By: Brian Frank
Bruce Tanner loved his time in Buffalo – whether it was taking the mound at The Rockpile back in the mid-80s, or more recently spending time at Sahlen Field as a Detroit Tigers scout. The former Bisons hurler has nothing but praise for the Queen City.
“I really enjoyed my two years in Buffalo,” Tanner recently told The Herd Chronicles, “it’s probably the most fun I ever had playing baseball were those two years that I was there.”
“I think the people, and not only the people associated with the team, but the people in Buffalo are just the best,” he continued. “They were extremely passionate about their sports, which they still are today.”
Tanner had a unique baseball upbringing. He's the son of legendary major-league manager Chuck Tanner, who won 1,352 games at the helm of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Atlanta Braves.
“When he managed the Hawaii Islanders in the minor leagues, we flew all the way out to Hawaii to spend some time with him out there,” Tanner said of his dad's final minor-league job as manager of the California Angels' Pacific Coast League affiliate. “But I was a young kid and don’t really remember a whole lot from then. Then when he started to manage the White Sox, we would go visit him in the summertime. When he’d come through Cleveland, we’d go visit there.”
“I was fortunate to be a batboy for the White Sox,” Tanner continued. “So, I did that in the summertime for probably two or three months at a time. Then you got to know some of the players and they made you feel a part of it. The one guy I really developed a good relationship with was Rich Allen – and then also Goose Gossage, he was like 19 at the time and I was 11 or 12. You’ve got a guy that’s seven years older than you on the major-league team. It was kind of crazy, you know? Those were some great experiences.”
After managing the White Sox from 1970 to 1975 and managing the A’s in 1976, the elder Tanner took the Pirates job in 1977.
“When he went to the Pirates, then it was only about an hour from our house, so we were able to drive to games,” Tanner said. “But that was when I started to play more baseball and other sports. So, it was more difficult to get down there and see some of those games.”
The Pirates finished in second place in Tanner’s first two seasons, amassing 96 and 88 wins, before having one of the most magical seasons in baseball history. Led by future Hall of Famers Willie Stargell and Dave Parker and rallying behind a “We are Family” theme, the 1979 Pirates won 98 games during the regular season to win the National League East. They then swept the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Championship Series before beating Earl Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles in seven games to become world champions.
“It was just such a close-knit bunch,” Tanner recalled. “You see some of the films of teams that raz one another, and that’s what they did. They gave it back and forth – and Stargell was kind of the ring leader, and Parker, and they’d pick on certain guys and those guys would give it back. Even the coaching staff, they were in tune. It really was a really close-knit unit. It was amazing how they sacrificed for themselves for the sake of the team. If it meant bunting a guy over or moving a runner over. They didn’t care if they made outs if it benefitted the team. That’s what made that team special.”
Tanner believes his dad was ahead of his time in handling a pitching staff.
“A lot of people don’t realize that they pitched extremely well,” he said. “I think the one thing my dad did then that everybody does now is that guys would throw five innings and he’d get them out of the game and he would use three or four relievers. Back then, the starter went as far as he could. But I think he knew what kind of pitching staff he had. He knew that he had a really good bullpen and he knew he had the type of starters that wouldn’t go for any real length, except for maybe John Candelaria, who was an exception to that.”
After graduating from Neshannock High School in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Tanner attended Florida State University, where a potential position change almost caused his baseball career to take a big turn.
“The first year, I went in and they tried to convert me to a catcher, but I got hurt,” Tanner remembered. “So, I took a medical redshirt that year. But it still counted towards a year. Then I pitched the next year. But I think I only pitched 12 or 14 innings. Then the next year, I came into fall ball, which was played much more than it is now. I came in on day one and he (head coach Mike Martin) said, ‘You’re going to be my closer.’ I was like, here’s somebody who didn’t play all year because of an injury, then I literally pitched 12 to 14 innings, then the next year he said you’re going to be my closer. Then after that second season of actually playing, I got drafted and went ahead and signed.”
Tanner was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the fourth round of the 1983 June Amateur Draft. Draft day was a long, worrisome ordeal for Tanner, as unusual circumstances made him concerned that he might get passed over.
“I was just sitting in my apartment watching TV all day and it was coming across that this guy from Florida State went in the eighth round, this guy went in the 12th round, this guy went in the 16th,” he recalled. “I was like, what’s going on? I mean back then they had up to like 40 or 50 rounds. My name never popped up on TV at all. There was no internet, there were no cell phones, there was nothing like that. I thought I wasn’t going to get drafted. It was one of the biggest disappointments. I even called home and was like this can’t be possible. I’ve been talking to several teams all along and they all asked me how much I wanted and they all said don’t worry, we’re going to take you high. I even called a scout from the Angels because I talked to that guy almost every day, and I said, ‘What’s going on? I’m not hearing anything.’ He said, ‘I turned you in high, so don’t worry, you’ll hear something.’ But until you do (hear something), you don’t believe anybody at that point. Then almost at midnight, the scout who had watched me called me and said, ‘We drafted you in the fourth round and I’ll be in town and would like to come talk to you.’ That’s how that all kind of went.”
