| Billy Southworth | |
|---|---|
 Southworth in 1941 | |
| Right fielder /Manager | |
| Born:(1893-03-09)March 9, 1893 Harvard, Nebraska, U.S. | |
| Died: November 15, 1969(1969-11-15) (aged 76) Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 4, 1913, for the Cleveland Indians | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| July 9, 1929, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .297 |
| Home runs | 52 |
| Runs batted in | 561 |
| Managerial record | 1,044–704 |
| Winning % | .597 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
As player
As manager | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 2008 |
| Vote | 81.3% |
| Election method | Veterans Committee |
William Harold Southworth (March 9, 1893 – November 15, 1969) was an Americanoutfielder andmanager inMajor League Baseball (MLB). As a player in1913 and1915 and from1918 to1929 for five big-league teams, Southworth took part in almost 1,200games, fell just short of 1,300hits andbatted .297 lifetime. Southworth managed in1929 and from1940 through1951. He oversaw threepennant-winningSt. Louis Cardinals teams, winning twoWorld Series, and anotherpennant with theBoston Braves, the lastNational League title inBoston baseball history. Asmanager of the Cardinals, his .642winning percentage is the second-highest in franchise history and the highest since 1900.
Late in life, Southworth served as a scout for the Braves. He endured a great deal of tragedy in his baseball career, first experiencing the stillbirth of his twin babies and the deaths of his wife and his adult son. He died in 1969. He was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame in2008. Six years later, the Cardinals inducted him into theSt. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum. He also belongs to theAlabama Sports Hall of Fame. Southworth had a son,Billy Southworth Jr., and a cousin,Bill Southworth, who both played professional baseball.
Southworth was born inHarvard, Nebraska, to Orlando and Mariah Southworth and raised inColumbus, Ohio. He had four older brothers who played baseball. Before he was old enough to play with them, Southworth would give his old socks to his brothers so they could create makeshift balls.[1] Southworth decided to play baseball against his father's wishes.[2] Orlando Southworth had wanted his son to attend college.[3] At the age of 19, he signed a contract with thePortsmouth Cobblers team in theOhio State League. He joined theCleveland Indians in 1913, but only appeared in one game, entering as a replacement on defense.[4]
In 1914, Southworth married Lida Brooks. She was a minister's daughter and they had met while Southworth was playing for Portsmouth. The couple's son,William Brooks Southworth, was born during Southworth's early playing career.[5] Billy Southworth Jr. later became a professional baseball player for several seasons.[6] The elder Southworth returned to the Cleveland Indians in 1915 and appeared in 60 games.[4] He played for theBirmingham Barons in 1917 and part of 1918,[7] when he made thePittsburgh Pirates and played in 64 major league games.[4]
Southworth played more regularly in 1919, appearing in 121 games and leading the league with 14triples. With the exception of two seasons, Southworth played in at least that many games through 1926. In 1926, Southworth's offensive production increased and he finished the season with a .320batting average, 16home runs and 99 RBI.[4] He ran into difficulty with New York managerJohn McGraw that year, as Southworth's independent style became incompatible with McGraw's strict leadership. He was traded from theNew York Giants to theSt. Louis Cardinals in the middle of the season.[8] Southworth suffered a 1927 rib injury that limited his playing time. The Cardinals' leadership began to look for a role for Southworth beyond his playing career.
Southworth's managerial career began in 1928 with theRochester Red Wings of the AAInternational League (IL), the top club in the Cardinals'farm system. In May, Southworth and his wife experienced the stillbirths of twins. Southworth returned home after losing the twins, but he quickly came back to Rochester. Late in the season, Southworth received word that Billy Jr. had been accidentally shot by a neighbor in Columbus.[9] His son recovered, but the experience shook the manager. The team won the IL championship that season.[10]
Southworth was promoted to St. Louis asplayer-manager for1929, replacingBill McKechnie, who won aNational League pennant in1928 and lost theWorld Series in four straight games to theNew York Yankees. Southworth's Major League playing career reached the end of the road, as he appeared in only 19 games, five in the outfield, and batted only .188 with sixhits. He finished with a .297 batting average in 1,192 MLBgames played, with 52 home runs, 91triples, 173 doubles, 661 runs scored, and 561 RBI. Hestole 138 bases in his career and had double-digit steal totals in eight seasons. As a big leaguer, Southworth had 1,296 hits in 4,359at bats.[4]
His 1929 MLB managerial debut was not much more successful than his playing stint. Only one year removed from being a teammate of his charges, he attempted to impose discipline on the Cardinals, banning them from driving their own automobiles. The team did not respond to his hard line and won only 43 of their first 88 games. Southworth was sent back to Rochester on July 21, McKechnie was rehired, and the Cardinals finished in fourth place.
