Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Legends are made by the stories told about them. Charlie Metro is a baseball legend.
When tracing his career in baseball, it’s difficult to find a place to begin. Maybe a defining time is 1962, when he was part of perhaps the most bizarre managing system in baseball history.
As any Cubs fan knows, Chicago’s team on the north side has tried everything to win a pennant. Metro was part of a managing team called the “College of Coaches.”
Metro, Elvin Tappe and Lou Klein took turns managing the Cubs in 1962 as part of an experiment that started in 1961 and never worked. The 1962 team finished 59-103.
“It was like having a three-legged horse,” Metro said. “I told them I’d do it, but I wouldn’t like it. You didn’t have good control of your players. Occasionally we’d play real well, but about that time, they’d rotate the coaches again.”
The 1962 Cubs had some of baseball’s best players, but Metro said the team lacked pitching. The everyday lineup included Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and George Altman.
Metro could create his own bizarre situations. Jim Burris, the former president and general manager of the Denver Bears, provides insight. Burris remembers Metro managing Vancouver before coming to the Bears.
“He was a tough guy, and particularly with umpires,” Burris said of Metro. “He was kicked out of a (Vancouver) game … and on his way out of the park, he picked up second base and took it with him into the clubhouse.”
Burris also saw Metro’s other side.
“He’s one of the most fascinating and smartest baseball men I’ve ever met,” Burris said. “He’s a very sound baseball man.”
Metro worked in baseball as a player, coach, manager, front-office member and scout for 55 years. There weren’t many places in the country where Metro and baseball didn’t come together. He remembers being involved the game when there were as many as 54 minor leagues across the country. Almost every town had a baseball team.
“I don’t know how many Class D and Class C leagues there were,” he said. “I had 38 different mailing addresses when I was in baseball. When you were in the little towns, the fans lived your life.”
At one of his stops – in Twin Falls, Idaho – Metro and his wife, Helen, befriended Hall of Famer Ty Cobb. Cobb had a rough reputation as a player, but he and Helen exchanged views on growing flowers and gardening.
Metro became associated with Denver in 1960 when he managed the Bears to their first Triple-A championship, with an 86-66-1 record in the American Association. The Bears were affiliated with the Detroit Tigers at the time. Denver’s top players in 1960 were infielders Bo Osborne, Steve Boros, Jake Wood and Don Wert, outfielders Bubba Morton and Frank Kostro and pitchers Gordon Seyfried and Fred Gladding.
Metro turned to baseball after a disastrous experience in a coal mine in Pennsylvania, where he grew up. An explosion claimed the lives of seven miners, but Metro and his father survived.
“I could run and throw and hit a home run once in a while,” Metro said. “I hit .400 with the Tigers, .200 each year.”
His major-league playing career consisted of 171 games with Detroit and the Philadelphia Athletics from 1943-45. He managed the Kansas City Royals in 1970 and claims to be the only Ukrainian to play and manage in the big leagues.
Metro boasts that he managed six players who are in the Hall of Fame. While managing in the minor leagues, he guided pitchers Jim Bunning and Steve Carlton and third baseman Brooks Robinson. Banks, Williams and Lou Brock played for Metro with the 1962 Cubs.
Metro believes Santo should be in Cooperstown, too.
Metro’s trophy case includes three World Series rings from working seven years as the advance scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers lost to the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978, but beat the Yankees in 1981 for the title.
After his career in baseball ended, Metro retired to a 15-acre site northwest of Arvada. His focus turned to raising quarter horses.
When architects were designing Coors Field, Metro suggested indoor batting cages be built under the grandstand. The suggestion was accepted.
He has a suggestion for the Rockies as well.
“I wish they’d get their pitchers in better shape,” Metro said. “I never had a sore-armed pitcher. I ran the heck out of them. I was a taskmaster and demanded my players’ best all the time.”
He occasionally is invited to lecture on baseball at Metro State College. Even at 87, the twinkle in his eyes remains. He still would take second base into the clubhouse if he had the chance.
“I tell the students they named this school after me,” Metro said.
Legends can tell stories, too.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-
1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
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COLORADO CLASSICS
Irv Moss,
Denver Post
staff writer
