During his MLB playing career, Dale Sveum was known for his “Sick Facal Hair.”As a young man he sort of resembled what would happen if Matthew McConaughey and Jeff Foxworthy had a child.
Sveum also had the distinction of playing for five different managers who would eventually win a league Manager of the Year Award. They were Tony La Russa (’83, ’88, ’92, ’02), under whom Sveum played in Oakland, Joe Torre (’96, ’98), in New York, Lou Piniella (’95, ’01, ’08), in Seattle, Jim Leyland (’90, ’92, ’06) in Pittsburgh, and Gene Lamont (’93) with the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pittsburgh.
For those of you drinking Cubbie Kool-Aid, I’ll go ahead and post what you’re already thinking “maybe he learned a lot about leadership through osmosis from these guys, and we’ll see that as he leads the Chicago Cubs.”
Sveum went 7-5 in the regular season and 1-3 in the NLCS as interim manager for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008.
Prior to coaching in Milwaukee, Sveum managed the Double A team in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from 2001–2003, compiling a 213-211 record. He was once named a Top Managerial Prospect in the Eastern League by Baseball America in 2003.
And he was third base coach for the Boston Red Sox from 2004–05, working under manager (and former Brewers teammate). In Boston, he was known for having a very itchy trigger finger in sending runners, though this often led to runners being thrown out at home plate. (“Wave ’em home Wally!”)
He left the Red Sox to rejoin the Brewers as the team’s bench coach. On October 30, 2007, Sveum left his role as the Brewers’ bench coach to become the team’s third base coach.
On September 15, 2008, he was named interim manager of the Milwaukee Brewers after manager Ned Yost was fired. As Ken Macha took over the Brewers for the 2009 season, Sveum stayed on as the team’s hitting coach.
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