Although Southworth immediately resumed his successful minor league managerial career, the firing and personal tragedy — the death of his wife Lida at age 42[11] — began a downward spiral. Beset by struggles withalcoholism, he quit acoaching job with the 1933 Giants during spring training and left baseball for two seasons. After a recovery, he rejoined the Cardinals' minor league system in 1935 and by 1939 he was again enjoying success as Rochester's manager. He remarried in 1935, wedding the former Mabel Stemen, with whom he had a daughter.[3]
In June1940, he received a second chance with the struggling Cardinals when ownerSam Breadon fired managerRay Blades and promoted Southworth from Rochester. This time, the Cards flourished under him. With talented players such asEnos Slaughter,Marty Marion,Stan Musial,Walker Cooper,Mort Cooper,Whitey Kurowski andJohnny Beazley being harvested each spring from the club's farm system, the Cardinals entered a Golden Age in their history. Upon Southworth's appointment, they won 69 of 109 games and jumped from seventh to third place in 1940. The following season they won 97 games and finished second.
From 1942 to 1944, the Cardinals won 106, 105 and 105 games, three pennants and two World Series titles. Southworth was the first manager to lead a team to100 wins in three consecutive seasons. His1942 Cardinals, who breezed to theWorld Series championship in five games, were the only team (out of eight) to ever defeatJoe McCarthy'sNew York Yankees in a Fall Classic. In1943, both teams met again in theWorld Series; but this time, the Yankees turned the tables on the Redbirds, winning in five games. TheCards' third successive National League pennant, in1944, produced another world championship, a six-game triumph over theAmerican League (AL)St. Louis Browns. With it, Southworth had presided over one of the most dominant three-year stretches inNational League (NL) history.
However, another personal family tragedy struck when on February 15, 1945, his son,Billy Jr., by then aUnited States Army Air Forcesmajor, died when his Boeing B-29 Superfortress crashed intoFlushing Bay, New York after taking off fromMitchel Field, New York, on a training flight toFlorida.
Still, Southworth began managing at the beginning of the1945 season, which saw his Cardinals win 95 games but finish second, three games behind theChicago Cubs.
Southworth moved to theBoston Braves in1946, signing a then-lucrative managing contract for a reported $50,000 per season,[2] and immediately led the Braves into thefirst division. Talented pitchersJohnny Sain andWarren Spahn had both returned from service in World War II that year.
In1948, the Braves won their second NL pennant of the 20th century—and Boston's last National League title—but were defeated in six games by theCleveland Indians in the1948 World Series.[12] In that World Series, all of the games were close except for one, when the Braves beat pitcherBob Feller 11–5.[13] Author John Rossi writes that Sain lost some respect for Southworth after the manager said that managing and not talent had won the 1948 pennant.[14] Sain had already become irritated with Southworth after the 1948 signing of unproven "bonus baby" pitcherJohnny Antonelli. Sain and Southworth rarely spoke after 1948.[15]
During the following season,1949, Boston struggled on the field and was in chaos off the diamond. Southworth was rumored to be drinking heavily[16] and near nervous collapse.[17] Some players complained about his rules and regulations, and some, including startingshortstopAlvin Dark andsecond basemanEddie Stanky, were critical of his drinking.[18] Meanwhile, others, like Sain, resented the amount of credit Southworth had received for the 1948 pennant. With Boston at 55–54 on August 16, Southworth turned the Braves over tocoachJohnny Cooney for the remainder of1949. A newspaper account at the time characterized the change as a leave of absence for health reasons. With Cooney, the Braves finished fourth.[19] A finish that high in the standings guaranteed the team shares of the World Series money, but the Braves players voted to only give Southworth a quarter share.[20]
After some of the rebellious players (including Dark and Stanky) had been traded, Southworth returned to his post in1950 and led the Braves to a fourth-place finish. On August 29, 1950, Southworth recorded his 1,000th win as manager, leading the Braves to a 4–0 win over Cincinnati.[21] Southworth had managed to convert a team that hadn't finished fourth since 1934 into one that would finish fourth or better for six straight seasons. However, an aging team and declining attendance would bode poorly for both Southworth's career and the Braves' future inNew England. In1951, Southworth's club was only 28–31 on June 19. He called the team'sgeneral manager,John Quinn, and asked to be allowed to resign,[10] and he was replaced by his former standoutright fielder,Tommy Holmes (he would finish out the season but was fired in the middle of what turned out to be the final season of the Braves in Boston).
