Banister wins Chuck Tanner MOY Award

Jeff Banister, the former longtime Pirates coach who guided the Rangers to the American League West title as a first-year Major League manager, was back in Pittsburgh on Saturday night to accept the Manager of the Year Award at the annual Chuck Tanner Awards Banquet.

The event honors the late Pirates manager, who in 1979 led the "We Are Family" Bucs to their most recent World Series championship, and is held by the Pittsburgh Rotary Club in support of its charitable initiatives in the area.

Buccos manager Clint Hurdle, recipient of the same honor in 2013, introduced his former bench coach at the banquet.

"He represents much more to the Texas Rangers than just a manager," Hurdle said in his opening remarks. "We are so happy for the joy, for the success, for the first-guessing that he got to do all last season for the first time after second-guessing me for four years in that dugout."

Banister is also a finalist for the AL Manager of the Year Award, to be announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network.

Recipients of other honors at the event were Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage (Chuck Tanner Memorial Award); former Pirates CEO Kevin McClatchy (Chuck Tanner Lifetime Achievement Award); Judy Carpenter-Barada, the Cardinals' director of Major League administration (Distinguished Women in Baseball Award); and La Roche College head coach Chase Rowe (Collegiate Coach of the Year) .