We've had some absolutely awful coaches and today TTCS breaks down ten of the worst. Since the incompetence has reached a new high in the last couple years we are only doing coaches since 1990.
10. Jerry Manuel
Now he may have never coached an awful team like I previously mentioned but he is the absolute king of managing a .500 team. While he never dipped below 75 wins or third place as the Sox skipper he also never got past 86 wins or second place besides the division title team of 2000. May I remind you that team, with home field, was swept.
9. Dick Jauron
Jauron is a really nice guy. He's also a mediocre coach. Besides the magical 2001 campaign where the Bears went 13-3 (with an astounding 8-0 record in games decided by seven or less) Jauron was often putting the Bears in contention for high draft picks and Jerry Angelo screw ups. 0-1 in the playoffs just simply doesn't cut it in Chicago.
8. Dusty Baker
Now I know I'm going to get criticized mightily for not having Dusty in the top three but he at least came close to making a World Series in Chicago and tasted much more professional coaching success outside Chicago than anyone else here as well. He is also the only person alive who has faith in Corey Patterson and can run a pitching staff into the ground faster than former Brewers manager Ned Yost.
7. Bill Cartwright
Cartwright as a player was a quiet leader who provided pride and wisdom in the locker room of a championship team. Coach Bill Cartwright couldn't win games, couldn't control his team and worst of all couldn't develop big men Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler into anything remotely resembling a player or a leader. Again, he's a nice guy (just like the three I mentioned above, sense a theme here?) but his leadership style wasn't good for coaching a young team.
6. Terry Bevington
Bevington had two 1/2 years in Chicago where he took some really good White Sox teams.... and did nothing with them. Again a 221-214 record is not bad but in Chicago championships and playoff births are something we as fans deserve. Take that .500 and mediocrity to some small market team like Kansas City and let the big boys call the shots.
5. Don Baylor
187-220 is an awful record for three years of baseball. Especially when you have a slugger like Sammy Sosa dominating and putting up MVP like numbers every year you were there. It doesn't help that the Cubs promptly made the NLCS the year after Baylor left either.
4. Chicago Blackhawks coaches from 1998-99 through 2000-01
Three seasons and four coaches. Dirk Graham, Lorne Molleken, Bob Pulford and Alpo Suhonen made the Blackhawks franchise an absolute laughing stock in those years while putting some terribly undisciplined teams on the ice. Alpo was the final straw with his year of country club style coaching where players had little regard for anything team oriented. While the Blackhawks might have still been bad most of the years after these four left the picture at least they were coached with some teams that showed some discipline.
3. Jim Boylan
The career assistant was so over his head in every way last season it wasn't even funny. Awful losses, a team that didn't like him and the worst press conferences in the ESPNEWS era led for the city to strongly dislike Boylan and whatever it was he did as "coach".
2. Dave Wannstedt
Wannstedt was actually the hottest name in coaching when the Bears hired him in January of 1993. Sometimes that doesn't mean squat (see Rams, Scott Linehan). Wannie led the Bears to one playoff appearance in six seasons while posting an awful 41-57 record. After back to back 4-12 seasons Wannie was fired on the coaching D-Day of December 28, 1998 where five coaches were fired on the same day. Can you imagine if five coaches were fired on the same day today? Sal Palantonio and Chris Mortenson would be split screen on ESPN for the entire day.
1. Tim Floyd
Tim Floyd is the absolute worst professional coach I have ever seen. Did he have a lot of talent to work with? No. But it was the way he lost and conducted himself that was so bad. Handpicked by Krause to be Phil Jackson's successor, Floyd's military drill Sargent style may have worked in the college game but in the NBA it helped him reach a 49-190 record with the Bulls. No, that record is not a typo. 49-190.
From the archives: Top Ten Worst Jerry Angelo Draft Picks
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Tom Treblehorn
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