Dale Sveum

As the third-base coach on the 2004 Red Sox, Dale Sveum earned the first of two World Series rings that were the high points of a lengthy and multifaceted career in professional baseball. Through his efforts as a player, coach, and manager, the former high-school football star earned a reputation as a savvy, classy baseball man, one who had seen and done pretty much all one can do in the professional game, all the while weathering the ups and downs central to the game. Out of it he earned the respect of the peers and colleagues with whom he had shared the experiences of his almost four decades in professional baseball.   

Dale Curtis Sveum was born November on 23, 1963 in Richmond, California. He was the younger of two boys born to Sandrea Kay and George Sveum. After a stint in the Marines, George Sveum worked as an independent trucker. He later drove for a couple of different companies before becoming involved with the Teamsters. He eventually rose to become secretary-treasurer, which according to Dale, was the true position of power in the local Teamsters Union.1

Dale Sveum was a local athletic legend in high school. A standout three-sport (football, basketball, baseball) star at Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, California, he was also reputed to be the best golfer in the school; and the track and swimming coaches were known to covet his services. Football, in which he had completed an 80-yard touchdown-pass play as a sophomore in leading Pinole Valley to an upset victory in the sectional playoffs, was reportedly his favorite sport. However, the offer of a scholarship from Arizona State could not compare to the $100,000 signing bonus he received from the Milwaukee Brewers after scout Harry Smith identified him as a top-flight talent and the Brewers made him the 25th overall pick in the 1982 amateur draft.2 

Sveum began his professional career in the summer of 1982 with the Pikeville Brewers in the Brewers Rookie-level entry in the Appalachian League. Always playing infield, from there he advanced to the Stockton Ports in the Class-A California League in 1983, the El Paso Diablos in the Double-A Texas League in 1984, and the Vancouver Canadians in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1985 and into the start of the 1986 season. His performance for El Paso (.329, 84 RBIs) offered the best evidence of his major-league readiness. That readiness became a reality when, on May 12, 1986, just about the time he would have been graduating from Arizona State (probable redshirt year aside), Sveum made his major-league debut, starting at third base and going 2-for-3 in the Brewers’ 6-0 loss to the Mariners in Seattle.   

Once he got to the big leagues, Sveum worked hard to stay there. He finished the 1986 season hitting .246 in 91 games. He had 317 at-bats, hit 7 home runs, and drove in 35 runs. The next season, 1987, was his most complete and successful season. Appearing in 153 games and logging 586 plate appearances, he hit .252 while recording career highs in every meaningful hitting category, including, most impressively, 95 runs batted in, second on the team only to Robin Yount’s 103. Sveum got 135 hits, 27 of which were doubles and 25 were home runs. It was one of two double-figure home-run seasons he had. Sveum also had his career high in strikeouts with 133. Little did he know that 1987 would prove to be his career year.

In 1988 Sveum played in 129 games, hitting .242 but he experienced major drop-offs in every other area. More importantly, on September 3, 1988, while playing shortstop, Sveum broke his left tibia in a collision with left fielder Darryl Hamilton while he was chasing and catching a fly ball in left field, near the foul line. Sveum was taken from the field on a stretcher.3 To complicate matters, the bone did not heal properly and on November 18 Sveum underwent surgery. In what doctors said was a not uncommon procedure, another smaller bone next to the tibia needed to be broken in order to facilitate and speed the healing process of the larger bone. The natural process had been taking longer than it normally should and it was allowed to proceed there was little chance that Sveum would be ready for spring training. With the surgery the Brewers felt that their shortstop would be back.4  

But in fact, Sveum was never again the same player. In the immediate aftermath of the surgery, he struggled just to play. Despite the initial optimism, he did not bounce back from the surgery as hoped. In fact, he did not play a single game in the major leagues in 1989 and appeared in only 17 in the minors, splitting time between Class-A teams Stockton and Beloit. 

