| Hank Bauer | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 Bauer in 1953 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Right fielder /Manager | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born:(1922-07-31)July 31, 1922 East St. Louis, Illinois, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Died: February 9, 2007(2007-02-09) (aged 84) Lenexa, Kansas, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MLB debut | |||||||||||||||||||||
| September 6, 1948, for the New York Yankees | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Last MLB appearance | |||||||||||||||||||||
| July 21, 1961, for the Kansas City Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MLB statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting average | .277 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Home runs | 164 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 703 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial record | 594–544 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning % | .522 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||||||||||
| As player As manager | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Henry Albert Bauer (July 31, 1922 – February 9, 2007) was an Americanright fielder andmanager inMajor League Baseball. He played with theNew York Yankees (1948–1959) andKansas City Athletics (1960–1961); he batted and threw right-handed. He served as the manager of the Athletics in bothKansas City (1961–62) and inOakland (1969), as well as theBaltimore Orioles (1964–68), guiding the Orioles to theWorld Series title in 1966. A four-game sweep over the heavily favoredLos Angeles Dodgers, it was the first world championship in the franchise's history.
Bauer was born inEast St. Louis, Illinois, the youngest of nine children to anAustrian immigrant who had lost his leg in an aluminum mill and had been reduced to bartending. With little money coming into the home, Bauer was forced to wear clothes made out of old feed sacks, helping shape his hard-nosed approach to life. (It was later said that his care-worn face "looked like a clenched fist".) He played baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, suffering a broken nose from errant elbow in the latter that was never fixed. Upon graduation in 1941 he was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in theChicago White Sox system, was able to get him a tryout that resulted in a contract withOshkosh of the Class DWisconsin State League.
One month after theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in theU.S. Marine Corps and served with the4th Raider Battalion andG Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. While deployed to thePacific Theater Bauer contractedmalaria onGuadalcanal, however he recovered from that well enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons in 32 months of combat, including twoBronze Stars, twoPurple Hearts (for being wounded in action), and the Navy Commendation Medal. Bauer was wounded his second time during theBattle of Okinawa, when he was a sergeant of a platoon of 64 Marines. Only six survived the Japanese counterattack, and Bauer was wounded by fragmentation in his thigh. His injuries were severe enough to send him back to the United States to recuperate. Unfortunately Bauer's older brother Herman, once a solid hitting minor league catcher for the Chicago White Sox organization, never made it back home: after landing in theNormandy invasion, he was killed in action on July 12th, 1944, and is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.[1][2]
Bauer returned to East St. Louis and joined the local pipe fitter's union. Stopping by the local bar where his brother Joe worked, he was signed by Danny Menendez, a scout for the New York Yankees, for a tryout with the Yankees' farm team inQuincy, Illinois. Paid $175 a month (with a $25 per month increase if he made the team) and a $250 signing bonus, Bauer batted .300 at both Quincy and theKansas City Blues, New York's top minor league unit, and made his debut with the Yankees in September1948.
In his 14-season Major League Baseball career, Bauer had a .277batting average with 164home runs and 703RBIs in 1,544games played. He recorded a career .982fielding percentage. Bauer played on sevenWorld Series-winning New York Yankees teams and holds the World Series record for the longesthitting streak (17 games). Perhaps Bauer's most notable performance came in the sixth and final game of the 1951 World Series, where he hit a three-run triple. He also saved the game with a diving catch of a line drive off the bat ofSal Yvars for the final out.
At the close of the 1959 season, Bauer was dealt by the Yankees to theKansas City Athletics in a trade which brought them future home run kingRoger Maris (1961).[3] This deal is often cited among the worst examples of the numerous trades between the Yankees and the Athletics during the late 1950s – trades which were nearly always one-sided in favor of the Yankees.[citation needed]
In 1961, AthleticsmanagerJoe Gordon chose to startLeo Posada over Bauer in theOpening Day starting lineup.[4]
On June 19, 1961, the Athletics fired Gordon and Bauer was named the team's playing-manager.[5] Bauer retired as a player one month later. He managed the team through the end of the 1962 season, going 107-157 over 264 games (for a .405 win percentage), and the A's finishing ninth in the ten-team American League both years.
After his firing at the close of the 1962 campaign, Bauer spent the 1963 season asfirst-base coach of the Baltimore Orioles.
He was promoted to the Orioles' manager on November 19, 1963, succeedingBilly Hitchcock, who had been dismissed at the end of the regular season.[6] Baltimore contended aggressively for the American League pennant in both 1964 and 1965, finishing third each year. Bolstered by the acquisition of futureHall of Fame outfielderFrank Robinson - and hisTriple Crown 1966 season — the Orioles won their first AL pennant and the1966 World Series championship. However, the ballclub, hampered by an injury to Robinson and significant off-years for a number of regulars and pitchers, finished in the second division in 1967. When the Orioles entered the1968 All-Star break in third place and10+1⁄2 games behind the eventualWorld Series championDetroit Tigers, Bauer was dismissed on July 10 in favor of first-base coachEarl Weaver.[7]
Bauer returned to the Athletics, then based inOakland, to manage the 1969 campaign. He was fired for the second and final time by Finley after bringing Oakland home second in the newAmerican League West Division. Overall, his regular-season managerial record was 594–544 (0.522).
Bauer managed theTidewater Tides, the AAA affiliate of theNew York Mets, in 1971–72. The team made the finals of ILGovernors' Cup playoffs each season, winning the title in 1972. Bauer then retired and returned home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted with the Yankees and theKansas City Royals.
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| KCA | 1961 | 102 | 35 | 67 | .343 | 9th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| KCA | 1962 | 162 | 72 | 90 | .444 | 9th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BAL | 1964 | 162 | 97 | 65 | .599 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BAL | 1965 | 162 | 94 | 68 | .580 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BAL | 1966 | 160 | 97 | 63 | .606 | 1st in AL | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | WonWorld Series (LAD) |
| BAL | 1967 | 161 | 76 | 85 | .472 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BAL | 1968 | 80 | 43 | 37 | .538 | fired | – | – | – | – |
| BAL total | 725 | 407 | 318 | .561 | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | |||
| OAK | 1969 | 149 | 80 | 69 | .537 | fired | – | – | – | – |
| KCA/ OAK total | 413 | 187 | 226 | .453 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| Total | 1138 | 594 | 544 | .522 | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | |||
Bauer moved toPrairie Village, Kansas, in 1949 after playing with the nearby Kansas City Blues of 1947 and 1948. While there, he met and later married Charlene Friede, the club's office secretary. She died in July 1999.
The family's children attended St. Ann's Grade School in Prairie Village, thenBishop Miege High School inShawnee Mission.
In 1957, a Grand Jury refused to indict Bauer in New York for alleged felony assault upon a man at theCopacabana.Whitey Ford,Mickey Mantle,Yogi Berra,Johnny Kucks andBilly Martin all testified.[8]
Bauer owned and managed a liquor store in Prairie Village for a number of years after retirement from baseball.
He died in his home on February 9, 2007, fromlung cancer, at the age of 84.[9][10]
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