In one of the oddest moves to garner some cheap press since the Phils employed "Rocket Man", the Fort Worth Cats of the independent Central League allowed former major-league manager Bobby Bragan guest manage—what was Joan Rivers busy?—in order to wrest the title of oldest professional manager away from the still-dead hands of Hall of Famer Connie Mack. He bested Mack by eight days. And you thought Minnie Minoso and Aerosmith had a unlikely comebacks.

The 87-year-old Bragan didn't even last the whole game. He got himself kicked out of the game for arguing balls and strikes in the third and wound up in the stands signing autographs.

I like how the article stomps all over Mack's legacy:

He had no trouble holding his job even though the A's were a poor team in his later years in the dugout. Mack also owned the team.

It's like that NY Lottery commercial that's been running this season in which a manager is forced to answer questions about his bumbling third baseman who it turns out bought the team after, of course, winning the lottery. Mack, as some sort of antediluvian Pete Rose, inserted himself in the dugout as the manager long after he had passed his usefulness as one, right?

Well, Mack spent his last 19 years without winning a World Series or so much as a pennant, but he did have winners in three of the last four seasons. I don't think anyone could have better managed some of those post-1931 A's teams. Then again, Mack had no one but himself to blame for continually dismantling the team.

The comment about Mack did make me wonder if managers lose their effectiveness as they age, and I thought a quickie but extremely large table was in order. I looked up the total record by age for all managers. Here's what I found:

Now, here are the top ten ages by winning percentage (the 85 is Connie Mack's third to last season):

It seems that sexagenarian managers are the best. Would that we all could peak at that age.