GENE MAUCH

The late Gene Mauch spent 26 seasons as a major league manager.  His 1,902 career wins are the most of any skipper in history who never guided a team to the World Series, and the most of any manager who is not enshrined in Cooperstown.

Mauch spent five of those 26 seasons with the Twins, managing his nephew Roy Smalley.  Despite consistently losing his best players (Bert Blyleven, Bill Campbell, Lyman Bostock, Rod Carew) due to penny-pinching ownership, Mauch kept the Twins competitive.  They finished over .500 in three of his four full seasons.  The wheels fell off in 1980, though, and with the team at 54-71 in August, Mauch resigned.