Marlins Bringing Back Fredi Gonzalez? How Rare Is That?

History 101: How Rare Is It For Teams To Bring Back Ex-Skippers? 

Not as rare as you’d think, at least based on the fact that Gonzalez’s next job after leaving the Marlins was to replace a repeat manager. Yep, at one point, someone thought Bobby Bleeping Cox wasn’t good enough at the whole coaching thing. Cox coached the Braves for four years, spent four years managing in Toronto, came back to Atlanta as GM, and then after doing that for four years, fired the sitting manager and gave himself the job. He proceeded to do ok- for the next twenty years.

Billy Martin of the Yankees was repeatedly fired and rehired from his post of skipper, if you want another big name example.

A better comp for this situation might be Larry Bowa’s tenure with the Philadelphia Phillies. Bowa was fired as manager in 2004, and one decade later, came back to fill the supporting role.

Going beyond baseball, there’s the fact that Bill Belichick technically worked for the New York Jets and the New England Patriots twice apiece, before settling comfortably into the role of sucking all the joy and happiness out of my Sundays for the past sixteen years.

So it can happen, the encore.