Southworth's major league managerialwin–loss record was 1,044–704–22.[22] His .597winning percentage is seventh all-time among managers to McCarthy's .615.[23] Southworth has the fewest games managed (1,770) for any manager to have won 1,000 games. Southworth was the first to win the World Series as a player and again as a manager.
Southworth remained with the Braves as ascout in the 1950s. He was acquitted of drunken driving charges after a 1955 arrest, and retired from scouting at the end of his contract following the 1956 season.[10] During his scouting days, he signed future all-time home run leaderHank Aaron,[3] who was playing for theIndianapolis Clowns of theNegro leagues.
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| STL | 1929 | 90 | 43 | 45 | .489 | (reassigned) | – | – | – | – |
| STL | 1940 | 111 | 69 | 40 | .633 | 3rd in NL | – | – | – | – |
| STL | 1941 | 155 | 97 | 56 | .634 | 2nd in NL | – | – | – | – |
| STL | 1942 | 156 | 106 | 48 | .688 | 1st in NL | 4 | 1 | .800 | WonWorld Series (NYY) |
| STL | 1943 | 157 | 105 | 49 | .682 | 1st in NL | 1 | 4 | .200 | LostWorld Series (NYY) |
| STL | 1944 | 157 | 105 | 49 | .682 | 1st in NL | 4 | 2 | .667 | WonWorld Series (SLB) |
| STL | 1945 | 155 | 95 | 59 | .617 | 2nd in NL | – | – | – | – |
| STL total | 981 | 620 | 346 | .642 | 9 | 7 | .563 | |||
| BOB | 1946 | 154 | 81 | 72 | .529 | 4th in NL | – | – | – | – |
| BOB | 1947 | 154 | 86 | 68 | .558 | 3rd in NL | – | – | – | – |
| BOB | 1948 | 154 | 91 | 62 | .595 | 1st in NL | 2 | 4 | .333 | LostWorld Series (CLE) |
| BOB | 1949 | 111 | 55 | 54 | .505 | (resigned) | – | – | – | – |
| BOB | 1950 | 156 | 83 | 71 | .539 | 4th in NL | – | – | – | – |
| BOB | 1951 | 60 | 28 | 31 | .475 | (resigned) | – | – | – | – |
| BOB total | 789 | 424 | 358 | .542 | 2 | 4 | .333 | |||
| Total[24] | 1,770 | 1,044 | 704 | .597 | 11 | 11 | .500 | |||
For the last couple of decades of his life, Southworth lived outside ofSunbury, Ohio.[11] By the summer of 1969, his health had begun to fail and he was confined to his home. He gave a final interview to a reporter for theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch; he commented on how difficult it would be for the 1969 Cardinals to win a third straight National League championship, as the 1944 team had done.[25] Though he had quit smoking many years earlier,[10] Southworth died ofemphysema that year inColumbus, Ohio, and was buried inGreen Lawn Cemetery.[11]
Southworth's cousin,Bill Southworth, appeared in the major leagues in 1964.
Dark recalled that Southworth was a "mild" person who wanted everyone to like him. He preferred to let his players play according to their respective styles, rather than micro-managing their every moves. However, he would give some advice - when going over lineups before a game, he would tell his pitchers to pitch every hitter "High, tight, and low and away."[26] On batting practice, he wanted every hitter to approach it like he was in an actual game, and he would award bench players who performed well with additional playing time.[27]
Southworth was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame in 2008. He had been eligible for election as a player in the 1940s, but he received few votes. After Southworth had been left off of the ballot as a manager in 2003, author Raymond Mileur had begun a campaign of letter writing, phone calls to the Hall of Fame, radio show comments and advocacy through his website known as "The Birdhouse". Southworth was elected after receiving 13 votes from the 16-member Veterans Committee.[28]
On the occasion of Southworth's election to the Hall of Fame, one of his former players on the 1948 Braves,Clint Conatser, paid tribute to his old manager. "He just had a gut feeling about the right thing to do in a situation", Conatser recalled. "The moves he would make would work for him — all the time, not occasionally.Leo Durocher was the same way. It's like some guys can pick horses out of nowhere. Southworth was a genius like that on the diamond."[29]
In January 2014, the Cardinals announced that Southworth was among 22 former players and personnel to be inducted into theSt. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum for the inaugural class of2014.[30] He is also a member of theAlabama Sports Hall of Fame.[7]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
