Only 3 times in their history have the Red Sox and Yankees started the year with new, rookie managers: 1930, 1992, and now 2018.
While past results are no guarantee of future performance, here's the history of what happened before:
1930 - Heinie Wagner and Bob Shawkey
Heinie Wagner was team captain and shortstop of the 1912 champion Red Sox. He and Harry Hooper were the only players to win 4 World Series with the Red Sox, winning again on the teams from 1915, 1916, and 1918. Years after closing his playing career, Wagner was recruited back to the Sox to be a coach by manager Bill Carrigan, and upon Carrigan's retirement after the 1929 season, Wagner was installed as the Red Sox manager. The manager changed but the results were no better. Resigning after a 52-104 record, Wagner never managed again.
Bob Shawkey was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees. After 13 years with the Yankees he ended his major league playing career as the Yankee all-time leader in wins, innings, strikeouts, and saves. In 1929, Shawkey served as Miller Huggins' pitching coach. After Huggins' sudden death in September of 1929 season, Yankee coach Art Fletcher managed the remaining 11 games of the Yankee schedule, but Fletcher turned down an offer to manage the team in 1930. Shawkey was then offered the job, and he accepted. Shawkey managed the team to an 86-68 record, but that was only good enough for third place in the American League. Shawkey served as a bridge connecting two long eras of Yankee stewardship between Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy. McCarthy was quickly hired by the Yankees after the Cubs chose not to bring him back for the 1931 season. Shawkey never managed again.
1992 - Butch Hobson and Buck Showalter
Butch Hobson had a few solid years as a hard-nosed, blue-collar player in Boston as third baseman in the late 70's before being traded with Rick Burleson for hard throwing Mark Clear, 3B Carney Lansford, and OF Rick Miller. After his playing career ended, he moved into a managerial role in the minor leagues, first with the Mets, then with the Sox in New Britain and Pawtucket. On the basis of the successes of New Britain's playoff appearance in 1990 and Pawtucket's winning the International League East division in 1991 (garnering Hobson Baseball America's Minor League Manager of the Year Award), Boston fired manager Joe Morgan in order to promote Hobson. The lead-up is the best part of Hobson's tenure as Sox manager. His teams were not good. Granted, he didn't build the team, but he could not make them successful with the same gritty determination that made Hobson such a favored player in his time. When John Harrington bought out Haywood Sullivan to gain full control of the team, GM Lou Gorman was out, Dan Duquette was in, and after 7th, 3rd, and 4th place A.L. East Division finishes, Hobson was out as manager and has not managed at the major league level since then.
Buck Showalter was a career Yankee minor-leaguer before becoming a minor-league manager with the Yankees, showing proven success before becoming a coach at the major league level. After being fired along with Yankee manager Stump Merrill after the 1991 season, Yankee ownership partners decided they couldn't let go of Showalter, who had been a rising managerial prospect within the organization. Though he had no major league managerial experience, he was given the opportunity to take the Yankees to the next level. It took some time, but he did just that in 1995, when the Yankees went to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, the longest drought in team history since before Babe Ruth left Boston. Unfortunately for Buck, after going up two games to none against the Mariners, the M's swept three games from the Yankees, including the most iconic post-season moment in Mariner's history, the Edgar Martinez double that scored Joey Cora (brother of Alex) and Ken Griffey Jr. to advance the Mariners to the ALCS and send the Yankees home. Showalter was relieved of his duties after the failure to advance beyond the ALDS. Buck, of course, helped build the Arizona Diamondbacks and is with the Orioles, presently. He managed two teams that won World Series the year after he stopped managing them.
2018 - Alex Cora and Aaron Boone
Alex Cora, as a player, had experience both as a regular starter and as a reserve on the bench. He tutored young Dustin Pedroia in his rookie season, a season where the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series. Cora was a part of that team and played a part in its success. Cora was a journeyman player and bounced around baseball, managing to learn from a number of different managers and coaches. As a bench coach for A.J. Hinch's 2017 World Series-winning Astros, Cora had first-hand experience coaching players to success.
Aaron Boone is Aaron ****ing Boone like Bucky Dent is Bucky ****ing Dent. Boone is best known for hitting a home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Like Cora, he played in one World Series, and saw more action, but unlike Cora, he did not win a ring. His grandfather, Ray, won a ring with the Indians in 1948, and his father, Bob, won a ring with the Phillies in 1980. His brother, Bret, played in the 1999 World Series as a member of the Braves, losing to the Joe Torre-led Yankees. Neither Aaron nor his brother, Bret, succeeded where their father and grandfather did. Prior to being named manager, Aaron had no professional experience as a baseball coach.
