Green Resigns Suddenly as Cub General Manager

Dallas Green announced Thursday that he was resigning as president and general manager of the Chicago Cubs, who contended for the National League East title in June but plummeted to last place by season’s end, 18 1/2 games back.

Green, 53, announced his intentions during a hastily called news conference at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs’ announcement of the news conference had fueled speculation that a new manager would be named to replace Frank Lucchesi, named interim manager by Green for the last 25 games of the 1987 season after Gene Michael resigned.

Instead, Green said he will leave the club he joined six years ago as general manager. Green was in his third year as president of the club that took the National League East title in 1984, the first Cub team to make postseason play since 1945.

John Madigan, executive vice president of Tribune Co., owner of the Cubs, announced that he will assume the position of chairman of the club until a director of baseball operations is named.

Madigan said the Cubs will not name a field manager until Green has been replaced.

Green said: “I’ve been in baseball 30 years now, and I know that when philosophical differences pop up, as they will from time to time between ownership and field people, there’s only a couple of routes to go.

“One, you get fired, or you resign. I’ve resigned.”

He walked away without answering questions.

Madigan said: “We had some differences on the structure of the organization. My first job will be to name a director of baseball operations . . . and his first priority will be to name a field manager. We hope to do that as soon as possible.”

He said Green resigned “after a long discussion,” adding, “I can’t get into details.”

Green began his baseball career as a pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies farm system in 1955, where he played 5 1/2 years. He spent six years with the parent club and also played for the New York Mets and the Washington Senators.

Green’s playing career ended in 1967, and he began coaching with the Phillies’ farm system. He held a series of jobs with the organization before being named manager of the Phillies on Aug. 31, 1979, when he replaced Danny Ozark.

Green guided the Phillies to the NL East title in his first full season, 1980, and the team won the World Series in six games over Kansas City.

When Green accepted Michael’s resignation, he said, “We lost a manager--he quit on us--and it looks like our ballclub quit on us. We haven’t played well the last month, and it’s been disappointing. I thought this club was going to be more competitive than it is.”

But some of the players and Michael thought it was Green who quit on the club when he dealt away left-handed pitcher Steve Trout to the New York Yankees on July 12 after Trout pitched successive shutouts.

Green made the trade without consulting Michael, who fought to keep Trout on the club in the spring when Green nearly dealt him away to Atlanta.

Others traded by Green to cut down on the huge salaries he had doled out when the Cubs won the division title were pitcher Dennis Eckersley, third baseman Ron Cey and outfielder Gary Matthews.

“One of the mistakes that we may have been making is that we gave a lot of money to our players,” said Green, who constantly rapped his players for not performing up to their salary levels.

As the team began sinking in the latter part of the season, even though the fans kept pouring in at a rate that would exceed the 2,000,000 mark, Green publicly apologized to the fans for the players’ poor performance.