Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker joins rare company

The Atlanta Braves have now won their fourth consecutive division title. You should know a few things about the rarity of this accomplishment.

As fans of the Atlanta Braves, we were spoiled in the 1990’s when this club was the juggernaut of the National League.  14 division titles in a row is a feat that may never be seriously challenged.

Turns out that winning consecutive divisions (or pennants before divisional play) under a single manager is even more rare.

Often — for various reasons — the managers don’t even last as long in their own runs as the team does.

A case in point is the Los Angeles Dodgers:  despite winning the NL West for 3 years in a row, running from 2013-2015, manager Don Mattingly was replaced by Dave Roberts.

Thus there’s a fairly elite group of people who have guided their teams to division (or pennant) titles over 4 years or more in a row.

It’s a list that Brian Snitker now finds his name added to.

Here’s the entire membership of that club:

• Dave Roberts, Dodgers.  2016-2020 (5, and his streak just ended)
• Bobby Cox, Braves.  1991-2005 (14)  [corrected]
• Joe Torre, Yankees.  1998-2003 (6)
• Mike Hargrove, Indians.  1995-1999 (5)
• Casey Stengel, Yankees.  1949-1953 (5)
• Charles Comiskey, Cardinals.  1885-1888 (4)
• John McGraw*, Giants.  1921-1924 (4)

The (*) asterisk for McGraw comes as a result of his absence for illness during parts of the 1924 season.  He was not the manager of record for some of those games (though Wikipedia’s record does not acknowledge Hughie Jennings as the full-time manager for that time in which McGraw was away.

Others have been close: 

• Whitey Herzog, for example, missed out in 1979 when his Kansas City Royals finished 3 games out of first in what would have been their 4th straight title (they won again under Jim Frey in 1980).
• Earl Weaver‘s Orioles finished 1st in 5 out of 6 seasons from 1969 to 1974… but ended up 3rd in 1972.
• Larry Dierker likewise had his Houston Astros winning 4 years out of 5 between 1997 and 2001.
• Same with Ron Gardenhire of the Twins between 2002 and 2006.

Detroit from 2011-2014?  Nope… changed managers in 2014.  The Pirates from 1990-1992?  Only 3 years… meaning that Jim Leyland just missed doing this twice with different clubs!

The Pirates also finished in the top 3 from 1969 through 1980… but never won it all for 4 straight years… and they were changing managers multiple times.

Cincy’s Big Red Machine under Sparky Anderson?  Nope… they were 2nd in 1974 by 4 games, which spoiled a possible 5-peat.

Even the Cubs under Frank Chance from 1906 to 1910 had a run interrupted by a second-place outcome in 1909.

You get the picture:  it’s hard to win four division titles in a row, and even harder to line up a “keeper” manager for that long, too.

6 times (or 7, if you count McGraw) in the history of the game.  That’s the kind of company Brian Snitker is now keeping.