The 1990 season was not much better. Sveum split time between the Denver Zephyrs of the Triple-A American Association and the Brewers. But after hitting .289 in 57 games with Denver, he hit only .197 in 48 games with the Brewers. After hitting .241 in 90 games for the Brewers during the 1991 season, Sveum was traded after the season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Bruce Ruffin. It was the start of an eight-season baseball odyssey that saw the former first-round draft choice struggle to stay in the big leagues.

Beginning with the Phillies in 1992, over the course of the next eight seasons, Sveum played for six different major-league teams and four in the minors with his longest stint being almost three full seasons (1994-96) with the Calgary Cannons of the Pacific Coast League, interrupted only by a six-week period from April 27 to June 5, 1994 during which he got into 10 games after being called up by the Seattle Mariners. But that ended when he finished the 1996 season with the Pirates. Over the course of his odyssey, he played with the Phillies, the Chicago White Sox, the Oakland A’s, the Seattle Mariners, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the New York Yankees, before finishing up in a return stop with the Pirates. His playing career came to an end on October 3, 1999, when, in the top of the eighth with one out, pinch-hitting for pitcher Kris Benson and facing New York Mets hurler Turk Wendell, he flied out to left-center field. 

While he went to spring training in 2000 intent on winning a spot on the Pirates’ roster, the effort was unsuccessful and Sveum’s playing days were over. His professional playing career spanned 18 seasons. He spent parts of 12 seasons in the major leagues (862 games). He had a career batting average of .236 with 597 hits, 69 home runs, and 340 RBIs. He also spent parts of 12 seasons in the minors, appearing in 976 games and finishing with a .281 batting average.  

After a year away from the game, in 2001, Sveum managed the Pirates’ Double-A team in Altoona, Pennsylvania. As manager, he also coached third base, an experience that was new to him but which would come in handy down the road. In preparation for the new role, he pumped the brains of numerous former teammates, with former Pirates roommate Tommy Sandt being a particularly valuable resource.5 Sveum’s efforts in Altoona were well received and in 2003 Baseball America called Sveum the best potential major-league manager in the Eastern League.6 His climb up the managerial ladder took a detour when in January 2004, just weeks after Terry Francona had been hired as manager of the Boston Red Sox, Sveum’s former Brewers teammate awakened him from a deep sleep – Francona apparently had forgotten about the time zone difference – to ask him if he wanted to be the Red Sox third-base coach. After getting over the surprise, discussing the job in depth with Francona and then being interviewed by Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, Sveum joined the Red Sox in February 2004, a team hungry for a championship after 86 years without a World Series crown and especially after a near-miss in the playoffs the previous season.7

While Sveum’s contributions to the team were many, he also became a somewhat controversial figure as he violated a central rule of coaching – he became noticed. His unwanted high profile stemmed from the fact that a number of Red Sox runners he waved home from his perch in the third-base coaching box were cut down at the plate – results that invited second-guessing. Indeed, in early August 2004, after a game in which Tampa Devil Rays center fielder Rocco Baldelli threw out Red Sox runners at home plate on successive at-bats – the second and third home-plate-bound Red Sox runners that Baldelli had cut down that month – Sveum’s decision-making was the subject of a Boston Globe article.8 The runners themselves, not to mention manager Terry Francona, defended Sveum while recognizing the challenges involved in the process.9 Sveum himself acknowledged in an interview with the author that it was a no-win situation, noting that a coach did not get plaudits when a runner he sent home was safe, while each out offered a chance for second-guessing. He recognized that not getting publicity as a third-base coach was a good thing and that his recent spate of attention was not something to be desired.10 In the end, given his years of experience in the game, Sveum knew it was part of the job, although he would later admit that after Dave Roberts stole second in Game Four of the ALCS against the Yankees, the possibility that he might have to wave him home flashed through his mind.11 Of course, in fact, he did – and the rest was history.   

