Former Mets Manager : George Bamberger (1982-1983)

George Irvin Bamberger was born August 1, 1925 in Staten Island, New York. His dream came true as he made the 1951 home town NY Giants pitching staff. He only pitched in two games allowing 4 runs in two innings; needless to say he didn’t make the World Series roster. In 1952 he appeared briefly in 5 games, allowing 4 runs in 4 innings. He spent the next six years in the minors and had one last hurrah in 3 games with the Orioles in 1959. He stayed in their organization at various levels and then became one of the best pitching coaches in the game during the late sixties/ nineteen seventies. In 1968 Bamberger was named pitching coach for a mighty Orioles team under Earl Weaver. He would hold the position for the next decade, getting to three World Series, producing 18 twenty game winners, including a record of four on the 1971 staff (Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, & Pat Dopson), and four Cy Young winners. In 1969 he sat in the dugout at Shea Stadium and watched the Mets young staff out pitch his, little did he know he would be in the dugout managing the Mets 13 years later.

He was hired as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers in 1978 and got them to over 90 wins in his 1st two seasons. It was a tough division and the Brew Crew finished second & third respectively. He won the A.L. manager of the year award in 1978. In 1980 he suffered a heart attack during Spring Training, and was sidelined for a few months. In 92 games the Brewers were only at .500, and he resigned as manager.

In New York a new ownership took over and Joe Torre was fired as manager after five losing seasons. The new GM was Frank Cashen who was the GM in Baltimore during the Bamberger years. He went right out and hired Bambi as the Mets manager for the 1982 season. With George Foster as well the Mets P.R. Dept. came up with the silly slogan "By George we got it".

In 1982 the Mets started out a little better than previous years, they were still a .500 in June and more fans were coming to the ballpark. There really wasn’t much pitching there for Bamberger to work with, and Dave Kingman’s bat wasn’t enough to carry the team. George Foster & Ellis Valentine both bombed in New York & the only other bright spots were Mookie Wilson & Neil Allen. At the end the Mets didn’t finish much better, going 65-97 last place 27 games back., and after a 16-30 last place start in 1983 Bamberger resigned. His said “I probably suffered enough”, he felt all the stress of losing in New York was going to give him another heart attack. He was replaced by Frank Howard for the 1983 season before Davey Johnson took over in 1984. Jesse Orosco credits Bamberger with helping him develop his slider in his early days.

Bamberger did two more years in Milwaukee finishing last both times, and then he retired for good. He moved to North Reddington Beach, Florida with his wife of 53 years. In 2004 he passed away after a battle with cancer.