But Red Rolfe was able to overlook the elephant on the table throughout 1950, his second year as Tiger manager, and that elephant likely cost his te an underdog pennant that all his other management skills had put Detroit into a position to snare. It was his one and only managerial shot at a flag, ever, and he missed out on it because even though the problem was obvious to him, and solutions available, the te did nothing about it.4 string banjo
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1949 - WHAT is not PROLOGUE is not PESTILENT
For his 1949 rookie cpaign, Rolfe inherited a 78-76 te. He had learned from the managers he’d played for and as a Yankee player, he’d come to appreciate that franchise’s great strengths that had lead to their success: Pitching & Power. The 1948 Bengals had had league average pitching and were out-homered in a homer-ping home park, 78-92. The te went 37-51 against tes with over .500 records and all three of them had significantly better home run capabilities than the roster he’d inherited. So this rigorous analyst knew where the te needed attention: the two attributes he was looking for, pitching and power, and his own passion, crisp fundental execution — the little things.
Ownership didn’t provide him with a ton of new material to attack the obvious power ceiling imposed by zero offense out of the 1st base position (there was 23-year-old George Vico– OPS+ of 88, and 30-year old Paul Cpbell — OPS+ of 60 to share the duties). In 1949, they decided to start the season with those two, not exactly attacking the limiting factor. That factor was exacerbated because the te’s second-best slugger, outfielder Dick Wakefield, was fundentally-weak and seen as a lazy dilettante.