Bucky Harris
Bucky Harris | ||
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Runs batted in | 508 | |
Managerial record | 2,158–2,219 | |
Winning % | .493 | |
Teams | ||
As player
As manager
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Career highlights and awards | ||
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Member of the National | ||
Baseball Hall of Fame | ||
Induction | 1975 | |
Election method | Veterans Committee |
Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris (November 8, 1896 – November 8, 1977) was an American
Hired by the Senators to act as player-manager at the age of 27, Harris would lead the team to the 1924 World Series title, becoming the youngest manager to win a championship and the first rookie manager to do so (four other rookies have accomplished the feat since).[3] Harris managed 29 seasons, fourth most in MLB history. In his tenure as manager for five teams (with three terms for Washington and two for Detroit), Harris won over 2,150 games, three league pennants and two World Series championships (1924 with the Senators and 1947 with the New York Yankees); the gap between Harris's World Series appearances (22 years) and championships (23) are the longest in major league history.[4][5]
Early life
Of
Playing and player-manager career
Harris was listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 156 pounds (71 kg); he threw and batted right-handed. In 1916, when Harris was 19, Pittston native
He then was recommended to the
Harris spent most of his playing career as a second baseman with the Senators (1919–1928). In 1924, he was named player-manager; at the age of 27 he was the youngest manager in the Majors.[7] He proceeded to lead the Senators to their only World Series title in Washington in his rookie season, and was nicknamed "The Boy Wonder."[8] He won a second consecutive American League pennant in 1925, but the Senators lost the 1925 World Series in Pittsburgh in the late innings of Game 7 after leading 3–1 in the Series.[9] Baseball historian William C. Kashatus wrote of his dominant play in the 1924 World Series:[10] "Not only did he set records for chances accepted, double plays and put-outs in the exciting seven-game affair, but he batted .333 and hit two home runs"[10] — including an important roundtripper in Game 7 which opened the scoring and gave Washington a 1–0 lead in the 4th inning. These feats are even more impressive considering that the light-hitting Harris only hit nine home runs during his entire career.
Managing career after 1925
Harris’ initial departure from the Senators in 1928 (he would twice return to manage them again from 1935–1942 and 1950–1954) came in a trade to the Tigers as player-manager.
In addition to Harris‘ three separate terms as field leader of the Senators, he also managed the Tigers twice (1929–1933, 1955–1956), Boston Red Sox (1934), Philadelphia Phillies (1943) and New York Yankees (1947–1948).
Senators, Tigers, Red Sox and Phillies (1926–1943)
After Harris‘ back-to-back pennants in 1924–1925, he was able to keep the Senators in the first division for the next three seasons, but their win totals declined, from 96 (1925) to 81 (1926), then 85 (1927). When, in 1928, they won only 75 games (against 79 losses), Griffith traded Harris to Detroit and changed managers, with Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson named as his successor. The 1928 Tigers had won only 68 games, and Harris' 1929 edition offered only a slight improvement, winning 70. In five full seasons as the Tigers' manager, he produced only one winning year, 1932, when Detroit went 76–75 and finished fifth and 29+1⁄2 games behind the Yankees. In the waning days of 1933, Harris stepped down. His eventual successor, Mickey Cochrane, a future Hall-of-Fame catcher who was acquired from the Philadelphia Athletics, would lead the Tigers as a player-manager to back-to-back pennants in 1934–1935 (and their first-ever world championship in the latter year).