While most of his nonplaying career still lay ahead of him, Sveum remembered the last out of the Red Sox victory over the Yankees in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium as “probably the most exhilarating moment” of his career.12 Indeed, so improbable and momentous was the team’s unprecedented comeback, Sveum said, that the subsequent World Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals was “almost anticlimactic.”13 

One of Sveum’s most vivid memories of the Red Sox’ improbable comeback win was the impact of Kevin Millar in the Red Sox clubhouse. Sveum recalled that seemingly everybody outside the team saw the outlook as “dismal,” a sentiment he said he fully understood in the aftermath of the Red Sox’ devastating 19-8 loss in Game Three of the ALCS. However, it was different for the team in the locker room where, he recalled, things just picked up when Millar walked in. While acknowledging the strength and determination of the whole team, Sveum said Millar played a “big part,” recalling the special way that Millar, almost by dint of his own personality “got the clubhouse in a different state of mind,” warning anyone who would listen that they had better not let the Sox win tonight.14 As everyone knows that prediction proved prescient. With Dave Roberts stealing second, Big Papi coming up big, Curt Schilling bravely pitching the “Bloody Sock” game, and countless others stepping up, the Red Sox made history.   

After again serving as the third-base coach in 2005, Sveum left the Red Sox, taking a job as bench coach of the Milwaukee Brewers under manager Ned Yost.15 The team finished 2006 in fourth place in the National League’s Central Division and moved up to second in 2007. While they continued to improve in 2008, with only 12 games left in the season Yost was fired and Sveum, who had assumed the role of third-base coach in 2007, was tapped to replace him, serving as interim manager for the final dozen games of the regular season.16 When the team won seven of those remaining 12 under Sveum’s leadership, they snuck into the postseason for the first time since 1982. But the fairy tale ended when they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS in four games.17 When Ken Macha was named manager for the 2009 season, Sveum remained with the club as the hitting coach, overseeing one of baseball’s more potent offenses and in the process establishing himself as a hot managerial prospect.18 

Indeed, after the 2011 season Sveum engaged in extended conversations with both the Red Sox and the Cubs about their managerial openings. He was seen as the front-runner for the Red Sox job, and subsequent reports revealed that while general manager Ben Cherington preferred Sveum for the position, he had been overruled by the team’s ownership, with the Red Sox ultimately opting for former Mets skipper Bobby Valentine.19 Instead, on November 17, 2011, with a three-year contract in hand, Sveum accepted the job as manager of the rebuilding Chicago Cubs.20

Sveum served in that post for two seasons as the team struggled while beginning to build a roster that would ultimately win the 2016 World Series. Perhaps his Cubs fate was foretold when in the offseason after the 2012 campaign, Sveum was the unwitting victim of a hunting accident. While shooting quail with friend and Milwaukee Brewers legend Robin Yount, Sveum was accidentally hit in the right ear and the back by Yount’s errant shot. While there were reports of blood splattering all around, they were able to laugh it off, relieved that there were no serious injuries.21  Indeed, Sveum would later say that he was surprised by all the attention the incident received, adding that such incidents were not totally uncommon.22  

In fact, the Cubs did improve in 2013, winning five more games than the year before, but it was not enough. His three-year contract notwithstanding, the day after the 2013 season ended, Sveum, who acknowledged his disappointment for the Cubs’ 127-197 record over two seasons, was fired as manager.23 

In the aftermath of the firing, questions were raised about the slow development of prized prospects Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.24 At the same time, Sveum was given credit for the way he connected with his young roster. It was clear that despite the lack of success the players respected him and worked hard under his tutelage.25 Indeed, the Cubs organization, recognizing the important role Sveum played in developing many of the players on the championship team as well as helping build the foundation of that club, awarded him a World Series ring.26

While his time in Chicago ended in disappointment, Sveum said he “loved every minute of managing the Cubs.”27  Despite “being behind the eight ball every night,” he relished the challenge and the opportunity to try to apply everything he had learned in his big-league career.28 In each of the many positions he held, Sveum was constantly drawing upon the lessons he had learned previously. In particular, he saw his time with the Brewers and the lessons he learned from Paul Molitor, and especially his best friend Robin Yount, as being tremendously important to his career. Sveum was a dedicated student of the game, saying that “if you are not learning in baseball every day, you are not paying attention.”29 He said he was always trying to learn and especially as a young player he would often just sit back and “be a sponge,” taking it all in.30 He learned early on that a player “needs to be locked in and focused on every pitch.”31    

