Gene William Mauch (November 18, 1925 – August 8, 2005) was an American professional baseball player and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (, ), Pittsburgh Pirates (), Chicago Cubs (–), Boston Braves (–), St. Louis Cardinals () and Boston Red Sox (–). Mauch was best known for managing four teams from to . He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant or the World Series (breaking the record formerly held by Jimmy Dykes), three times coming within a single victory of reaching the World Series. Mauch managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960–1968), Montreal Expos (1969–1975 — as their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976–1980) and California Angels (1981–1982, 1985–1987). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in MLB history, when he retired, and his 3,942 total games managed ranked 4th. Mauch gained a reputation for playing a distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed, and base-to-base tactics on offense, rather than power hitting. Playing career Born in Salina, Kansas, he was raised there and in Los Angeles, where he graduated from John C. Fremont High School. His professional baseball career began in 1943, when he was 17. Reaching the majors the following season during the World War II manpower shortage, Mauch played for six different clubs over all or parts of nine MLB seasons between and . In 304 games and 737 at-bats, Mauch hit .239, with 176 hits, including 25 doubles, seven triples and five home runs. He was credited with 62 RBIs, striking out 82 times. He missed part of 1944 and all of the season while performing wartime service in the United States Army Air Forces. In 1953, the Milwaukee Braves named Mauch, then 27 years old, the player-manager of their Double-A Atlanta Crackers farm team in the Southern Association, his first managerial assignment. His team finished 84–70, in third place, three games behind the Memphis Chickasaws, and fell in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual league champion Nashville Vols. The combative Mauch was known for frequent skirmishes with the league's umpires and later conceded he was too young for the assignment. But seven years later, John J. Quinn, who as the Braves' general manager had hired him for the Crackers' job, would give Mauch his first big-league managerial opportunity with the 1960 Phillies. From 1954 to 1957, Mauch