George Strickland (baseball)
George Strickland | ||
---|---|---|
Runs batted in | 284 | |
Managerial record | 48–63 | |
Winning % | .432 | |
Teams | ||
As player
As manager
|
George Bevan "Bo" Strickland (January 10, 1926 – February 21, 2010) was an American
Playing career
Prior to the majors
Strickland was born in
Strickland's baseball career was interrupted when he was drafted into the United States Navy in March 1944. He was stationed as a Specialist Mailman for 16 months in Saipan after American forces had captured the island from the Imperial Japanese Army in July of the same year. He was given his honorable discharge in May 1946.[3]
He returned to the Pelicans, which had become a
Pittsburgh Pirates
Strickland was selected by Pittsburgh in the Rule 5 draft on November 17, 1949.[2] He made his Major League debut on May 7, 1950, in a 3–2 loss to the Dodgers at Forbes Field.[7] During his three years with the team, the Pirates were relegated to the bottom two positions in the National League standings.[8] His only season as its starting shortstop was 1951 when he batted .216 in 138 contests and committed a major-league-high 37 errors.[9][10] He was traded with Ted Wilks to the Indians for John Beradino, Charlie Ripple and $50,000 on August 18, 1952.[2]
Cleveland Indians
Upon his arrival in Cleveland, Strickland supplanted Ray Boone to become the starting shortstop through 1955.[11] Strickland's first full season with the team in 1953 was also his best at the plate as he hit .284 in 123 matches.[2] His .976 fielding percentage in 1955 led all regular shortstops in the majors during that campaign.[10] In his eight years with the ballclub, the Indians finished no lower than second place in the American League (AL) five times.[12]
He was a key member of the
Cleveland's acquisition of
Managerial/coaching career
Strickland worked as a scout for the Indians in 1961.[3] He spent the following year on Sam Mele's coaching staff with a Minnesota Twins team that finished in second place, five games behind the eventual World Series Champion Yankees.[19] He returned to Cleveland to serve as third-base coach under three managers (Birdie Tebbetts, Joe Adcock and Alvin Dark) from 1963 to 1969.[1][12]
He became the Indians' interim manager at the beginning of the 1964 campaign when Tebbetts suffered a heart attack near the end of spring training on April 1.[20] Strickland's managerial debut was a 7–6 loss at home to the Twins in the season opener on April 14. The ballclub made it to the top of the AL standings by the end of the month and would spend thirteen days in that position, the latest being on May 16. His stint ended with the team on a six-game losing streak, culminating in a 9–1 defeat on the road to the Detroit Tigers on July 2. The Indians were in eighth place with a 33–39 record and thirteen games behind the league-leading Baltimore Orioles by the time Tebbetts returned to the club the next day.[21]
Strickland was called upon to lead the ballclub on an interim basis again after Tebbetts was dismissed on August 19, 1966, with the 66–57 team in third place and trailing the
When Strickland joined the Kansas City Royals coaching staff in 1970,[24] he was reunited with former Indians teammate Bob Lemon, who would be promoted to manager in early June.[25] The most successful of the three years he spent in Kansas City was 1971 when the Royals vaulted into second place in the AL Western Division with an 85–76 record in only the franchise's third season of existence.[26] Strickland retired from baseball in 1972 after a fourth-place finish with a 76–78 mark cost Lemon his job.[3]
Managerial Record
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
CLE | 1964 | 72 | 33 | 39 | .458 | Interim | – | – | – | |
CLE | 1966 | 39 | 15 | 24 | .385 | Interim | – | – | – | |
Total[27] | 111 | 48 | 63 | .432 | 0 | 0 | – |
Life after baseball
Strickland was once the parimutuels manager at Fair Grounds Race Course.[28] He was interested in psychology and philosophy; John recalled him reading books by Thomas Aquinas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre.[23] He was inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.[1] He died at age 84 in New Orleans on February 21, 2010.[29]
References
- ^ a b c d Hogan, Nakia. "Local player Strickland dies", The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), Tuesday, February 23, 2010. Archived August 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f George Strickland (statistics & history) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ a b c d e f "George Strickland (biography) – Gary Bodingfield's Baseball in Wartime". Archived from the original on 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
- ^ a b Finney, Peter. "George Strickland remains part of baseball's historic era", The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Wednesday, February 24, 2010.
- ^ American Legion Baseball National, Sectional & Regional Champions. Archived 2010-02-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b George Strickland (minor league statistics & history) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ Major League Baseball events of Sunday, May 7, 1950 – Retrosheet.
- ^ Pittsburgh Pirates (team history & encyclopedia) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ 1951 Pittsburgh Pirates (batting, pitching & fielding statistics) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ a b The Baseball Encyclopedia. 4th ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979.
- ^ 1952 Cleveland Indians (batting, pitching & fielding statistics) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ a b Cleveland Indians (team history & encyclopedia) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ 2001 Seattle Mariners (batting, pitching & fielding statistics) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ George Strickland (postseason batting gamelogs) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ New York Giants 6, Cleveland Indians 2; World Series Game 3; Friday, October 1, 1954 (D) at Cleveland Stadium – Retrosheet.
- ^ New York Giants 7, Cleveland Indians 4; World Series Game 4; Saturday, October 2, 1954 (D) at Cleveland Stadium – Retrosheet.
- ^ Chico Carrasquel (statistics & history) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ Cleveland Indians 4, Boston Red Sox 2; Saturday, July 23, 1960 (D) at Fenway Park – Retrosheet.
- ^ The 1962 Minnesota Twins – Retrosheet.
- ^ a b Simon, Tom. "Birdie Tebbetts", The Baseball Biography Project (The Society for American Baseball Research).
- ^ 1964 Cleveland Indians (schedule, box scores & splits) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ 1966 Cleveland Indians (schedule, box scores & splits) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ ISBN 0-553-07184-X.
- ^ The 1970 Kansas City Royals – Retrosheet.
- ^ 1970 Kansas City Royals (schedule, box scores & splits) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ Kansas City Royals (team history & encyclopedia) – Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ "George Strickland Managerial Record". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ George Bevan "Bo" Strickland (death notice) – The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana).
- ^ "George Strickland, Top Defensive Shortstop, Is Dead at 84", The Associated Press, Tuesday, February 23, 2010.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- Neyer, Rob. "Remembering Indians SS George Strickland", SweetSpot (ESPN.com baseball blog), Thursday, February 25, 2010.