Harris signed as manager of the Red Sox for 1934. Boston was then a habitual tail-ender in the American League, and had registered 15 consecutive losing seasons since its 1918 world championship. The 1933 Red Sox had won only 63 games and finished seventh in the eight-team AL under Marty McManus, but their wealthy new owner, Tom Yawkey, had begun a major rebuilding of both the ball club and Fenway Park. Yawkey jettisoned McManus and personally selected Harris as his new manager, and his 1934 Red Sox, despite an injury-riddled season by newly purchased ace left-handed pitcher Lefty Grove, broke the losing-season streak, finishing at .500 (76–76). But Harris's stay in the Boston dugout lasted only one season. He and Eddie Collins, the Red Sox' general manager, had feuded since their playing days[11] and Yawkey may have hired Harris without consulting Collins. When Joe Cronin, the hard-hitting, 28-year-old playing manager of the Senators, became available on the trade market, Yawkey and Collins moved quickly, sending shortstop Lyn Lary and $225,000 to Washington on October 26, 1934,[12] for Cronin, and then naming him manager for 1935. Harris then took Cronin's old job, returning to Clark Griffith and the Senators.
Harris' second term in Washington lasted for eight seasons (1935–1942), his longest tenure as a skipper. However, he never approached the highs of 1924 or 1925. Only one of his teams, the 1936 Senators, had a winning record (82–71) and first-division finish. Harris kept the club out of the American League basement, but three consecutive seventh-place finishes from 1940–1942 led to his departure and his only season in the National League as skipper of the 1943 Phillies.
Perhaps the worst team (42–109, .278) in baseball in 1942, the Phillies had just been sold to lumberman William D. Cox. Under Harris, the 1943 edition improved to play .424 baseball (39–53) by July 27, with just three fewer victories than they had in all of 1942. However, Harris chafed at Cox' constant interference. When Harris protested, Cox abruptly fired him after only 92 games.
Harris then played a role in Cox' banishment from professional baseball for betting on games. On the day after his firing, Harris dropped a bombshell at his hotel room — he had evidence that Cox was betting on baseball.[13] Harris's friends, outraged at his firing, informed Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis that Cox was violating baseball's anti-gambling mandate.[14] Landis then summoned Harris to his office to testify in person about Cox' behavior. The owner was suspended indefinitely three months later and banned from baseball outright soon afterward. The Phillies were sold to R. R. M. Carpenter in November 1943.
Yankees (1947–1948)
Harris then spent three seasons out of the big leagues, serving as general manager (1944–1946) and field manager (1944–1945) of the Buffalo Bisons, his old team in the International League. In August 1946, the Yankees' co-owner and GM, Larry MacPhail, appointed Harris to a front-office position.
The tumultuous
Behind
MacPhail sold his stake in the Yankees and left baseball immediately after the 1947 Series and Harris returned for a second season as manager. His
Final terms with Senators and Tigers (1950–1956)
Harris returned to the minor leagues in 1949 as manager of the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League, before launching his third stint as skipper of the Senators, coming off a 104-loss 1949 season. His first campaign, 1950, saw a 17-game improvement for Washington, then he led the Senators to a winning (78–76) mark in 1952, but the team could not escape the second division in Harris's five-year, final term as Washington's manager.
