A Living Curse, or a Hot Potato?

[Edgy MD]

Doc Ellis, in 1977:

• Started season with the Yankees under Billy Martin.
  
  
  
• Was traded April 27 to the Oakland A's where he played under Jack McKeon.
  
  
  
• Saw McKeon fired on June 9 and he continued to play under new manager under Bobby Winkles.
  
  
  
• Was purchased at the June 15 trading deadline by the Texas Rangers who were competing under Frank Lucchesi.
  
  
  
• Saw Lucchesi fired after a June 21 game and replaced by Eddie Stanky.
  
  
  
• Enjoyed it as Stanky won his first game, June 22, and decided he didn't like the job anyhow, and resigned, with Connie Ryan taking over the Rangers.
  
  
  
• Pitched well under Ryan, but saw that Ryan's was just an emergency interim appointment, and after six games, saw Ryan replaced on June 27 by Billy Hunter.
  
  
  
• Played on under Hunter as Billy brought the team --- which had been two games under .500 to that point --- thundering home at 60-33, finishing at a more-than-respectable 94-68 for second place.
  
  
  
• That's three teams and seven big league managers in one season for Doc Ellis, who I imagine must have just taken to calling his manager "Skip." Amazingly, none of those changes involved a Yankee manager getting fired.

He ended up throwing 213 innings in the crazy season for a perfectly respectable 3.63 ERA, back when you could do that sort of thing while striking out only 106 guys.

He ended up being traded at the June 15 deadline in 1979 also, as the Mets muscled up for their pennant drive by sending Bobby Myrick and Mike Bruhert to Texas for him. Bruhert is the only surviving member of that trade.

[Guest d'Kong76]

What conjured up that long thought?

[Edgy MD]

It's never a good day without some thought given to Doc Ellis.

[MFS62]

Sounds like fodder for an episode of Criminal Minds. Somebody was causing managers all over the majors to disappear.

Later

[RealityChuck]

So he's the anti-Don Drysdale? (Fourteen years in the majors, only one manager.)

[Edgy MD]

He wasn't the only one. I don't think he was there for most of the changes (I don't have time to research), but Dave Kingman in 1977 played for the Mets (two managers), the Padres (three managers), the Angels (two managers), and the Yankees (again, only one).