Enjoy these 10 surprising tales of player-managers who dazzled on the field and in the dugout

Hitting home runs is one thing, but doing it while also juggling managerial duties is a different beast entirely. While it's no longer en vogue (much to the chagrin of Jimmy Rollins ), player-managers used to be all the rage (in Major League Baseball.
There have been over 200 player-managers in MLB history, but none since Pete Rose retired after playing 72 games while managing the Reds in 1986.
These player-managers won World Series championships, hit walk-off dingers, were photographed with notorious gangsters and led past lives as professional soccer players. Pulling double duty might not be something that happens with frequency anymore, but for these 10 legends of baseball's Modern Era, it added another layer of greatness to their already impressive careers.
Don Kessinger

Even though Don Kessinger spent the 1976 and '77 seasons with the Cardinals, he'll always be heralded as a hero in Chicago after having spent 12 years with the Cubs - where he was a six-time All-Star -- and three with the White Sox.
At the end of the 1978 season, Kessinger was promoted to player-manager on the South Side. The 36-year-old infielder only played in 56 games that year, but managed the Sox in 106, included the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park.
Kessinger was the AL's last player-manager. He resigned in August 1979 and was replaced by some guy named Tony La Russa.
Gabby Harnett

Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett lived an incredibly interesting life:
- That's him above signing an autograph for Al Capone and Capone's 12-year-old son
- When he was 23, Hartnett caught Grover Cleveland Alexander's 300th career win
- When Babe Ruth famously called his shot in the 1932 World Series, Hartnett was crouched behind home plate
- In 1938, he took over as player-manager for the Cubs, made the NL All-Star team and helped the Cubs win the NL Pennant with an iconic, walk-off home run in the final series of the regular season
All told, Hartnett served a little more than two seasons as player-manager for the Cubs and held the same position with the Giants in 1941.
Jimmy Wilson

Philly-native Jimmie Wilson excelled at soccer at a young age and played in the old American Soccer League before leaving the sport to focus on baseball.
Wilson was a longtime Phillies catcher who took over as player-manager in 1934 and held the post for five losing seasons. He's probably best known for the time he was traded from the Phils to the Cardinals in the middle of a 1928 game and changed uniforms after two innings, riding out the rest of the contest in what started as his opponents' dugout.
Joe Cronin

Over the course of his 20-year playing career, Hall of Famer Joe Cronin played two seasons with the Pirates, seven with the Senators and 11 with the Red Sox. While he's largely remembered for his contributions in Boston -- 1,168 hits, five All-Star appearances, four second-place finishes in the American League standings -- it's Dodgers fans who should really be thanking Cronin for his contributions to their franchise.
As Cronin's playing career was winding down, former umpire and then Red Sox farm director Billy Evans thought he found Cronin's replacement at shortstop. Evans was so taken aback by the prospect's skills, he talked team owner Tom Yawkey into buying the kid's team outright from the American Association and turning it into the top Red Sox Minor League team.
In the name of self-preservation, Cronin deliberately downplayed the kid's abilities, lobbying to have him traded. And so, the Sox sent Pee Wee Reese to the Dodgers for $35,000 and four players to be named later.
Leo Durocher

Although he played 17 years as a serviceable shortstop, Hall of Famer Leo Durocher seems to be chin-to-chin with an umpire in all of his surviving photos. With an impressive eye for talent, Durocher was the flip side of the Joe Cronin coin: He'd been appointed as player-manager of the Dodgers after the 1938 season and saw something in Pee Wee Reese. After the Dodgers purchased Reese's contract, Durocher was so impressed he eventually ceded his own starting spot to make room for Reese in the lineup.
In 1941, Durocher appeared in 18 games for the Dodgers while leading them to the World Series. They'd come a long way since his now famous "nice guys, finish last" description of the floundering team he'd taken over. He served as player-manager for six seasons between 1939 and 1945 (he didn't appear as a player in the '42 and '44 seasons).
Durocher still ranks third in MLB history ejections.
Bill Terry

Hall of Famer Bill Terry's playing career was nothing to sneeze at -- the longtime Giant was a three-time All-Star who once hit 20 triples in a season and batted over .400 in 1930.
In June of 1932, Terry took over managerial duties. The following season -- his first full season as skipper -- Terry hit .322, participated in MLB's inaugural All-Star Game and led the Giants to their first World Series championship in over a decade.
Rogers Hornsby

You've heard of Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. You've heard of his 2,930 career hits, his .358 lifetime average and his two NL MVP Awards. But you might not have been hip to the fact that he managed his own teams for the final 13 seasons of his playing career.
In 1925, Hornsby won the Triple Crown ... while managing the Cardinals. He followed up that showing with a weak year in which he hit a measly .317. We're guessing Cards fans were OK with it considering the team won the Fall Classic that season.
He served in a similar capacity for the Braves, Cubs and Browns before it was all said and done, and, to this day, he's considered one of the greatest all-around players to ever pick up a bat.
Bucky Harris

In 1924, the Washington Senators named Hall of Famer Bucky Harris as the team's player-manager. The starting second baseman had a penchant for getting hit by pitches (he led the league in three straight seasons), but what he accomplished as a player-manager was truly special.
At 27, Harris was the youngest manager in MLB at the time. In his first season at the post, he hit .268, led the league in sacrifice hits, captained the Senators to a 92-62 record and helped win the team a World Series championship.
Tris Speaker

Hall of Famer Tris Speaker didn't manage after he finished his playing career at the end of the 1928 season. But before he decided to hang 'em up, Speaker spent seven seasons as a player-manager for the Indians. From 1919 to 1927, Speaker served as the team's starting center fielder while also handling managerial duties.
In all truth, Speaker had been serving as the team's de facto manager before that, often signaling from the field to then-skipper Lee Fohl to communicate his recommendation for pitching changes. In 1919, when Fohl botched one of Speaker's signs, Speaker let it go so as not to show up his manager. But then, Fohl brought in the wrong pitcher, who blew the game. Speaker took over as player-manager the next day, following Fohl's resignation.
Speaker led MLB in doubles during four of those seven seasons, led the league in RBIs in 1923 and helped the Indians to their first World Series championship in 1920.
Miller Huggins

Hall of Famer Miller Huggins is primarily known as the skipper of Murderers' Row, the Yankees team in the 1920s -- prominently featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig -- that mashed their way to multiple World Series titles. But before that, Huggins was just a lawyer from Cincinnati trying to make a name for himself in the world of baseball.
Huggins played for his hometown Reds, but didn't become a player-manager until 1913 when he was the starting second baseman for the Cardinals. In his first year pulling double duty, Huggins led the NL in OBP with a mark of .432 and led the Cards to their best finish since 1876. But his biggest contribution to the franchise came when he groomed his replacement as starting second baseman, even adjusting the youngster's batting stance. That kid was Rogers Hornsby.