Bloom: Molitor likes challenge of managing

NEW YORK — Paul Molitor is a member of an elite group, one of just 217 players who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And he’s still a member of a much smaller subset of that group: Hall of Famers who have managed a Major League team. There have been 63 of them, but most achieved this feat in the era before World War II.

Of late, aside from Molitor, only Ryne Sandberg has made an attempt. But Sandberg lasted less than two calendar years with the Phillies and resigned midway through the 2015 season when upper management changed.

Molitor, who recorded 3,319 hits in 21 seasons, is still standing, managing a Twins team that has a Major League-high 96 losses heading into action on Wednesday night.

“I think it’s easy to compartmentalize Hall of Famers who coach or manage,” Molitor told MLB.com this past Sunday at Citi Field, as his Twins were swept by the Mets in a three-game series. “I think it’s really individualistic. To compare Frank Robinson or Ryne Sandberg or Yogi [Berra] to me, doesn’t really matter. It’s how that person is wired.”

Since 1964, the brief list of Hall of Fame players to manage also includes Eddie Mathews, Ted Williams, Bob Lemon, Tony Perez, Berra and Robinson. The latter two, it should be noted, became managers for the first time before they were elected to the Hall, Robinson as a player-manager with the Indians in 1975 near the end of his on-field career, and the first African-American to take over the position.

Barry Larkin has been trying his hand at it in the last two World Baseball Classics as manager of Team Brazil, which is competing this weekend in the Brooklyn qualifier along with Pakistan, Israel and Great Britain, for the final spot in next year’s tournament. Larkin recently said that he had no designs right now of managing in the Major Leagues.

That leaves Molitor as the only Cooperstown representative actively managing in the game. It’s a seemingly tough transition from superstar player to successful manager.

“If I have a good year or a bad year or it winds up not …

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