The manager of the Royals in 1975 was John Sullivan, who like most other managers in the minors had limited experience with the club. Minor league managers generally find it difficult to keep continuity with their clubs since day-to-day they are uncertain who will be on their rosters. One week Sullivan may have had to deal with a million-dollar superstar who was sent down to Waterloo to rehabilitate an injury, the next week the manager would have to make do with an outfield full of rookies who the front office wanted to develop before calling them up to more competitive leagues.
Sullivan was no exception to the rule of managing the Royals. His players quite often made mistakes that had to be answered for in the papers, and Sullivan was talented at blaming the mistakes on the lack of chemistry between his players on the team. Sullivan was quoted as saying, “It's just a case of having a new man in the lineup. He hadn’t worked with us much on this play and he got mixed up on assignments,”8 or in describing player errors, “It's one of those situations that come up between a couple of guys who have played together only a few days.” Sullivan, however, did not have many occasions to stand up for his players since they were one of the winningest teams in the minors.
Although Sullivan's image was that of the typical field boss, the second year manager was not above having a little fun with his players. Caught up in the excitement of the team's success, Sullivan proclaimed that he was going to shave his head if the team was to win ten games in a row in May. Having a thick head of hair, Sullivan was not relieved to find that his team was up to the challenge and beat a former Royal pitcher Mike Howard of the Quad Cities Angels on May 13 to force out the Clippers (Waterloo Courier, May 14, 1975). Sullivan, despite his mane being shaved, became one of the best managers of his generation in the minors and captained the Royals to the pennant.
