Several hours after the news about the passing of former Astros manager Phil Garner broke on Sunday, MLB.com Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart shared this amusing anecdote about calling Garner the day he was fired by the Astros back in 2007:
Of the hundreds of Garner anecdotes that were making their way around social media and the internet throughout Sunday, I thought that one captured Garner’s personality perfectly — in the face of what was probably, at a minimum, a disappointing finish to his managerial career, Garner not only picked up the phone, but had a friendly, funny quip for McTaggart.
Garner passed away on Sunday, surrounded by family, after losing his two year bout with pancreatic cancer, and while the anecdote in the previous paragraph is a great example of what a friendly, Southern gentlemen Garner was, he also had the nickname “Scrap Iron” for a reason. Few players or managers were more tough, more competitive than Garner.
Garner was born on April 30, 1949, in Jefferson City, Tennessee, a short 30 mile drive from Knoxville. Garner’s family would eventually move to Knoxville, and Garner would go on to have an All-SEC collegiate career at the University of Tennessee, where they retired his number in 2009.
From college, Garner would go on to enter the Major Leagues with the Oakland Athletics, as a reserve infielder on the World Series champion A’s teams of the early and mid-70s. Garner would get his big break in 1977, when the A’s traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he played over 150 games a season from 1977 through 1980. Garner was the starting second baseman on the “We Are Family” Pirates World Series title team, and made the NL All Star team in 1980 and 1981.
Garner was dealt to the Houston Astros at the trade deadline in 1981, and Houston became home. He spent the next six years with the Astros, where he was a key veteran leader on the NL West title team in 1986. Garner finished his playing career with the Dodgers (1987) and Giants (1988).
Upon retiring from playing, Garner joined Art Howe’s coaching staff back in Houston, from 1989 to 1991. In 1992, he debuted as a manager, taking the Milwaukee Brewers to a 92-70 record. Garner was eventually fired in 1999, but was immediately scooped up by the Tigers, and managed them in 2000 and 2001, eventually getting fired six games into the 2002 season.
Garner’s next chapter is the one most current Houstonians see as his masterpiece. Upon then Astros manager Jimy Williams’ firing during the All Star break in 2004, Gerry Hunsicker, the Astros’ GM at the time, called Garner, who was back home in Houston at the time, and hired him as the team’s new manager, thus beginning a magical next 15 months.
Garner was able to take a 41-41 Astros team and, on the strength of a 36-10 finish, make the postseason, win a playoff series, and get all the way to Game 7 of the NLCS, before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2005, Garner withstood a 15-30 start to the season, once again getting the NL Wild Card spot, and was able to take the Astros to their first World Series, where they lost in four games to the Chicago White Sox.
As far as recent involvement with anything Astros related publicly, Garner threw out the first pitch at an Astros game on his 76th birthday last season, about a year into his cancer treatments. He had numerous former teammates and players there to support him and wish him well.
Garner is survived by his wife Carol, who he met at the University of Tennessee, his three children (sons, Eric and Ty, and daughter Bethany) and six grandchildren.
