Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci states in a recent column that a lingering institutional bias in baseball limits the opportunities of former pitchers who want to manage in the majors. He notes that there have been 50 managerial hires since the end of the 2001 season, a year when pitchers-turned-managers Joe Kerrigan, Marcel Lachemann, Phil Regan and Larry Rothschild all lost dugout jobs. The only former pitcher among those 50 hires is Bud Black, who was chosen to manage the San Diego Padres over the winter.

According to Verducci:

* No former big league pitcher has won a playoff series as manager since Roger Craig piloted the San Francisco Giants over the Chicago Cubs in the 1989 NLCS. Former pitchers are 0-7 in playoff series since then.

* Among the top 100 managers in wins and winning percentage, only four were major league pitchers: Tommy Lasorda, Clark Griffith, Fred Hutchinson and Craig. (minimum: 1,000 games)

* Of the 102 teams to win a World Series, only five were managed by pitchers. Those were the 1946 Cardinals (Eddie Dyer), the 1978 Yankees (Bob Lemon), the 1980 Phllies (Dallas Green) and the 1981 and ’88 Dodgers (Lasorda).

These facts reinforce the bias, though Verducci is quick to suggest that “former pitchers crash and burn at the same rate as former positional players; it’s just that they get far fewer opportunities.” And ex-pitchers rarely get a chance to manage again. Larry Dierker is a case in point. He posted a respectable .556 winning percentage as manager of the Astros, skippering them to the postseason four times in five years, but his name never surfaces when managerial slots open.

San Diego general manager Kevin Towers, who hired Black over the winter, agrees with Verducci’s contention that former pitchers fail to get opportunities they deserve. Towers believes Black was the right guy for the Padres' job.

“Playing in Petco Park, we play at least 81 games where runs are hard to come by and about one-third of our games overall are decided by one or two runs,” Towers told Verducci. “So the manager has to be very good about knowing when to leave a starter in and when to go to the bullpen. Buddy gives us that.”

That's an important skill for any manager in this age of extreme specialization within pitching staffs. One could argue that a former pitcher is better equipped to handle a staff effectively in terms of knowing what his hurlers are prepared to do physically and mentally in a particular role.

Assuming this institutional bias is real -- and Verducci makes a strong case that it is -- it seems very strange. After all, every manager has a hitting and pitching coach to handle the instruction of those crafts. Plus, a manager always has a bench coach, who can be of any positional persuasion to help cover for the weaknesses of the guy in charge.

Black has given the bench coach assignment to Craig Colbert, a former catcher and utility infielder. Maybe Black’s covering both aspects of the game with that appointment. In what may be another institutional bias of the game, catchers are widely considered to be potentially successful candidates to manage or coach pitchers because of their knowledge of both hitting and pitching. Joe Torre, Mike Scioscia and Dave Duncan come to mind, and regardless of the sample size of ex-catchers who have succeeded in the dugout, they may have helped pave the way for Tony Pena, Ned Yost and Joe Girardi in recent years.

The litmus test for Black and other former pitchers looking to manage begins this spring. A successful tenure by Black could go a long way for ex-pitchers now managing in the minor leagues.