These 5 have managed both Yankees, Mets

December 19th, 2021

Buck Showalter got his start as an MLB manager with the New York Yankees in 1992. Nearly 30 years later, Showalter is back in New York and back in the dugout as the Mets tabbed him to be their next manager. He will be the fifth person to manage both of New York’s current MLB franchises. Here is a rundown of how each of those men fared in the sport’s biggest market.

Buck Showalter

Yankees manager: 1992-95
Mets manager: 2021-current

After back-to-back sub-.500 finishes, the Mets must hope Showalter can guide them on a quick turnaround similar to what he pulled off in the Bronx. By 1992, the Yankees had endured three consecutive losing seasons and a decade without a playoff appearance. His first season was a forgettable one, but the Yankees went 88-74 in ‘93, a 12-win improvement from the year prior. Showalter had the Yankees positioned as the best team in the American League at 70-43 in 1994 before the season was cut short by a strike. The following year, Showalter got the Yankees into the postseason, but they fell to the Mariners in the Wild Card round, squandering a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. He resigned after the season due to a dispute with owner George Steinbrenner.

Joe Torre

Mets manager: 1977-81
Yankees manager: 1996-2007

The Yanks replaced Showalter with Torre, who earned a World Series title in his first year on the job and went on to have a generally triumphant 12-year run in pinstripes. His tenure included four World Series championships, six American League pennants, 10 AL East Division titles and a winning percentage better than .600 in both the regular season and the postseason.

Torre came nowhere close to achieving that type of success as the Mets’ manager from 1977-81. In his first experience as an MLB manager, Torre compiled a 286-420 record over those five years. He was fired after the strike-shortened ‘81 season.

Casey Stengel

Yankees manager: 1949-60
Mets manager: 1962-65

Stengel experienced even greater extremes during his stints in New York. While guiding some of the best players in baseball history, Stengel helped the Yankees claim seven World Series titles and 10 pennants over 12 seasons. Things were much, much different when Stengel took over the expansion Mets in ‘62. They lost 120 games in their inaugural season, which still stands as a Modern Era record. Two more 100-loss seasons followed before Stengel retired after breaking his hip during the 1965 campaign.

Yogi Berra

Yankees manager: 1964, 1984-85
Mets manager: 1972-75

Berra is the only person to ever win a pennant as the manager of each team. After announcing his retirement as a player following the 1963 World Series, Berra was almost immediately installed as the Yankees’ manager. He won the American League pennant in ‘64 but was fired after one season.

Berra then went across town to join Stengel’s staff as a player-coach in 1965 and, despite being passed over for the manager’s job multiple times, he stayed on the Mets’ coaching staff for the next several years. Berra would take over as the Mets’ manager a couple of weeks prior to the start of the '72 season after Gil Hodges died of a heart attack. New York upset the Cincinnati Reds to win the '73 NLCS, but after a poor '74 and a middling start to the following year, Berra was fired in August of '75.

Berra returned to the Yankees in 1976 and turned down other managerial opportunities to stay in New York. He got another chance to lead the Yankees in ‘84 and finished in third place. He was fired as their manager just 16 games into the '85 season.

Dallas Green

Yankees manager: 1989
Mets manager: 1993-96

Green managed the Yankees for just 121 games, resulting in a 56-65 record, before being fired in August of 1989. His final turn as an MLB manager came with the Mets, a four-year marriage that bore zero winning seasons and a 229-283 overall mark.