The baseball world likes Joe Girardi. They really like Joe Girardi.

Girardi, who was always referred to as a future manager when he was a player, finally made those predictions come true. He was hired yesterday as the manager of the Florida Marlins after being wooed by every team in baseball, or at least those in Florida.

Joe becomes the first man in 18 years to go from a major-league player to major-league manager within three years. In 1987 both Larry Bowa and John Wathan became managers just two years after retiring as players. The only other men in the last twenty years to switch roles so quickly are Jeff Newman and Lou Piniella (both in 1986).

Poor Willie Randolph. A former Yankee coach himself, he got a cursory glance by just about every team looking for a new skipper for years until he landed with the Mets this past year. It took him thirteen seasons to go from player—he retired in 1992—to manager. Fellow Yankee ex-pat Lee Mazzilli took 15 years to become O's manager—though less than two seasons to lose the job.

All that made me wonder if the trend in hiring managers was changing. I remember Don Kessinger and Pete Rose being player-managers, something that used to be common in the game. Rose was the last player-manager in 1986, and I doubt we'll see another for quite some time, if ever.

Here are the managers who debuted in the last fifty years and were still active players in their debut year as major-league managers (though not necessarily, technically player-managers):

Fregosi, I remember, was released by the Pirates and then later that season became the Angels' manager, so he never really was a player-manager. And El Tappe was part of the Cubs' managerial rotation in the early Sixties.

OK, so now let's look at the trends. Here are the totals for our so-called player-managers:

Now for the Girardi group. Here are all managers who debuted within three years of retiring as a player:

Both of those groups have dwindled in the last few decades. The next group we'll look into are managers who debuted at least four years after retiring as a player but no more than ten years. They have been doing well of late:

Finally, here is the group to which Mazzilli and Randolph belong, managers who debuted at least a decade after retiring as players:

For the first seventies years of major-league ball, they were a rarity, but now they look like the strongest trend. So while Girardi might cause a splash, he now represents the rare exception rather than the rule.