Cy Young managed the first six games for the 1907 Boston Americans; guiding the team to a 3-3 record after manager Chick Stahl’s suicide during spring training.
In 1910, The Cleveland News said, while “The grand old man” could have continued as a player-manager, “he did not feel like combining the two trades.”
Cy Young
The paper asked Young what qualities were needed to manage a team:
“It does not take a brainy man to to run a ball team. You’ll hear a lot of stuff handed out about the inside baseball knowledge that such and such a manager is supposed to possess. But baseball is not such a complicated game that the ordinary manager doesn’t understand pretty nearly all the wrinkles.”
Young said intelligence was overrated:
“You’ve often heard someone suggest the name of a certain ballplayer as one likely to make a clever and successful manager, but the chances are that the man mentioned might prove an utter failure. Some of the brainiest players in the game might make the worst fizzles in attempting to direct the fortunes of a big-league club. It isn’t baseball brains that count in managing. It’s the ability to lead and make the men under you fight.”
He described the perfect manager.
“You take the manager that can keep after his men. I don’t mean the bulldozer, but one who knows just what there is in each man, and who is capable of bringing it all out. Such a man is (Hughie) Jennings, who never lets up, no matter how gloomy the outlook may be.
Cy’s ideal, Hughie Jennings
“A fighting manager with a fighting team will win three times as many games as a brainy outfit with a brainy manager. Give me the fighter every time. That’s how Detroit has won so often. Jennings is the sort of a manager that does things—and wins, too.”
Baseball History Daily 
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