Results tagged ‘ Joe McCarthy ’
This Day In MLB History…
January 27, 1944: Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, and Joe Maney gain control of the Braves and relieve manager Casey Stengel of his duties.
Man, talk about a monumental mistake. However, at the time that Casey Stengel was fired by the Braves, he was nothing more than a so-so manager. In his first nine seasons as a skipper, he won 581 games with the Dodgers and Braves organization, but never placed higher than fifth, obviously not leading to any post-season baseball. Once he was let go by the Braves, he didn’t lead a team for another six years- until the Yankees gave him a chance in 1949.
The Bronx Bombers did have some successful seasons after Joe McCarthy made his exit in 1946, but in that three year span, they had three different men manage the team. They needed someone to be a stabilizing factor, someone who could bring sustained success to an already prestigious organization.
Introducing: The MLB Hall Of Fame Class Of 1957.
As we look at this week’s installment of honoring some of the greatest players to ever put on a Major League uniform, the class of 1957 includes only one player, Sam Crawford, but also includes one of the most well-known managers of all time, Joe McCarthy.
Sam Crawford: Right Fielder, Detroit Tigers
.309 average, 1392 runs scored, 2964 hits, 97 home runs, 1525 RBI, 367 stolen bases
Now, if you have a good memory, I recently wrote about Sam Crawford and his “unbreakable” triples record. So, for some of you readers, this overview of Wahoo Sam’s career may just be a review. Just how good was Sam Crawford during his 19-year MLB career? Well, there are some more interesting bits that I didn’t include in my previous post (saving them for this one of course). Crawford is regarded as one of the best hitters during the dead ball era; he set a record for most inside-the-park home runs in a season (12), has the second most inside-the-park home runs for a career (51), and he was the first player in MLB history to lead both leagues in home runs in different years (1901 and 1908).
In addition to all of that, Crawford was among the league leaders for 11 straight years in hits, RBI, extra base hits, slugging percentage, and total bases. Using the “Gray Ink Test” to evaluate hitters, Crawford is ranked the ninth best hitter of all time, beating out well-known players like Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. These statistics have sold me; the next time I have a conversation with someone about who the best hitter of all time is, I’m going to bring Crawford into the debate.
Joe McCarthy: Manager, New York Yankees
2,126 wins, 1,335 losses, 3490 games managed
No manager in Yankee history has more wins than Joe McCarthy. That alone should explain why he is enshrined in Cooperstown. There were great Yankee teams before McCarthy took over in the Bronx, but they didn’t become the Yankees until he ran the show. The skipper managed three different teams in his career (Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox) and became the first manager to win a pennant in both leagues. Also, his regular season winning percentage (.615) and postseason winning percentage (.698) each rank first all time. He won seven World Series championships with the Yankees, did so in an 11-season period, while winning four in a row. The only other manager to win as many titles as McCarthy would be the man that managed New York after him, Casey Stengel. It’s easy to see that with McCarthy, the Yankees wouldn’t have been the same.
Next week, we will skip the class of 1958 since no ballplayers met the criteria to be voted into Cooperstown, and go straight to the class of 1959.
