For Tony La Russa, managing a Major League Baseball team was way down on his list of career goals.

First, it was big league player. Then, he wanted to be a lawyer. But when he finally found his true calling, La Russa needed little time to establish that he was one of the best skippers the game has ever seen.

Although Bobby Cox’s playing days were cut short by injuries, he set out on a trail that led him to a long and successful career as one of the game’s most highly regarded managers.

In an amazing run, Cox, the one-time infielder would skipper big league teams for three decades, accumulating more than 2,500 victories by the time he retired after the 2010 season. His greatest accomplishments came during his second stint with the Atlanta Braves, when he led the franchise to 14 straight division crowns and a World Series title.

When Miller Huggins took over as the New York Yankees’ manager in 1918, he assumed a struggling ball club who had hired seven different managers in the previous 10 years.

By the time Huggins passed away in 1929, the Yankees were well on their way toward becoming the most dominant baseball franchise of the 20th century.

The question often arises of whether a player is born or raised, but little is asked about that of a manager.

For Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog, it may have been the latter. Herzog was like a sponge that soaked up all of his life’s baseball experience and transformed them into tremendous skills for handling a ball team.

In October 1923, Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith was looking to make a change, once again, with his team’s leadership.

Often derided as “First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League,” the Senators’ first quarter-century was marked with mediocrity. After a fourth-place finish in 1923, Griffith fired manager Donie Bush and turned to his young second baseman, Bucky Harris.

“You’re only a kid, as managers go,” Griffith told Harris. “But I’m gambling on you having the right stuff.”

Long before the term “small ball” became popular, manager Ned Hanlon was among the first to recognize that a team could generate just as many runs with its legs as it could with its bats.

Hanlon began as a fine outfielder in 13 professional seasons in Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Though he was a career .260 hitter, Hanlon stole 329 bases – all of them coming after stolen bases were first recorded in 1886, six years into his career.

Known as one of baseball’s fieriest personalities who would do anything to win, Leo Durocher did just that: Win.

Over 24 years as a skipper for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros, Durocher won 2,008 total games, three pennants and a World Series.

But it was Durocher’s banter with umpires, executives and players that earned him his eternal reputation as “The Lip.”

"There has been only one manager – and his name is McGraw.” – Connie Mack

"Never a day went by when you didn't learn something from Joe McCarthy." – Joe DiMaggio.

For a man who never played in the major leagues, Joe McCarthy seemed to know more than anyone about how to win in the big leagues. Under his tutelage, the Bronx Bombers ran off one of the most dominant eras of any team in baseball history, winning eight American League pennants and seven World Series titles in a 12-year period – including four straight Fall Classics from 1936-39.