A left fielder and pinch hitter who appeared in 396 games in Major League Baseball between 1955 and 1962, he was known for his unwavering confidence and infectious optimism.

In 1970 he led the AAA Hawaii Islanders to 98 wins in 146 games and a berth in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship series.

Due to the Islanders qualifying for the PCL championship series,[5] he was unable to make his White Sox managerial debut until September 15, requiring Bill Adair to serve in the interim.

[6] Tanner did not retain Adair for his staff after the season, but he named Al Monchak and Joe Lonnett as his first- and third-base coaches respectively on October 2, 1970.

[7] All three went on to serve in similar capacities together with the White Sox (1971–75), Oakland Athletics (1976) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1977–84), with Monchak continuing as Tanner's first-base coach with the Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 1988.

His most successful season with the Sox came in 1972, when he managed them to a close second-place finish behind the eventual World Series champion Oakland Athletics in the American League (AL) Western Division.

[10] With speedy players such as Bert Campaneris, Bill North, Claudell Washington, and Don Baylor, Tanner made the A's into a running team, stealing an AL league-record 341 bases.

[2] Eight players had 20 or more steals, including 51 by pinch runners Matt Alexander (who only came to the plate 30 times) and Larry Lintz (who had one at-bat all season).

[1] However, the days of the juggernaut A's of Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter had passed with the coming of free agency and Tanner's switch to small-ball couldn't prop up a crumbling dynasty as the team finished second in the AL West, 2+1⁄2 games behind the Kansas City Royals.

[4] A's owner Charlie Finley had hoped to secure a manager at a cut rate for at least three years, but ended up in a dispute with Veeck and the American League (AL) over how much each team owed Tanner.

AL president Lee MacPhail ruled that the White Sox had to pay most of the $60,000 owed to Tanner for the 1976 season but was released from any contractual obligation for 1977 and 1978.

The most famous Pirate affected by his usage was Parker, whose cocaine habit punched a hole in his offensive production in the middle of his career.

Following five mediocre seasons in which the Pirates neither lost nor won no more than 84 games, but only finished as high as second place in the division once, they collapsed to 104 losses in 1985, and Tanner was fired.

[4] After spending five seasons as a special assistant to the general manager of the Cleveland Indians, Tanner was named a senior advisor to new Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington in the autumn of 2007.