Spencer Hits Bottom, but Says He’ll Manage to Reach the Top

Tom Spencer, one of five black managers in all of professional baseball, gets upset when he thinks about last year and what could have been.

“Let’s face it, I was the highest ranking black manager in baseball. I was there, and now I’m here,” Spencer said.

Last year, the 36-year-old Spencer managed the Pittsfield, Mass., Cubs of the Class AA Eastern League. He took them into the playoffs. This year, he’s the new manager of the Geneva Cubs in the New York-Penn League, a summer league for rookies.

“It strikes a nerve with me, but I suppose it’s water under the bridge,” he said.

Despite taking Pittsfield to a third-place finish and into the playoffs in 1986, the season was difficult for Spencer. He frequently found himself at odds with the club’s general manager, Lawrence Revo, and by season’s end, they had stopped talking to each other.

“I never had a problem getting along with anyone in my life until him,” Spencer said. It wasn’t racial, he said, simply a personality conflict.

So, he asked Chicago Cubs officials to assign him somewhere else.

“It’s a sore spot for me,” said Spencer, an outfielder who had an 11-year professional career, almost entirely in the minor leagues. “I was in an advantageous position, and now that the black issue is such a hot topic, who knows what could have happened.

“But now, well ... they don’t pull managers up from rookie league to the big leagues,” Spencer said.

With the spotlight already on minorities in baseball because of the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier as a player, the issue became heated in April after remarks made by Al Campanis.

Campanis, then vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said on a national television show that blacks “may not have some of the necessities” to achieve leadership in baseball. There are no black managers in the major leagues.

Campanis was forced to resign after making the remarks. Since then, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a black civil rights leader and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has met with baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, and Ueberroth has named black sports sociologist Harry Edwards as a special assistant.

Spencer, in his fifth year as a manager, said he really hasn’t given the issue much thought.

“If it’s been a problem, I haven’t felt it. It’s never really come up,” he said. Spencer doesn’t believe his current situation is in any way racially influenced.

“Am I being naive? I don’t know. I hope not,” he said. “The first impression people get is that I was demoted and the Cub organization is trying to phase me out. Maybe they’re right, but that’s not how I see it.”

Bill Harford, director of minor league operations for the Cubs, said he considered the move a promotion for Spencer and a big benefit for the organization.

“Tom has a dual role. He’s also our outfielder and baserunning coach. We think he’s very capable,” Harford said from his Chicago office.

The other black baseball managers are: fellow N.Y.-Penn Manager Tony Taylor at Utica; Tommy Reynolds at Oakland’s Class A Modesto team in the California League; Dan Norman at the independent Miami Marlins in the Class A Florida State League, and Derrel Thomas at Boise, an independent in the Pioneer League. There are a total of 202 professional baseball managers.

Spencer chose to come to Geneva because it gave him the opportunity to spend the first part of the season traveling to various Chicago Cubs minor league teams.

He enjoyed traveling, and now he feels he’s in a better position because he knows more about the organization.

“I’ve branched out into so many areas. I don’t have to manage. I could get into scouting, teaching or take a front office position. I’m capable of many things,” Spencer said.

For now, he’ll turn his attention to the young players, some fresh from high school or college exams, who are on the roster of at Geneva, where Pete Rose got his start.

Spencer said he feels somewhat in the spotlight, which doesn’t necessarily bother him.

“All I can say is, I hope my efforts are not going unnoticed,” Spencer said.

Spencer, from Gallipolis, Ohio, was drafted out of high school by the Cincinnati Reds in 1972. He led the Class AAA American Association in fielding percentage for outfielders in 1974-76 and was selected for the league’s All-Star game in 1975.

He went on to play for minor league teams in the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros organizations.

His only major league experience came with the White Sox, when he was called up for 29 games to replace injured center fielder Chet Lemon in 1978.

He began his managing career in 1982 at Asheville, N.C., a Class A team in the Houston organization. He spent two years at Asheville and won a South Atlantic League championship before moving to Pittsfield.

“As a player I always felt that cream will rise to the top,” Spencer said, “and I feel the same as a manager.”