Tanner had a 3.46 ERA in 20 games (17 starts) for the 1985 Bisons.
Tanner worked his way up through the White Sox system, making stops in Glens Falls, Niagara Falls, and Appleton before arriving at Triple-A Buffalo in 1985 to pitch at War Memorial Stadium, affectionately known as The Rockpile to local baseball fans.
“It was kind of neat,” he said of playing at the stadium that opened in 1937, “because they had just filmed The Natural there. There was something about it. It had a uniqueness to it. The only thing that I wasn’t thrilled about was having to walk through the stands to get to the locker room – because you would have to go behind home plate and then you would have to have security or somebody – but a lot of times there wasn’t security. People would be whacking you on the head, whether you had a good game or bad game, they didn’t care. Then you had to go up that ramp to what was kind of an old clubhouse.”
The Rockpile was not known as being friendly to pitchers, particularly right-handed pitchers, with its short right-field fence. The right-field foul pole was generously listed as being 310 feet from home plate.
“It was very short,” Tanner recalled. “So, what you ended up doing was pitching almost all left-handers away and all right-handers inside, so that they’d have to go around and hook the ball to try to get it out of there. You didn’t mind giving up a home run if there was nobody on, but it’s the ones where you had one or two on when they hit one and that really bothered you a lot.”
It was the Bisons first season back in Triple-A since 1970. They ended up finishing in third place in the American Association East Division with a 66-76 record.
“The group of players that I played with there were just first class,” Tanner said. “They treated you good. No matter your age, you felt like you fit in. We had other guys younger than me that would come up (from Double-A) and everybody pulled for that guy. Even the older guys, they taught me a lot. We had a pitcher named Dave Wehrmeister. He was probably approaching 30 years old. We would have lunch and he would teach you some stuff. The older guys were always trying to relay stuff that they knew in their playing that might help you going forward. And the catchers were older guys as well, and they were helping you out too. They would come back and say, hey this is working today and this isn’t, let’s lean on this. Just a different way of going about it. Then I had Nardi Contreras as a pitching coach and I also had Pat Dobson as a pitching coach and they both were really good. I enjoyed it.”
Tanner also enjoyed playing for Bisons manager John Boles, who was in his only season at the helm of the Herd. Boles would later go on to manage in the big leagues with the Florida Marlins.
“Loved him to death,” Tanner said. “I don’t want to eliminate other people, but he was probably my favorite manager I ever played for. He cared about the players. He taught you intensity, but there was also a caring side too. I remember when my grandmother passed away and I had to go in and tell him and he was very sympathetic. But he was also very hardnosed. The one thing that he said, and to this day it sticks with me, was ‘I don’t care if you win or lose, just give me your all every day.’ He said, ‘If you do that, the wins and losses will take care of themselves.' He expected a lot out of you – but that helped a lot and it made you better.”
Tanner was called up to Chicago in June to make his major-league debut. He still clearly remembers the moment he was told he was heading to the big leagues.
“I was actually rooming with the trainer of the team, Greg Latta and an outfielder, John Cangelosi,” Tanner said. “I think I was living in Cheektowaga. I remember getting a call and then I immediately called my folks at home. My mom picked up and then she passed the phone to my dad. My mom was excited and my dad was like – oh, okay, that’s good. I don’t know if he knew in advance that it happened, if somebody had tipped him off, but he was really mellow about it. Then, back then they had The Sporting News and stuff like that. So, I immediately picked up something with some recency, because they told me I’d be pitching against Seattle, and I just started looking up their lineup to see who they had and if I knew any of the people. So, I was trying to prepare as quickly as I could.”
Tanner pitched in 10 games for the White Sox.
His first big-league game came against the Mariners at Seattle’s Kingdome. He got the start and ended up working six and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out three. He earned the win in a 6-3 White Sox victory.
“The first nine went up and down in order,” he remembered. “Then they got back-to-back bunt hits. It was on AstroTurf and it kind of took me by surprise a little just because you think you’re taking the right angle and all of a sudden it’s like – well, that ball’s by me and one of your infielders is trying to pick it up to throw somebody out. That was unique because we had played on AstroTurf in Louisville, but the turf in Seattle seemed to be a whole lot quicker. Then you just kind of get settled into the game.
“I do remember I threw a pitch that I thought was as good a breaking ball as I could throw and the guy hit it to left-center for a double. Back then they had really small TVs in the stadiums. Our catcher came running out and he said, ‘Let’s look at that. You made a heck of a pitch.’ And then he said, ‘Don’t worry they do that up here sometimes. They hit good pitches.’ And I said, ‘I just found that out.’ (The catcher's) name was Marc Hill. He had a very relaxed, calm way about him and that enabled me to settle down.”
