Tommy Holmes
Tommy Holmes | ||
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Runs batted in | 581 | |
Managerial record | 61–69 | |
Winning % | .469 | |
Teams | ||
As player
As manager
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Career highlights and awards | ||
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Thomas Francis Holmes (March 29, 1917 – April 14, 2008) was an American
Career
Holmes was born in
Holmes, who batted and threw left-handed, signed his first professional contract with the
In 1944, Holmes was deemed ineligible for service in World War II due to an untreatable sinus condition.[2]
Holmes, one of the most popular Boston Braves especially in the twilight of his career, finished second in MVP voting in the National League in 1945 after leading the NL in hits (224), home runs (28) and doubles (47). That season, he set a modern NL record by hitting safely in 37 consecutive games from June 6 through July 8 (Bill Dahlen and Willie Keeler had longer streaks in the 1890s), a mark surpassed 33 years later in 1978 by Pete Rose with a 44-game streak that tied Keeler's and came the closest to Joe DiMaggio's MLB record 56 in 1941. Holmes struck out just 9 times in 1945, and his ratio of home runs (28) to strikeouts that season is one of the best in baseball history.
In 1948, his .325 batting average in 139 games as the Braves' leadoff hitter help lead Boston to the NL pennant (together with slugging MVP third baseman Bob Elliott and the oft-parodied starting rotation of Spahn, Sain and pray for rain).
After the
Holmes finished the regular 1952 season pinch-hitting for the Brooklyn Dodgers and playing left field in the final inning of game 7 in the World Series against the New York Yankees, after which he managed in the Braves' and Dodgers' farm systems from 1953 to 1957. He retired with a .302 lifetime batting average with 88 home runs and 581 RBIs in his 1,320-game, eleven-year major league career. He posted a fine .989 fielding percentage in the majors, executing more double plays (37) than errors (33).
In 1973, he returned to the game as director of amateur baseball relations for the New York Mets, a post he held for three decades until retiring at 86.[3]
Holmes died in 2008 at the age of 91 in Boca Raton, Florida.[3]
See also
- List of Major League Baseball player–managers
References
- ISBN 9780803272682. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ISBN 9781933599908. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ a b Goldstein, Richard (15 April 2008). "Tommy Holmes, 91, Who Set N.L. Hitting Mark, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- Tommy Holmes at Find a Grave