Skip Schumaker, the Texas Rangers new manager, is only about to enter his third season as a major league manager. But with 11 big league seasons under his belt as a player, he’s got plenty of experience.
An second basemen and utility outfielder, Schumaker was never a star player and frequently came off the bench during his career. He played mostly for the St. Louis Cardinals, but spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds from 2005-2015. He was even on the 2011 Cardinals team that defeated the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
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On a recent radio appearance on The Sweet Spot on 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM) he spoke about how his playing days have informed how he manages a ballclub.
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Schumaker: “When I was a player, nobody wants to be a bench player. That’s the last thing I wanted to do was sit on the bench. But I will say that without knowing what my future was going to be — I’d never thought I was going to be a manager. When you’re a player, you’re trying to play as long as you can and provide for your family and win championships that’s the goal. It’s not like, oh man, if I sit on the bench longer it’s going to help me manage one day. But looking back on it, it really did.
“I got to watch Tony La Russa do his thing and Don Mattingly do his thing. And so that really helped me because, being in the National League, there’s so many moving parts and as a bench player, you have to be ready for so many different situations. And then I got to watch Albert Pujols do his thing and Chris Carpenter do his thing. I know you guys don’t want to hear that, but for me, I got to be around superstar players.
“I was part of the leadership committee with those players and seeing how they work and how they think really helped me and helped them see my vision of coming off the bench and how hard that is. So I just think it all was about taking that next step as a coach, I was doing everything I could to survive. And so like giving back and teaching the game, it just ended up being the perfect transition for me.”
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