Yankees History: The five worst Yankee managers of all time

5. Bucky Dent

Of course, Dent is best known for his tie-breaking, three-run home run against the dreaded Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in the seventh inning to end the 1978 regular season. The Yanks eventually won the game 5-4. This was certainly one of the happiest days for all Yankee fans, including me.

The Yanks went on to win the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. The normally light-hitting Dent (he regularly batted ninth for the Bombers) also was selected MVP for the Series after batting .417 (10-24) and driving in seven valuable runs.

George Steinbrenner hired Dent as a stopgap after firing the blunt and outspoken Dallas Green in August 1989 for calling Steinbrenner, “Manager George.” Steinbrenner didn’t believe Dent could lead the Yanks back to the postseason. He initially intended to replace Dent after the season was over with Billy Martin for the 1990 season, but Martin died in an automobile accident on Christmas Day in 1989.

Despite Dent’s best efforts, the Bombers played very poorly at the beginning of the 1990 season. The mercurial Steinbrenner quickly lost his patience and fired Dent in, ironically, Fenway Park 49 games into the season (Dent was 18-31). The owner was skewered in the media for his nasty and shameful treatment of Dent, and deservedly so.

All and all, Dent generally had losing records when he managed in the minors, and, likewise, he finished his brief managerial stint with the Yanks, 36-53 (.404), one the worst records of any Yankee manager in history.