Five Intriguing Facts About New Pittsburgh Pirates GM Ben Cherington

The Pittsburgh Pirates recently hired their new General Manager, Ben Cherington. While we wait for Cherington to determine the direction the team will take during the off-season and into the 2020 season, let’s look at some intriguing facts about the new hire.

1. Ben Cherington is the first GM the Pirates have hired that has won a World Series

The Pittsburgh Pirates, on paper at least, got extremely lucky when they hired Ben Cherington. Without a doubt, Cherington is the most decorated GM to be hired in Pirate history. The Pirates hired their first General Manager in 1946 – his name was Ray Kennedy. Between Kennedy and Cherington, the Pirates have hired ten GMs, not a single one had a World Series ring before coming to the Pirates. In fact, the majority of those GMs had not even held a GM position previous to being hired by the Pirates.

Cherington has high-level experience in two different organizations and saw success in both of those positions. The World Series ring speaks for itself in Boston, and it is very difficult to find any negative remarks about Cherington’s tenure in Toronto. Hopefully, Cherington can use his experience and professionalism to turn this Pirates franchise around.

2. Ben Cherington Graduated from the same college as Dave Littlefield and Neal Huntington 

Dave Littlefield was the General Manager for the Pirates from 2001 to 2007. Neal Huntington, as most people know, just finished his tenure as the Pirates GM, which lasted from 2007-2019. Both of them received graduate degrees from the University of Massachusetts Department of Sports Management. Interestingly, Cherington has a degree from the same Department at UMass.

3. Ben Cherington Graduated from the same college as Neal Huntington

Is this a typo? Nope. Not only do Huntington and Cherington hold degrees from the same graduate school, they also hold degrees from the same undergraduate school, Amherst College. The degrees were different though, Huntington received a degree in Psychology from Amherst and Cherington received a degree in English. Both played baseball for Amherst, Huntington was a first baseman and Cherington was a pitcher.

I don’t think Cherington having a similar educational background to Huntington and Littlefield is something that should be read into. As most of us know, the majority of learning happens on the job these days and there is no reason to believe this is any different for GMs. The similar education backgrounds are one heck of a coincidence though.