Joe Klein (baseball executive)

Joe Klein
Joe Klein
Born	Joseph Anthony Klein III; August 22, 1942; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Baseball executive

Joseph Anthony Klein III

farm director, scouting director, and general manager in Major League Baseball

from 1976 through 1995.

Minor league first baseman and manager

Born in

at bats.^[1] After retiring from the field, he spent 16 years as a minor league manager and front office executive with the franchise, beginning in 1969 when it was still the expansion edition of the Senators, and continuing after it became the Texas Rangers in 1972

.

He managed farm clubs in the Class A

Gulf Coast League

between 1969 and 1978. In 1976, Klein also added the title of assistant farm system director of the Rangers, and was promoted to head of the club's farm system and then director, player procurement and development, between 1978 and 1982.

General manager of Rangers, Indians and Tigers

In October

AL West in 1983, but the team regressed to only 69 wins in 1984

and Klein was fired.

He then joined the Kansas City Royals as assistant general manager for 1985, working with John Schuerholz during the Royals' first world championship season.

In

AL East, but, buoyed by the slugging of Joe Carter and Cory Snyder, Cleveland won 84 games in 1986—a 24-game improvement—and compiled its first winning campaign since strike-shortened 1981. The Indians were seen as a dark-horse contender for the AL East title in 1987 (making the cover of the spring training edition of Sports Illustrated

), but instead they collapsed completely, losing 101 games and falling into the division basement. The front office was overhauled, and Klein was demoted. He eventually rejoined the Royals, this time as vice president of player personnel, in 1990–91.

In 1992, he moved on to the Detroit Tigers, who were in a period of transition with former University of Michigan football head coach Bo Schembechler serving as the team president. Klein was hired as the Tigers' scouting director, but moved into the general manager position at the end of the 1993 season. He ran the Detroit front office for two losing seasons, 1994 and 1995, which were also the last two clubs of the Sparky Anderson era, until another front office housecleaning cost him his job.^[2]

Atlantic League executive

In his later life, Klein was an important figure in

Atlantic League, Klein was in charge of day-to-day baseball operations for the organization. In August 2007, he returned to the public eye when he was called upon to discipline former MLB infielder José Offerman after a bat-swinging episode in Bridgeport, Connecticut

.

Klein was associated with the Atlantic League from its founding until his death on August 23, 2017, at

Philadelphia from complications from quadruple bypass surgery, only one day after his 75th birthday.^[3]

References

^

Baseball Reference

^ "MLB Teams, Prospects, Video, News".
^ Baseball America Obituary

External links

Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference (Minors)
Joe Klein in the Baseball America Executive Database

Preceded by Eddie Robinson	General Manager 1982–1984	Succeeded by Tom Grieve
Preceded by Phil Seghi	General Manager 1986–1987	Succeeded by Hank Peters
Preceded by Jerry Walker	General Manager 1993–1995	Succeeded by Randy Smith

[beef-1] 
Baseball Reference

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Texas Rangers general managers
Washington Senators (1961–1971)	Doherty Selkirk Short
Texas Rangers (1972–present)	Short Burke O'Brien Robinson Klein Grieve Melvin Hart Daniels Young