Nevertheless, the Tigers chose Harris to replace
Managerial record
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
WSH | 1924 | 154 | 92 | 62 | .597 | 1st in AL | 4 | 3 | .571 | Won World Series (NYG) |
WSH | 1925 | 151 | 96 | 55 | .636 | 1st in AL | 3 | 4 | .429 | Lost World Series (PIT) |
WSH | 1926 | 150 | 81 | 69 | .540 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1927 | 154 | 85 | 69 | .552 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1928 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1929 | 154 | 70 | 84 | .455 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1930 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1931 | 154 | 61 | 93 | .396 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1932 | 151 | 76 | 75 | .503 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1933 | 152 | 73 | 79 | .480 | resigned | – | – | – | – |
BOS | 1934 | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
BOS total | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
WSH | 1935 | 153 | 67 | 86 | .438 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1936 | 153 | 82 | 71 | .536 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1937 | 153 | 73 | 80 | .477 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1938 | 151 | 75 | 76 | .497 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1939 | 152 | 65 | 87 | .428 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1940 | 154 | 64 | 90 | .416 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1941 | 154 | 70 | 84 | .455 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1942 | 151 | 62 | 89 | .411 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
PHI | 1943 | 92 | 39 | 53 | .424 | fired | – | – | – | – |
PHI total | 92 | 39 | 53 | .424 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
NYY | 1947 | 154 | 97 | 57 | .630 | 1st in AL | 4 | 3 | .571 | Won World Series (BKN) |
NYY | 1948 | 154 | 94 | 60 | .610 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
NYY total | 308 | 191 | 117 | .620 | 4 | 3 | .571 | |||
WSH | 1950 | 154 | 67 | 87 | .435 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1951 | 154 | 62 | 92 | .403 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1952 | 154 | 78 | 76 | .506 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1953 | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH | 1954 | 154 | 66 | 88 | .429 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
WSH total | 2752 | 1336 | 1416 | .500 | 7 | 7 | .500 | |||
DET | 1955 | 154 | 79 | 75 | .513 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET | 1956 | 154 | 82 | 72 | .532 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
DET total | 1073 | 516 | 557 | .481 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
Total[19] | 4377 | 2158 | 2219 | – | 11 | 10 | .524 |
Front office career
In 1957, at 60, Harris rejoined the Red Sox in a front office capacity. He was assistant general manager to Joe Cronin for two seasons, and then, when Cronin was named president of the American League, succeeded him as GM in January 1959, 24 years after Cronin had displaced Harris as Boston's field manager. Harris served for two losing seasons as general manager of the Red Sox before his firing in late September 1960. On his watch, the Red Sox finally broke the baseball color line by promoting Pumpsie Green from Triple-A on July 21, 1959, more than a dozen years after Robinson's debut with the Dodgers. They were the last of the 16 pre-expansion teams to integrate.[20]
But the Red Sox went 75–79 in
Harris made a flurry of minor trades in an attempt to shake up his faltering team. His two highest-profile transactions, which occurred during the 1959–1960 offseason, saw him send
Harris ended his long MLB career as a
Personal life
Harris's father-in-law during his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1951, was
See also
- 1924 World Series
- 1925 World Series
- 1947 World Series
- List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
- List of Major League Baseball managers by wins
References
- ^ "Bucky Harris Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7864-1176-4
- ^ "Rookie managers who won the World Series". MLB.com.
- ^ "Longest gaps between manager stints". MLB.com.
- ^ "He's back! 7 incredible facts on Dusty in WS". MLB.com.
- ^ a b Kritzer, Cy, "The Boy Who Bucked the Current", 1947 Baseball Guide and Record Book, St. Louis, Missouri: The Sporting News, 1947, pp. 116-123
- ^ a b c Kashatus, op. cit., p. 74
- ^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum official site
- ^ Kashatus, op. cit., pp. 74–76
- ^ a b Kashatus, op. cit., p. 75
- ISBN 978-0-7864-3287-5
- ^ "Joe Cronin Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ISBN 0395361451.
- ^ article, The New York Times, March 30, 1989
- ^ Wolf, Gregory H. "Ned Garver". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- The Associated Press, June 28, 1956
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4160-0
- ^ "MLB Managers". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ^ "Bucky Harris Managerial Record". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ a b Smiles, op. cit., pp. 262-268
- ^ Holbrook, Bob, "Sox, Lane Wrangle on White." The Boston Globe, March 20, 1960
- ^ The Washington Post, November 30, 1978
Further reading
- Kashatus, William C. (2002). Diamonds in the Coalfields: 21 Remarkable Baseball Players, Managers, and Umpires from Northeast Pennsylvania. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-1176-4.
External links
- Bucky Harris at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Bucky Harris managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Bucky Harris Biography at Baseball Biography
- Bucky Harris Archived 2019-11-23 at the Wayback Machine at The Deadball Era
- Bucky Harris at Find a Grave
- The Autograph Expert: Signature analysis and signing habits of Bucky Harris, at PSA Card