After making four starts for the White Sox, Tanner returned to Buffalo, where he posted a 3.46 ERA in 109 1/3 innings pitched, He then headed back to the Chicago, where he pitched out of the White Sox bullpen in six September games.
In 1986, Tanner battled for a big-league roster spot in spring training and almost made the White Sox Opening Day roster.
“I had worked harder that winter than I had at any time in my career and I had the best spring training I ever had and I was cut the very last day of the spring,” he said. “Hawk Harrelson was the GM. The last day of spring training they said just wait around. (Manager Tony) La Russa called me in the office and said ‘I want you to look at every coach in this room because everybody in this room has you going north, but one guy doesn’t – and I want to hear why.’ Hawk Harrelson came in and said, ‘I picked up a veteran on waivers and I’m just going to go with an older pitcher instead.’ And he did. Bill Dawley was the guy’s name and he’d picked him up off waivers from the Houston Astros. Literally the plane was about to take off and the bus was about ready to go to the airport – and they said oh by the way, you have to go to Buffalo. Extremely disappointing because honestly that spring, only Tom Seaver pitched better than me. Every time I pitched they would say it’s between you and so-and-so to make the team. Then I would throw like three scoreless and that guy would give up like three runs in three innings. I did everything I could and I still didn’t make the team and that was really frustrating.”
The 1986 Bisons, with new manager Jim Marshall, went 71-71 and finished second in the AA East. Tanner made 23 starts for the Herd that season, posting a 4.16 ERA in 158 innings pitched.
“Personally, I kind of faded down the stretch and I think it was because I had done so much that offseason,” he said. “For the first time ever, I felt like the final month that my overall stuff started to wane. But as far as the team and everything was concerned, we competed well every night. We had a great group of guys. Again, another learning experience for me playing with those guys. Then I ended up getting traded that offseason to Oakland.
Tanner at the Rockpile.
Tanner played for three more seasons in the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants organizations before retiring as a player.
“My aspirations and my career where cut short with injuries,” he said. “I was doing really well with Oakland in Triple-A and I went to cover first base one day and I tore my ACL. Back then, they didn’t do what they can do today. I don’t know how things would have turned out, but back then you really had a long rehab and often it didn’t work. They didn’t even put anything in there. You know, you don’t have an ACL. Back then they used to put some sort of device in there that would hold it together. But they said, we just repaired your meniscus and you’re just going to have to be without an ACL. I’ll tell you, that was not easy to pitch with. Not having an ACL was difficult. Then, eventually my shoulder started barking and then I just never was the same after that.”
He continued to work in baseball as a coach at both the minor- and major-league levels. He was the bullpen coach for the Pirates from 2001 to 2005.
“I liked it a lot,” he said of coaching. “I liked when you had a young kid and you could watch the progression from the beginning of the year to the end and you’d see how much better they got. Taking guys who they said, don’t worry, we’re going to release him at the end of next year, but just do your best – and that guy goes on to have an eight to ten year major league career. You’d feel like, hey I had something to do with that. I helped jump start him and allowed him to continue to keep playing. Stuff like that makes it very rewarding. Just watching some of these guys get to the big-leagues and knowing that maybe at some point that you had some help in doing that along the way. Then even at the big-league level, when you tell a guy – hey why don’t you change this grip or why don’t you do this, and then it works for them. Not only is that beneficial for the team, but it’s beneficial for the guy – and somewhere down the line it could be really beneficial for him financially.”
After the 2005 season, Tanner left coaching when Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon and his coaching staff, including Tanner, were let go. Pittsburgh’s farm director, former Bisons manager Brian Graham, convinced Tanner to remain in the game as a scout for the Pirates organization.
“So, I went to Williamsport for a year and then when that season was over, Detroit called and said they’d like me to come over as an advance scout,” Tanner said. “They had just finished the World Series against St. Louis. I went over there and was an advance scout for two years and then an opening came up on the pro scouting side and I went over to the pro scouting side. I’ve been doing that ever since.”
Now, his scouting duties often bring him back to the city where he once starred on the mound.
“The thing I love about Buffalo is the people,” he said. “To this day, when I go back there, I see several of the guys. Kevin Lester, who’s now the official scorer, he was our bullpen catcher when I was there. Then Duke McGuire, he did radio and is still doing radio. Those guys were both in the movie (The Natural). We had a batboy named Kevin Hodge – he was the nicest human I ever met in my entire life. The Rich family, they were some of the nicest people I ever met. And when I go back, the people are still super nice. Even just going to a restaurant. These are really good people. I really enjoy going back there and I enjoy scouting there.”
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