The stories have poured in since Dallas Green passed away Wednesday at 82, from the Phillies players he coached, the front office friends he made, the reporters he left a lasting impression on.
Pete Rose, who joined the Phillies in 1979, the same season Green took over for Danny Ozark late in the season, offered some thoughts of his own Thursday on 97.5 The Fanatic.
Green's managerial style
"I don't believe in pitchers becoming managers, I just don't," Rose told Rob Ellis and Harry Mayes.
"There haven't been many successful managers who were pitchers. But Dallas was a little different because Dallas understood all phases of the game of baseball. Most pitchers can throw a baseball and that's about it. But Dallas understood the hitting, the defense, and he certainly understood the bullpen.
"There's two guys that were really important in that (1980) World Championship besides Mike Schmidt and the rest of us and they were Dallas and Tug McGraw, and now they're both gone. They were two good horses to really ride and we rode the hell out of 'em."
Could Green's style work in today's game?
"Absolutely," Rose said.
"You have to know who to yell at and when to yell at them. One thing Dallas always had that I think is needed for any manager is support of the ownership. If you've got support of the ownership, it doesn't matter if a guy's making $25 million and you're making $1 million. What you say goes.
MLB
"Dallas had support of the ownership, plus another thing Dallas had is support of Schmidt. He had support of Steve Carlton. When you've got your star players in your corner, the rest of the guys are going to follow suit.
"If Schmidt or Steve didn't like Dallas, his job would have been a lot harder. But they had respect for Dallas because of the person he was and what he accomplished. I think Dallas could manage today. There's guys today that yell, that run the show."
A coincidental bit of trivia
"Dallas could chew you out but he chewed you out the right way," Rose said. "He didn't chew you out where you'd get pissed and didn't show up to the game. He chewed you out in a way where you got pissed but you wanted to show it. That's a big key right there, a big trait to have. Gene Mauch was kind of a disciplinarian and he played for Mauch.
"And I guess I can tell you that I hit one grand slam in my life and it was off Dallas Green (July 18, 1964).
"I used to joke with Dallas, 'Man, that ball would've been out of Yellowstone I hit it so good.' And he'd say, 'That ball barely scraped the fence, there's paint on the fence.'"
Rose on Mike Schmidt
"When I got there to Philadelphia, I thought Mike Schmidt was the best player in the league three or four days a week. When I got there -- and I didn't do anything I didn't do in Cincinnati or in high school -- Mike Schmidt became the best player in the league seven days a week. Because I made Mike understand you're not going to hit a home run every day. You can lead with your glove, you can lead with your base running. You can lead with your leadership.
"That's what Mike Schmidt did. He became back-to-back MVP and the best third baseman in the history of baseball."