by Kintetsu over contract negotiations.
Manuel finished his successful run in Japan with a .303 career average, 189 home runs, and 491 RBIs. He was considered one of the best imported baseball players to Japan in those days, along with brothers Leron and Leon Lee and Randy Bass.
During his time in Japan, Manuel learned to speak Japanese. The language skill and experience in Japan were useful back in the U.S. for managing players such as So Taguchi and Tadahito Iguchi.
Managing career
Minor league manager
Ultimately, injuries, including his beaning in Japan, cut Manuel's playing days short. He returned to the United States to work as a scout for the Minnesota Twins organization before turning to coaching. As a minor league manager for nine years in the Twins' (–) and Cleveland Indians' (–) farm systems, Manuel compiled a 610–588 (.509) record, winning the Pacific Coast League and International League championships in his final two seasons (–93). He was named Manager of the Year three times (, 1992, ) and managed the IL All-Star team in 1993.
Cleveland Indians coach and manager Manuel returned to the Majors in 1988 as the Indians' hitting coach (–, –), where under his tutelage, the Tribe led the American League in runs three times (1994–, 1999) and set a franchise record in 1999 with 1,009 runs, becoming the first team to score 1,000 runs since the 1950 Boston Red Sox. The club also led the league in home runs in 1994 and 1995.
From to , he served as the Indians' manager, becoming the 37th manager in Indians history.
The 2000 season had a 44–42 start, but Manuel's squad caught fire after the All Star break and went 46–30 the rest of the way to finish 90–72. The team had one of the league's best offenses that year and a defense that yielded three gold gloves. However, they ended up five games behind the Chicago White Sox in the Central division and missed the wild card by one game to the Seattle Mariners.
2001 saw a return to the postseason. After the departures of Manny Ramírez and Sandy Alomar Jr., the Indians signed Ellis Burks and former MVP Juan González, who helped the team win the Central division with a 91–71 record. One of the highlights came on August 5, when the Indians completed the biggest comeback in MLB History. Cleveland rallied to close a 14–2 deficit in the seventh inning to defeat the Seattle Mariners 15–14 in 11 innings. The Mariners, who won an MLB record-tying 116 games that season, had a strong bullpen, and Manuel had already pulled many of his starters with the game seemingly out of reach.
Seattle and Cleveland would eventually meet in the ALDS, with the Indians taking a 2 games to 1 lead, then losing two straight to drop the series 3 games to 2. Following the season, Manuel received a single third place vote in American League Manager of the Year voting, finishing in a tie for sixth.
The 2002 season started with eleven wins in their first twelve games, but the team sputtered thereafter, finishing April with a .500 record before spiraling with losing records in each of the next three months. He was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians on July 11, 2002, with the team at 39–47, over a contract dispute with general manager Mark Shapiro, who Manuel said "wasn't totally honest". Manuel finished his time as Indians' manager with a record of 220 wins and 190 losses.
Philadelphia Phillies manager
2004–06 Shortly after he was fired as manager for the Cleveland Indians, Manuel was hired by the Philadelphia Phillies as special assistant to the general manager. After the season, Manuel was hired as the club's 51st manager, replacing Larry Bowa. In the 2005 season, the Phillies went 88–74, only one game back of the Wild Card. Following the season, Manuel received three votes in National League Manager of the Year voting, finishing in sixth place.
In , the Phillies finished just short of the playoffs once again, this time three games back of the wild card. However, the season did have certain positives that boded well for next season. Second-year slugger Ryan Howard hit a franchise-record 58 home runs, second baseman Chase Utley was named a starter in the 2006 MLB All-Star Game, and rookie pitcher Cole Hamels showed progress and the potential to one day become the club's ace. After once again just missing the playoffs, Manuel received three second-place votes in National League Manager of the Year voting, finishing in fifth place.
2007 The team got off to a slow start again in 2007 (in 2005, they opened at 9–12; in 2006, 6–10). They began the season with a 3–9 record and during the Phillies' post-game press conference following the team's 8–1 loss to the New York Mets on April 17, 2007, Philadelphia radio personality Howard Eskin repeatedly questioned Manuel why he did not challenge his players. Eskin, a controversial afternoon drive host on local sports-talk station WIP-610, had criticized Manuel since the manager's hiring three years earlier. The Phillies proceeded to lose two of their next three games after the confrontation before going on a five-game winning streak. After the streak, the Phillies took another step back, winning only 5 of their next 13 games. The Philles were still one game below .500 on July 19 and only four games over .500 on August 25. From August 25 through the end of the season the Phillies went 23–11 to overtake the Mets.
Manuel's Phillies battled injuries all season, including losing newly acquired pitcher Freddy García for the season. Howard, Utley, and Hamels also missed significant playing time. Hamels led the pitching staff with a 15–5 record, while Jimmy Rollins set the Major League Baseball record for at bats in a season with 716 through all 162 games played, and was named NL MVP. In a dramatic finale to the season, the Phillies captured the National League East title from the collapsing Mets, but were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Colorado Rockies. Manuel finished second in balloting for the National League Manager of the Year Award for 2007.
2008–09