The major-league veteran was not without a job for long. Soon after his release by the Cubs, the Kansas City Royals hired him as a coach and infield instructor, a job that reunited him with manager Ned Yost, his former Brewers mentor.32 Sveum was promoted to hitting coach in early 2014 as the Royals advanced from third to second in the American League’s Central Division, snagging a wild-card spot in the postseason lineup.33 To the surprise of the baseball world, the Royals took full advantage of their postseason opportunity, defeating the Oakland A’s, the Anaheim Angels, and the Baltimore Orioles on the way to winning the American League flag and a chance to meet the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. While their loss to the Giants in the seventh game of the Series was disappointing, for Sveum it represented a tremendous contrast with his previous two seasons with the Cubs. It also left him and the Royals primed for another run at the championship. And in 2015, with Sveum as hitting coach, the offense scored over 70 more runs than the year before, powering the Royals to the AL Central Division crown. They then defeated the Houston Astros in the AL Division Series before winning the pennant in six games over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Royals then capped the season with a victory in five games over the New York Mets in the World Series to end the magical run.   

Not unlike the Red Sox in 2004, that experience too was a distinctive and special one for Sveum. The Royals, having come in 2014 as close as a team can come before falling short, were determined to turn things around in 2015 and that is exactly what they did. Sveum called 2015 a “magical season” while also noting that it was a team that was focused and motivated from day one.34 The Royals were a good hitting team, with a strong veteran core, and as hitting coach Sveum sought to capitalize on the talent they had. He emphasized the need to “just keep the line moving.”35 It was a focus based in who they were and what were the factors central to the team. They were not, he recalled, a team that was going to walk a lot and Kauffman Stadium did not lend itself to lots of home runs. but if they put the ball in play, they would – as they did – win games.36

For Sveum as a coach, it was an approach that reflected his belief that it was very important that one “thinks outside the box,” and that a coach “needs to coach the players in the way that brings out the best in them.”37 It was an approach brought home to a young Sveum early in his time with the Brewers when sessions with the baseball veteran and one-time batting champion Harvey Kuenn helped the struggling youngster get on track and stay in the game.38 Indeed, it all came together those many years later when the Royals’ 2015 title validated his “keep the line moving,” situation-based approach. At the same time, in looking back, Sveum also recalled how the Royals, like the Red Sox in 2004, also had that little bit of the luck that Sveum called an inevitable part of almost any victorious venture.39

In 2017 Sveum was promoted to bench coach.40 He remained on the Royals coaching staff through the 2019 season, after which Yost retired. Sveum was seen as a leader among the inside candidates to be Yost’s successor, but in the end the Royals opted for former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. Sveum remained with the organization, serving for two years as a special assistant to the general manager, before retiring after the 2021 season.41  

Sveum and his wife, Darlene, who have two adult children, live in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and a number of additional sources.

Notes

1 “Kansas City Royals Win Series, With a Serious Assist From a Pinole Valley Spartan,” Pinole Valley High School website; https://www.wccusd.net/site/Default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=689&PageID=2428&ViewID=047e6be3-6d87-4130-8424-d8e4e9ed6c2a&FlexDataID=9736; author interview with Dale Sveum, May 21, 2023. 

2 “Kansas City Royals Win Series, With a Serious Assist From a Pinole Valley Spartan.”

3  United Press International, “Baseball Central,” September 4, 1988; https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/09/04/Baseball-Central/2090589348800/.

4 United Press International, “Milwaukee Brewers Shortstop Dale Sveum Will Be Operated On,” November 18, 1988; https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/11/18/Milwaukee-Brewers-shortstop-Dale-Sveum-will-be-operated-on/5234595832400/.

