Growing up in the 1980s I collected baseball cards. I should have been more specific and just collected manager cards, because it seemed as if I got a disproportionate number of them, pack after pack of cards. Dick Howser. Russ Nixon. Joe Wathan. John Hart. If they managed a game in the 1980’s, I have their picture on a 2.5-by-3.5 piece of paper stock somewhere.
Count Pat Corrales in that group.
Corrales today was named Special Assistant to general manager Ned Colletti. In nine years as a major-league manager, Corrales became the first major league manager of Mexican-American descent and the fourth to manage in both leagues in the same season (Philadelphia and Cleveland in 1983).
The 71-year-old went to the Atlanta Braves in 1990 as the team’s bench coach, a position he held for nine seasons, and again from 2007-09 and 2011 with the Washington Nationals. Stan Kasten was the team president in Atlanta and Washington during Corrales’ time in both cities.
A native of Los Angeles, Corrales graduated from Fresno High School and had a nine-year Major League career as a catcher with the Philadelphia Phillies (1964-65), St. Louis Cardinals (1966), Cincinnati Reds (1968-72) and San Diego Padres (1972-73). Now 71, Corrales has 53 years of experience in MLB.
“We are very happy to have Pat join us,” Colletti said in a statement. “His vast experience, especially from his years in Atlanta and Washington, will be a great strength to our organization. He will assist us in a variety of ways, including evaluating our player development system and helping us at the Major League level. I have known Pat for a long time and some of my early mentors, whom I respect very much, have worked side by side with him.”
Thursday, the Dodgers named Bob Engle their new Vice-President of International Scouting. On Oct. 18 they named Gerry Hunsicker as Senior Advisor, Baseball Operations.