Rene Lachemann

Rene George Lachemann (born May 4, 1945) is a retired American professional baseball coach, catcher and manager in Major League Baseball. Lachemann served as the first manager in the history of the Florida Marlins (1993–96) and also skippered the Seattle Mariners (1981–83) and Milwaukee Brewers (1984). His professional career extended for 53 seasons, from 1964 through 2016.

Early connections with LaRussa, Duncan

The son of a hotel chef, he is the youngest of three brothers to enjoy long careers in professional baseball: Marcel Lachemann is a member of the Los Angeles Angels' front office and a former pitcher, coach and manager in the Major Leagues, and Bill is a longtime skipper and instructor in the Angels' farm system. Rene served as a batboy for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 to 1962, graduated from Dorsey High School, and attended the University of Southern California.^[1] He signed a bonus contract with the Kansas City Athletics in 1964, where he joined other young players such as Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, with whom he would have a lasting professional association.

Lachemann, a 6 ft (1.8 m), 198 lb (90 kg) right-handed hitter, played only one full season in the Major Leagues, 1965, batting .227 with nine home runs and 29 runs batted in and appearing in 92 games played. He reappeared briefly—in 26 total games—for the A's in 1966 and 1968, but spent the rest of his playing career in minor league baseball. His Major League batting average was .210 in 281 at bats. His initial appearance in the big leagues resulted in getting picked off second base.

Manager in Seattle and Milwaukee

He began managing in the Oakland Athletics' farm system in 1973, and switched to the Seattle organization five years later. On May 6, 1981, Lachemann was promoted from Triple-A to succeed Maury Wills as the M's manager. But during the equivalent of almost two full seasons, Seattle was only able to win 140 of 320 games (.437) and was in the midst of an eight-game losing streak when Lachemann was fired on June 25, 1983 and replaced by Del Crandall. He returned the following year as manager of the contending Brewers, but the 1984 Milwaukee club collapsed (67–94, .416 and last in the American League East Division) and he was fired with three games remaining to be played in the season, though he was allowed to complete the season as the Brewers' skipper.^[2]

Lachemann then began his career as a Major League coach, under John McNamara with the Boston Red Sox (1985–86) and La Russa with the Oakland Athletics (1987–92). He was the third-base coach with Boston's 1986 American League champions and the Athletics during their three consecutive (1988–90) American League pennants and was a key member of La Russa's highly regarded staff.

First Marlins' skipper

As a result, he was chosen as the Marlins’ first manager when they entered the National League in 1993. But the expansion club suffered through 3½ losing seasons, compiling a mark of 221–285 (.437), before Lachemann's dismissal on July 7, 1996.

He returned to the coaching ranks the following season, on La Russa's staff with the St. Louis Cardinals, then coached for the Chicago Cubs and the Mariners, before returning to Oakland in 2005 for three years as bench coach and third base coach. His contract was not renewed at the close of the 2007 season. From 2008 to 2012 he served as hitting coach for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox before being added to the Rockies' MLB staff by Weiss for the 2013 season.

Including a one-game stint as interim pilot of the 2002 Cubs, Lachemann's major league managing record is 428 wins, 560 losses (.433).

Colorado Rockies

Lachemann served as a coach for the Colorado Rockies on the staff of manager Walt Weiss from 2013 to 2016.^[3]

Managerial record

See also

• List of St. Louis Cardinals coaches

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

• Rene Lachemann managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
• Retrosheet
• Venezuelan Professional Baseball League