Pitching Coach
After retiring as a player, Sain spent many years as a well-regarded but outspoken pitching coach for the Athletics, Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves. During the 1960s, Sain coached the pitchers of five of the American League's ten pennant-winning teams. An independent thinker among coaches, Sain tended to be admired by his pitchers, but he battled with at least two of his managers — Sam Mele of the Twins and Mayo Smith of the Tigers — when he disagreed with them. In each case, Sain was fired, but the manager's dismissal soon followed when his pitching staff suffered from Sain's absence. Sain did not make friends among owners and general managers, either, when he would advise pitchers to "climb those golden stairs" to their teams' front offices to demand more money in salary talks.
Jim Bouton, in his book Ball Four, expressed unreserved admiration for Sain, who had been his pitching tutor in New York in 1962-63. Bouton openly wished to pitch for the Detroit Tigers in order to have a chance to benefit from Sain's coaching.
Sain died at age 89 in Downers Grove, Illinois.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Sain
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