5 Daniel McGinn, “He’s Safe … for Now,” Boston Globe, May 15, 2005.

6 “Brewers Hire Dale Sveum as Third Base Coach,” onMilwaukee, October 19, 2005; https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/sveumreturns.

7 McGinn; Sveum interview.

8 Marc Craig, “Sveum Feeling Heat at Corner,” Boston Globe, August 13, 2004.

9 Craig.

10 Craig.

11 McGinn; Sveum interview.

12 Sveum interview.

13 Sveum interview.

14 Sveum interview.

15 Tim Williams, “Dale Sveum Becomes the 6th Candidate to Interview,” Pirates Prospects, October 13, 2010; https://www.piratesprospects.com/2010/10/dale-sveum-becomes-the-6th-candidate-to-interview.html.

16 Reuters, “Brewers Rule Out Sveum for Permanent Coaching Job,” October 18, 2008; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baseball-brewers/brewers-rule-out-sveum-for-permanent-coaching-job-idUSTRE49H0IT20081018.

17 “Brewers Rule Out Sveum for Permanent Coaching Job.”

18 Colin Fly (Associated Press), “Macha Hired to Manage Brewers,” Peoria (Illinois) Journal-Star, October 30, 2008; https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/2008/10/30/macha-hired-to-manage-brewers/42493735007/; “Brewers Confirm Manager Macha Being Let Go,” Fox News, November 20, 2014; https://www.foxnews.com/sports/brewers-confirm-manager-macha-being-let-go.amp.

19 David Waldstein and Zach Schonbrun, “Valentine Fired by Red Sox After One Trying Season,” New York Times, October 4, 2012.

20 Jeremy Reid, “Dale Sveum: Hitting Coach Offered Golden Ticket with Chicago Cubs Gig,” Bleacher Report, November 17, 2011; https://bleacherreport.com/articles/945096-dale-sveum-third-base-coach-offered-golden-ticket-with-cubs-gig.

21 Ryan Rudnansky, “Dale Sveum: Cubs Manager Accidentally Shot by Brewers Legend Robin Yount,” Bleacher Report, December 5, 2012; https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1434465-dale-sveum-cubs-manager-accidentally-shot-by-brewers-legend-robin-yount.

22 Sveum interview.

23 “Cubs Fire Manager Dale Sveum,” ESPN, September 30, 2013; https://www.espn.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9748610/chicago-cubs-fire-manager-dale-sveum-two-years.

24 “Cubs Fire Manager Dale Sveum.”

25 “Cubs Fire Manager Dale Sveum.”

26 Chris Kuc, “Cubs Gave World Series Ring to White Sox Manager Rick Renteria, Says Jerry Reinsdorf,” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 2017; https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-rick-renteria-cubs-world-series-ring-20170816-story.html.

27 Sveum interview.

28 Sveum interview.

29 Sveum interview.

30 Sveum interview.

31 Sveum interview.

32 “Royals Add Dale Sveum to Coaching Staff,” October 3, 2013; Mlb.com/blogs; https://royals.mlblogs.com/royals-add-dale-sveum-to-coaching-staff-b6a72877eca6.

33 Andy McCullough, “Hitting Coach Sveum Keeps Royals’ Line Moving During KC’s Second Straight World Series,” Kansas City Star, October 29, 2015.

34 Sveum interview.

35 Sveum interview.

36 Sveum interview.

37 Sveum interview.

38 Sveum interview.

39 Sveum interview.

40 Nicholas Sullivan, “Kansas City Royals Announce Dale Sveum to Become Bench Coach,” Fansided, October 2017; https://kingsofkauffman.com/2017/10/18/kansas-city-royals-dale-sveum-bench-coach/.

41 Noah Yingling, “The Top 100 Coaches Most Likely to Become MLB Managers,” Call to the Pen, Fansided.com; https://calltothepen.com/2022/01/31/the-top-100-coaches-most-likely-to-become-mlb-managers/20/; text, Dale Sveum to author, May 21, 2023.