Former Brewers manager Phil Garner dies at age 76

Most of Phil Garner's Milwaukee Brewers teams never had a chance on the field.

But thanks to the manager, they did have a personality.

Garner, the gregarious and fiery former Brewers manager who remained the franchise's all-time managerial wins leader two decades after his departure, died April 11 at age 76. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for more than two years.

"The Brewers are saddened to learn of the passing of former manager Phil Garner," the Brewers said on Sunday, April 12 in a statement announcing Garner's passing. "Following a distinguished playing career, Phil served as our manager from 1992-99 and went on to manage the second-most games in franchise history.

"He was a very highly respected and beloved individual who was known for his caring nature, wisdom and sense of humor. Our deepest condolences go out to Phil's wife, Carol, and all of his family, friends and fans."

Garner compiled a record of 563-617 during his 7½ seasons overseeing the Brewers, a record that was the unfortunate byproduct of a particularly dire stretch of talent-thin Milwaukee baseball. Still, his win total was highest in Brewers history until the 2021 season, when Craig Counsell surpassed the mark.

"I am so sad to hear this news," said Tom Haudricourt, former Brewers reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who spoke with Garner's wife, Carol, shortly before he passed away. "I knew 'Gar' had the terrible cancer diagnosis but in true 'Scrap Iron' fashion, he fought it with all he had and lived much longer than doctors expected.

"He was such a dynamic presence and so much fun to cover as a beat writer because he knew when to have fun and when to get after it. I looked at him as the Don Quixote of major-league managers, constantly tilting against windmills with everything he had but doomed to losing records by a general dearth of talent and the club's sparse budget in those days."

Milwaukee Brewers manager Phil Garner is upbeat about his team's chances as 1993 spring training for pitchers and catchers begins in Chandler, Arizona. u0022It took a team effort last year, 10 years ago, and it's going to take a team effort again this year,u0022 said Garner.

His best season was his first, in 1992, when the upstart Brewers won 92 games behind rookies Pat Listach and Cal Eldred, competing for the American League East crown until the final days of the season.

"His first team was a thing of beauty," Haudricourt said. "He unleashed a NL-style running game on AL opponents and ran circles around them. The Brewers chased the eventual World Champion Toronto Blue Jays to the wire and (Toronto manager) Cito Gaston later told me he hated playing the Brewers because they never gave up."

It was his only winning season at the helm; he was fired in August of the 1999 season, a move in concert with the departure of general manager Sal Bando. He was hired immediately thereafter by Detroit, then landed with Houston and guided the Astros to the World Series in 2005.

Nicknamed "Scrap Iron" during his 16-year playing career, Garner made three all-star teams and won a World Series, playing for Oakland, Pittsburgh, Houston and then briefly with the Dodgers and Giants. The infielder batted .260 and stole 225 career bases, with a penchant for good health (playing in at least 150 games in eight of his first nine seasons).

Phil Garner, shown in 1992, walks the fine line of keeping his players both focused and relaxed. Says player Scott Fletcher, "He likes having a loose clubhouse and making it fun."

He batted .500 (12 for 24) in the 1979 World Series when his Pirates defeated the Orioles in seven games, including late doubles to set up insurance runs in must-win Games 6 and 7.

"I'm not sure if they called me `Scrap Iron' because I had such a lousy glove that it sounded like metal every time a ground ball got to it," Garner said with a laugh in late 1991 when he was hired by the Brewers.

"It was said that I was a tough player, kind of like a piece of metal: You could bend him, beat on him, but couldn't break him."

Garner, then 42, had never managed at any level when the Brewers chose him over former Milwaukee assistants Tony Muser and Don Baylor, as well as Gene Tenace and Gene Lamont.

"Other than experience, he has every quality you look for in a manager," Houston general manager Bill Wood said at the time. "He's an upbeat and happy guy and a good communicator. He has good talent-assessment skills and a good personality, but I've seen him be tough when he has to be."

Garner finished second in the 1992 American League manager of the year voting, behind Oakland's Tony LaRussa.

His tenure included changes for the franchise, first with a move from the AL East to the newly fashioned AL Central in 1994 and then a move to the National League in 1998. He never got to see the franchise's relocation into its new Miller Park home, however, when he was relieved of his duties in 1999 with Milwaukee sitting at 52-60.

Hitting coach Jim Lefebvre took over on an interim basis to close out the season.

He did get to manage in a new stadium, however, hired by Detroit to manage the Tigers in 2000, the inaugural season in Comerica Park. He was fired six games into the 2002 season, then wound up as a midseason replacement as Astros manager in 2004.

In 2005, the Astros upset both the Braves and Cardinals to reach the World Series, with an 18-inning victory in Game 4 of the division series against Atlanta along the way. The White Sox defeated the Astros in four games, including a 14-inning Game 3 in Houston — the longest World Series game by time in history.

Garner, who's won and managed the second-most games in franchise history, was lively and congenial but didn't back down from a challenge. That included a literal clash with White Sox manager Terry Bevington in a famous on-field scrap July 22, 1995.

Both Garner and Bevington were suspended four games following the clash at Comiskey Park, a 4-2 Chicago win that began when Ozzie Guillen shoved third baseman Jeff Cirillo after a collision following a stolen base. Bevington and Garner began jawing at each other in the aftermath, and the benches emptied.

Brewers manager Phil Garner argues a call with home plate umpire Jeff Nelson in 1999. Garner didn't back down from a fight, whether it be announcers or the opposing manager offering the challenge.

Garner left the game with a cut above his right cheekbone, joking afterward that he cut himself shaving.

It wasn't the first time Garner had exchanged words with White Sox personnel. In 1993, Garner blasted TV announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson for his comments on-air suggesting that Garner advised his pitcher to hit White Sox slugger Frank Thomas. Garner referred to Harrelson and on-air sidekick Tom Paciorek as "idiots" and challenged them to a fight.

"Those two guys have been in the game long enough to know the difference," Garner said. "The score was 2 to 7 and we're in the game. We got a man on first with nobody out and two strikes on the hitter and I go out there and tell him to drill him? What's he thinking about?"

Garner had a heated phone call with Paciorek and declined a call from Harrelson, though the situation was defused by the following April.

"We agreed if we have further disagreements we'll take it up with each other in private," Garner said in 1994.

The native Tennessean, one of three players whose jersey number is retired by University of Tennessee baseball, briefly served as an interim college coach in the mid-2000s at the University of Houston-Victoria and then served as a special adviser with the Athletics in the early 2010s.

Haudricourt, who covered the team for 35 years, had a unique relationship with Garner and remained friends after both had retired.

"We rode motorcycles in the Arizona desert during spring training and sometimes smoked cigars in his office, which left Sal Bando shaking his head," Haudricourt said. "But on the field he was all business and kept inferior teams in the pennant race much longer than predicted, which all writers admired.

"Baseball has lost a really good one."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Brewers manager Phil Garner dies at age 76