was strictly a player, first for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, then the Red Sox. His final big-league season, 1957 with Boston, was his most productive. He started 65 games as the Bosox' second baseman and batted a career-high .270 with 60 hits. But the following season, he began his managerial career in earnest. In 1958–59, he piloted the Red Sox' Triple-A affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers, reaching the Junior World Series as American Association champion each season, and winning the 1958 JWS championship. During the off-season prior to the campaign, Mauch declined an offer to interview with Quinn for an opening on the Phillies' coaching staff, saying he wanted to focus on managing. He went to spring training with the Millers and prepared for his third season as their manager. In the final days of spring drills, Quinn called Mauch again and asked him to replace veteran Phillies' pilot Eddie Sawyer, who had resigned after the team's opening game on April 12. Four days later, Mauch—34 years old at time—became the youngest manager in the Major Leagues in 1960. Managerial career Mauch was a strong advocate of "small ball", the emphasis on offensive fundamentals such as bunting, sacrifice plays, and other ways of advancing runners, as opposed to trying to score runs primarily through slugging. His teams generally played in ballparks that were not friendly to home run hitters, which increased the effectiveness of this approach. While his teams occasionally featured power hitters such as Dick Allen, Rusty Staub, and Reggie Jackson, they depended just as heavily on hitters adept at getting on base through contact hitting and patience at the plate, such as Rod Carew and Brian Downing, and on strong defensive play by such stars as Bobby Grich, Bob Boone, and Doug DeCinces. As far as pitchers were concerned, he stressed the importance of changing eye levels, arguing that they should follow up low pitches with high pitches and vice versa in order to confuse the batters. Renowned as an excellent manager of his bench, Mauch also had a reputation for provoking opposing teams with taunting and of having a strong temperament that stressed himself and his teams excessively in the belief that he could win by sheer will. Mauch had frequent fiery exchanges with umpires. Mauch was not shy when arguing with an umpiring play. He used his bombastic personality to help his