Phillip Wrigley considered Jolly Cholly Grimm a good luck charm. Wrigley named him manager of the Cubs the first year he ran the team (1932), replacing Rogers Hornsby, whom the players despised. The upbeat light-hearted Grimm was exactly what that team needed--and he propelled the Cubs to the National League pennant.

In 1945, the Cubs were coming off a few down years. Wrigley got the brilliant idea of getting his old manager--his good luck charm--to return to do the job again. Sure enough, Grimm propelled the Cubs to the pennant for the second time (and the last time in the team's history).

Charley Grimm retired to the front office a few years later. The view from there was not pretty. The 1950s was the worst decade in Cubs history. That's why Grimm probably wasn't too surprised when he was called into Wrigley's office before the 1960 season and asked to run the team one more time.

The 62-year-old Grimm was always a team player, and this was no exception. He agreed to give it another try, but it didn't take too long for Charley to realize that the game was passing him by. After only 17 games, he told the owner that he wasn't interested in doing it anymore.

Without a natural replacement on staff, Wrigley asked who would he should name to the position. Grimm pointed out that radio announcer Lou Boudreau had won a World Series for the Indians. "Why don't you give it to him?"

"But then we would need a radio announcer," Wrigley replied.

"I'll do it," Charley offered.

And he did. Just like that, the Cubs announced one of the most unusual trades in history. They traded their manager for their radio announcer.

They both did admirable jobs in their new roles, but after the season was over, Boudreau wanted a two-year contract to stay in the job. Wrigley refused give any manager a two-year contract, so Boudreau did exactly what his predecessor Charley Grimm had done.

He asked for the radio job back...and he got it.

Grimm retreated to his comfortable semi-retirement in the front office, and Phillip Wrigley had to name a new manager once again.

After all the changes, he was exasperated, so instead of naming a new manager, he jumped into an experiment. Wrigley decided the Cubs shouldn't even have a manager. He announced that beginning with the 1962 season, the team would be coached by "The College of Coaches."

It was Wrigley's worst idea in a lifetime of bad ideas, an idea so bad, it warrants it's own Tale. We'll explore it in depth in a future edition of "Tales from a Bad Century."