Jim Marshall, who managed the Cubs for two and a half seasons from 1974-76, passed away Sunday. He was 94.
Marshall, who had been the Cubs’ Triple-A manager from 1971-73 and a coach in 1974, took over as Cubs manager when Whitey Lockman
was fired at the All-Star break in 1974. He managed the Cubs to a 25-44 record the rest of that year and the team posted identical 75-87 records in 1975 and 1976, after which his contract was not renewed. He also managed the Oakland Athletics in 1979, when they posted 108 losses, their most since 1916. After that Marshall managed in the minors for a number of years and then became a long-time scout and coordinator for Pacific Rim operations for various teams, including the Diamondbacks from 1996-2009.
Rufus James Marshall was born May 25, 1931 in Long Beach, California and signed with the White Sox out of high school in 1950. He played a number of years in the minors in the White Sox, Giants and Orioles organizations before making his MLB debut with Baltimore in 1958. The Cubs acquired him from the Orioles on waivers in August 1958 and he played the rest of that year and 1959 with the Cubs, mostly as a first baseman.
After the 1959 season Marshall was involved in a minor bit of MLB history. Before 1959, interleague trades could only be made following a complicated series of waivers. Owners changed that after the 1959 season and Marshall was thus part of the very first interleague trade under the new rules when he was sent to the Red Sox, along with Dave Hillman, for Dick Gernert. The deal didn’t do much for either team. Marshall never played for the Red Sox; he was traded to the Giants before the 1960 season and played two years there before going to the expansion Mets in 1962. He played part of that year for the Mets and part for the Pirates before spending three years playing for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan, which would eventually lead to his post-playing career scouting in Asia.
The Cubs weren’t very good during Marshall’s tenure as manager, though they did inhabit first place in the NL East for the first two months of 1975 before fading. That Cubs team set a franchise record for walks (650) which stood until the 2016 World Series champions broke it with 656. The ‘75 Cubs had a good offense which finished third in the NL with 712 runs, but their pitching was atrocious, allowing 827 runs, 88 more than any other team.
There isn’t much surviving video from Marshall’s era as Cubs manager, but we do have this clip [VIDEO] from a Cubs/Cardinals brawl in September 1974, where you can see Marshall arguing with plate umpire Shag Crawford. Amazingly, Marshall was the only one ejected from this kerfuffle.
Richard Dozer of the Tribune quoted Marshall after the game:
Marshall was banished as the aftermath of the scrap, only because he apparently challenged Crawford to throw Simmons out of the game.
“That’s what really got me tossed out, because I had some choice words for him along with it,” Marshall said.
Marshall was a good baseball man who had the misfortune to become the manager of the Cubs when they were in the last years of the Wrigley ownership and they just didn’t have many good players. He devoted his life to baseball and worked in many capacities in the game and was well respected.
Sincere condolences on Marshall’s passing to his family, friends, fans and colleagues around baseball.
