López came out of retirement to reclaim his old job. One of his players, Tommy John, recalled that "When Eddie Stanky took over as manager of the White Sox in 1966, people would tell me what an absolute tyrant he was, an S.O.B., a slave driver. Yet I probably learned more baseball under Eddie than any manager I ever played for. I wish I could have played for him ten years. He was just that good." Stanky used to have pitchers throw batting practice without a protective screen, presumably to encourage toughness. He expected his players to know the statistics of the opposing team. A pet peeve of his was when he would see players reading the Wall Street Journal. "Guys today are more worried about their investments than they are about their batting averages," Stanky complained. Success as college baseball coach After his firing in Chicago, Stanky became the head baseball coach of the University of South Alabama in 1969, compiling a 490–195-2 (.714) record with five NCAA baseball tournament appearances over 14 seasons. He returned to MLB on June 22, 1977 as manager of the Texas Rangers, replacing Frank Lucchesi who was dismissed earlier that day despite the team being four games out of first place in the AL West. The 10–8 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Metropolitan Stadium later that night was the only Rangers game he would manage. He submitted his resignation due to homesickness the following day on June 23 and returned to college coaching at South Alabama. His 18 hours on the job is one of the shortest managerial stints in MLB history. According to Leo Durocher's autobiography, Stanky quit because he couldn't adapt to the attitudes of modern baseball players. He was succeeded on an interim basis by third‐base coach Connie Ryan and a more permanent one by Billy Hunter four days later on June 27. His career MLB managerial mark was 467–435 (.518). Stanky was inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. He died of a heart attack in 1999 at age 83 in Fairhope, Alabama. He was buried in the Catholic Cemetery of Mobile. Eddie Stanky Field, the ballpark of the University of South Alabama baseball team, is named for him. Managerial record Legacy Stanky was good friends with Dark, his roommate when the two played together on the Braves and Giants. As players, both dreamed of