In many sports, head coaches dress resplendently in formal suits and ties. In baseball, however, the manager wears the same team uniform the players wear. The coaches also dress in numbered team uniforms. This is a singular phenomenon that only happens in baseball.
Why do the coaches and managers wear the same uniforms the players do? Baseball managers wear team uniforms because the manager position of today used to be held by the team captain, who both managed from the dugout and played on the field.
The manager was once a player for the team, and was designated as “captain” because of his management duties. Baseball has risen in popularity to become an extremely profitable enterprise with a lot on the line. Managers, most of whom are retired ball players themselves, now focus entirely on running the team and managing the coaches.
There was a transition period in the early 20th century when managers stopped playing and only coached, and wore business suits.
Ironically, though it’s acceptable and even expected of a basketball coach to wear a suit, wearing a suit and tie to the become acceptable and even expected.
Baseball though, like football and soccer, is an outdoor sport played on grass or artificial turf, and many feel that business outfits look out of place. Football coaches don’t wear uniforms either, and don’t even wear football jerseys. Obviously it would be cumbersome and a little ridiculous for a head coach in football to wear gloves, knee and shoulder pads and athletic supporters.
But baseball is a game steeped in a century and a half of its own traditions, and has its own rules and regulations. The Official Baseball Rulebook, updated annually by Major League Baseball, is over 130 pages in length and contains specific information pertaining to coaches and uniforms. In section of the rule book, titled, ”RULE 2.00 – Definition of Terms”, coaches are defined this way:
A COACH is a team member in uniform appointed by the manager to perform such duties as the manager may designate, such as but not limited to acting as base coach.
Why Do the Official Rules Require Coaches to Wear Uniforms?
Defining the coach this way explains why they wear uniforms. It’s reasonable to expect the first and third base coaches to wear uniforms identical to those worn by players, since they are out on the field while their team is at bat. If a player is on base and the batter gets a base hit to the outfield, the runner looks to the third base coach, who can see where the ball is and can instruct the runner to stop at second base or sprint ahead to third.
The runner needs to respond to the coach’s signal in a split second. Running around the bases on the field, the runner can identify immediately with the team logo and uniform colors the base coach is wearing, helping him to separate the coach from the opponent’s third baseman, the crowd behind him, and anything other distractions near the third base sideline. Wearing the team uniform on the sidelines so the runner can see the coach easily is a convincing theory.
Are Managers Required to Wear a Team Uniform?
Historians who know the history of baseball state that in the early 20th century, a baseball manager was someone who made sure that the team made it to the trains on time, and who managed bills and payments. The manager back then worked in an office and wore a suit and tie and didn’t make any decisions about what went on during a game.
Back then, the person responsible for making decisions was called the captain. He had the same responsibilities a manager has today, but he also played. Then early in the 20th century the person who managed the team, made the batting lineup and made changes during the game, stopped playing and only managed.
In the same Section 2.00 of the official rule book, it’s specified:
THE MANAGER is a person appointed by the club to be responsible for the team’s actions on the field, and to represent the team in communications with the umpire and the opposing team. A player may be appointed manager.
Nowhere in the definition for manager does it require him to wear a team uniform. In the early days of the game, a player was elected as team captain, and managed the team on and off the field.
Section 1:11 (a) (1) of the rulebook is worded this way:
All players on a team shall wear uniforms identical in color, trim and style, and all players uniforms shall include minimal six-inch numbers on their backs.
Even this earlier section of the rule book fails to specify what the manager must wear, and historians and amateur followers of the game have come up with theories about why managers wear uniforms. In the first place, the role of manager used to be held by someone who both played and managed.
Another theory holds that managers often go onto the field to talk to the pitcher, make pitching changes and argue play calls with umpires, and as such wear the uniform players wear on the field. Yet others have noted most managers were once players, and for them it’s as if they are still taking an active role in the game and are able to identify with the team.
The one section of the official rulebook that comes close to explaining manager uniform is Section 4.07, which states,
When a manager, player, coach or trainer is ejected from a game, he shall leave the field immediately and take no further part in that game. He shall remain in the club house or change to street clothes and either leave the park or take a seat in the grandstand well removed from the vicinity of his team’s bench or bullpen.
Yet this isn’t very convincing since the phrase “change to street clothes” can refer to players and coaches in the context of the sentence.
One of the great baseball historians, Paul Lukas, who is routinely consulted by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, was asked why he believed managers wore team uniforms. Lukas answered, “I don’t want to say it’s just one of those things. But it’s one of those things.”
What Roles do Coaches Play on a Team?
Almost every coach in the game was once a player himself, and his function on a baseball team is of critical importance. Each team in major league baseball has nine to eleven coaches on the team. Coaches report back to the manager and provide useful information, such as how well a pitcher looked during warmup and how well (or poorly) batting practice was for players. A batting coach can help a batter who is in a slump, and help him get out of it by observing an incorrect batting stance and changing the way he stands at the plate. A pitching coach can observe how the ball is being thrown, and make note of any unusual throwing motion that could tire the pitcher’s arm needlessly.
- Catching Coach
- Bullpen Coach
- Pitching Coach
- Hitting Coach
- Assistant Hitting Coach
- Infield/Quality Control
- First Base Coach
- Third Base Coach
- Bench Coach
On each baseball team there are nine players playing the game, not including relief pitchers and substitute hitters. There is an equal amount of coaching and managing staff who lend support and make decisions during the course of a game. The purpose of such a large number of support staff is to win ball games, to be high enough in the standings to play in the postseason, and ultimately make it to the World Series.
Baseball has developed from its roots in English cricket to the action-filled, aggressively competitive game it is today. In the field of medicine, there are general practitioners and doctors of internal medicine. Then there are specialists for every part of the human body like the heart, lungs, bones, muscles and nervous system. In the game of baseball, the role of manager was once generalized and the team captain both played and managed the team.
Today, however, every position is specialized. The manager only manages, and the coaches focus only on a single aspect of each player, his arm, his wing, the way he runs and so on. The manager looks on the field as an observer and develops strategies in real time that hopefully result in a win. A pitching coach needs to make sure that his pitchers can throw 100 balls with the same strength and accuracy on the 100th ball as he did on the first. Baseball, like medicine, has become intensely specialized.
