Night Owl Cards

Bobby Mattick, or "Bob" as Fleer liked to call him, wasn't really a manager kind of guy. Oh sure, he managed some in the minor leagues. But he was more of a behind-the-scenes person. Organizations coveted his ability to evalute player talent, and he worked for a number of teams as a scout or in a player development capacity. But after three straight seasons at the bottom of the American League East, the fledgling and foundering Blue Jays needed a change. So the Blue Jays named Mattick, their director of player development, as the manager for 1980, replacing Toronto's first-ever manager Roy Hartsfield. Mattick was 64 at the time, the oldest rookie manager to start a season in baseball history. The Blue Jays improved slightly in 1980, but still lost 95 games. The following season, strike-shortened 1981, they lost 32 more than they won and Mattick was done. The Jays brought in Bobby Cox the next year, a guy who seemed destined to be a manager. Mattick went bac...