If the Leo Durocher maxim "nice guys finish last" is true, the White Sox and Cubs are in for rough seasons again in 2014.

There's no doubt returning Sox manager Robin Ventura and Cubs newcomer Rick Renteria are extremely nice guys, the kind of personalities who never will need anger management counseling.

But is nice a vice in Chicago, a town that prefers its leaders to have a little bite?

We will find out soon as the baseball season gets underway Monday for the Sox at U.S. Cellular Field and for the Cubs at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Ventura and Renteria have a few common traits and are basically the opposites of the men they replaced.

With no managerial experience whatsoever, Ventura took over for feisty Ozzie Guillen in 2012, watched his team blow a division title in his first year and lost 99 games in his second.

With only minor league managerial experience under his belt, Renteria came on board last fall after the Cubs fired stoic Dale Sveum and failed to get an opportunity to interview Yankees manager Joe Girardi or Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo.

While neither team is expected to contend this year, both managers will be in the spotlight as Sox and Cubs fans wonder if they're the right choices to turn around their floundering ballclubs.

Considering Ventura signed a multiyear extension in January and Renteria received a three-year deal with two option years, it may be a moot point as far as Sox general manager Rick Hahn and Cubs GM Jed Hoyer are concerned.

Ventura and Renteria are not going anywhere, no matter if their teams lose 90-plus games again.

But their importance to the organizations' bottom lines can't be overstated.

Managers are a team's main conduit to the fans, and if Cubs and Sox fans don't like what they're hearing or seeing from their managers, it will be easier for them to tune the teams out and find other things to do this summer.

Perceptions are hard to shake, and Ventura has been battling the same one since he was a Sox player — that he's too laid-back.

Nevertheless, Ventura's bosses and players don't look at his low-key demeanor as a negative.

"I don't think it ever crosses his mind to change the way he is to appease (fans)," first baseman Paul Konerko said. "He knows who he is. It has taken him all through his playing career and to a managing job without ever having managed. Why the hell would you change?"

But not everyone is convinced Ventura has enough fight in him. During a question-and-answer session at SoxFest in January, a fan asked Ventura whether he has a "pulse."

Though he kept calm during the session, Hahn was livid. During a recent interview at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz., Hahn said the questioner was disrespectful, reiterating he has no problem with the way Ventura deals with his players' mistakes.

"We prefer to handle these things internally," Hahn said. "I get it — you're (ticked) off, we're (ticked) off and you want to see someone with the proximity, the ability to handle the problem, address it openly and furiously. But that's not an effective way to lead people for more than seven-plus months. Robin's way, and the way we prefer it handled, we believe is much more effective."

Would it be better for Ventura to show some emotion once in a while, to get as heated as the team's broadcaster, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, does when things go wrong?

"That's not who he is," Hahn said. "Let's put it this way: One of Robin's great strengths, that I understand doesn't get appreciated publicly, is his ability to relate to, handle and motivate players. That doesn't happen by him throwing tantrums in the dugout. It happens in honest, direct, closed-door meetings — some of which can get more heated than people imagine — when necessary.

"The players respect that more. It's more effective. It allows us to be more powerful and effective as a group. ... The passion is there. It's just, 'How do you use that passion to execute that plan?' And berating guys in public isn't how we want to have that done."

Old-school managers are disappearing slowly from dugouts, with Jim Leyland's exit from the Tigers seen as the latest example. And new-age GMs no longer seek explosive personalities to run their ballclubs, preferring controversy-free choices such as Ventura, Renteria, the Cardinals' Mike Matheny and others with no previous major league managerial experience.

Konerko questioned the way the term "old school" is thrown around these days and believes Ventura is as tough on his players as anyone.

"What does 'old-school mode' mean?" he said. "To me it means you don't do anything in front of the public, and you handle it behind closed doors. And that's exactly what Robin does.

"Nowadays it's a little more sensationalized, and managers may do something specifically to be on the front page. But that's the opposite of old school to me. What old school is, to me, is not showing your hand to anybody except the people you want to, and that's what Robin is. ... Just ask guys he's played with. Robin fought people, got into actual fistfights.

"To people in this clubhouse, he's the total opposite of (laid-back). When he walks in the room and speaks, he's respected, and that's all that matters. What people see from the outside is irrelevant. It may be more enjoyable to watch another (type of manager). But he has his priorities in mind and knows what's important."

While Ventura has been around Chicago, Renteria is coming in cold.