While past results are no guarantee of future performance, here's the history of what happened before:
1930 - Heinie Wagner and Bob Shawkey
Heinie Wagner was team captain and shortstop of the 1912 champion Red Sox. He and Harry Hooper were the only players to win 4 World Series with the Red Sox, winning again on the teams from 1915, 1916, and 1918. Years after closing his playing career, Wagner was recruited back to the Sox to be a coach by manager Bill Carrigan, and upon Carrigan's retirement after the 1929 season, Wagner was installed as the Red Sox manager. The manager changed but the results were no better. Resigning after a 52-104 record, Wagner never managed again.
Bob Shawkey was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees. After 13 years with the Yankees he ended his major league playing career as the Yankee all-time leader in wins, innings, strikeouts, and saves. In 1929, Shawkey served as Miller Huggins' pitching coach. After Huggins' sudden death in September of 1929 season, Yankee coach Art Fletcher managed the remaining 11 games of the Yankee schedule, but Fletcher turned down an offer to manage the team in 1930. Shawkey was then offered the job, and he accepted. Shawkey managed the team to an 86-68 record, but that was only good enough for third place in the American League. Shawkey served as a bridge connecting two long eras of Yankee stewardship between Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy. McCarthy was quickly hired by the Yankees after the Cubs chose not to bring him back for the 1931 season. Shawkey never managed again.
1992 - Butch Hobson and Buck Showalter
Butch Hobson had a few solid years as a hard-nosed, blue-collar player in Boston as third baseman in the late 70's before being traded with Rick Burleson for hard throwing Mark Clear, 3B Carney Lansford, and OF Rick Miller. After his playing career ended, he moved into a managerial role in the minor leagues, first with the Mets, then with the Sox in New Britain and Pawtucket. On the basis of the successes of New Britain's playoff appearance in 1990 and Pawtucket's winning the International League East division in 1991 (garnering Hobson Baseball America's Minor League Manager of the Year Award), Boston fired manager Joe Morgan in order to promote Hobson. The lead-up is the best part of Hobson's tenure as Sox manager. His teams were not good. Granted, he didn't build the team, but he could not make them successful with the same gritty determination that made Hobson such a favored player in his time. When John Harrington bought out Haywood Sullivan to gain full control of the team, GM Lou Gorman was out, Dan Duquette was in, and after 7th, 3rd, and 4th place A.L. East Division finishes, Hobson was out as manager and has not managed at the major league level since then.
Buck Showalter was a career Yankee minor-leaguer before becoming a minor-league manager with the Yankees, showing proven success before becoming a coach at the major league level. After being fired along with Yankee manager Stump Merrill after the 1991 season, Yankee ownership partners decided they couldn't let go of Showalter, who had been a rising managerial prospect within the organization. Though he had no major league managerial experience, he was given the opportunity to take the Yankees to the next level. It took some time, but he did just that in 1995, when the Yankees went to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, the longest drought in team history since before Babe Ruth left Boston. Unfortunately for Buck, after going up two games to none against the Mariners, the M's swept three games from the Yankees, including the most iconic post-season moment in Mariner's history, the Edgar Martinez double that scored Joey Cora (brother of Alex) and Ken Griffey Jr. to advance the Mariners to the ALCS and send the Yankees home. Showalter was relieved of his duties after the failure to advance beyond the ALDS. Buck, of course, helped build the Arizona Diamondbacks and is with the Orioles, presently. He managed two teams that won World Series the year after he stopped managing them.
2018 - Alex Cora and Aaron Boone
Alex Cora, as a player, had experience both as a regular starter and as a reserve on the bench. He tutored young Dustin Pedroia in his rookie season, a season where the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series. Cora was a part of that team and played a part in its success. Cora was a journeyman player and bounced around baseball, managing to learn from a number of different managers and coaches. As a bench coach for A.J. Hinch's 2017 World Series-winning Astros, Cora had first-hand experience coaching players to success.
Aaron Boone is Aaron ****ing Boone like Bucky Dent is Bucky ****ing Dent. Boone is best known for hitting a home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Like Cora, he played in one World Series, and saw more action, but unlike Cora, he did not win a ring. His grandfather, Ray, won a ring with the Indians in 1948, and his father, Bob, won a ring with the Phillies in 1980. His brother, Bret, played in the 1999 World Series as a member of the Braves, losing to the Joe Torre-led Yankees. Neither Aaron nor his brother, Bret, succeeded where their father and grandfather did. Prior to being named manager, Aaron had no professional experience as a baseball coach.
