| Bucky Harris | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Harris in 1925 | |
| Second baseman /Manager | |
| Born:(1896-11-08)November 8, 1896 Port Jervis, New York, U.S. | |
| Died: November 8, 1977(1977-11-08) (aged 81) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 28, 1919, for the Washington Senators | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| June 12, 1931, for the Detroit Tigers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .274 |
| Home runs | 9 |
| Runs batted in | 508 |
| Managerial record | 2,158–2,219 |
| Winning % | .493 |
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 | 1975 |
| Election method | Veterans Committee |
Stanley Raymond "Bucky"Harris (November 8, 1896 – November 8, 1977) was an American professionalbaseballsecond baseman,manager and executive. While Harris played inMajor League Baseball (MLB) for theWashington Senators andDetroit Tigers,[1] it was his long managerial career that led to his enshrinement in theBaseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1975.[2]
Hired by the Senators to act as player-manager at the age of 27, Harris would lead the team to the1924 World Series title, becoming the youngest manager to win a championship and the first rookie manager to do so (four other rookies have accomplished the feat since).[3] Harris managed 29 seasons, fourth most in MLB history. In his tenure as manager for five teams (with three terms for Washington and two for Detroit), Harris won over 2,150 games, threeleague pennants and twoWorld Series championships (1924 with the Senators and1947 with theNew York Yankees); the gap between Harris's World Series appearances (22 years) and championships (23) are the longest in major league history.[4][5]
Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris was born on November 8, 1896, inPort Jervis, New York, and raised after the age of six inPittston, Pennsylvania. He was ofSwiss andWelsh descent. His father, Thomas, had emigrated fromWales, while his mother, Catherine (Rupp), hailed fromHughestown, near Pittston. His elder brother, Merle, was aminor leaguesecond baseman. Bucky Harris left school at age 13 to work at a localcolliery, the Butler Mine, as an office boy and, later, a weigh master.[6] In his spare time, Harris playedbasketball for the PittstonYMCA team as well as sandlot baseball.
Harris was listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 156 pounds (71 kg); he threw and batted right-handed. In 1916, when Harris was 19, Pittston nativeHughie Jennings, then the manager of theDetroit Tigers, signed him to his first contract and farmed him to the Class BMuskegon Reds of theCentral League, where he struggled as a batsman and was released.[6] Harris then caught on with theScranton Miners,Norfolk Tars andReading Pretzels through 1917, before reaching the highest level ofminor league baseball with the 1918–1919Buffalo Bisons of theInternational League. Harris improved his batting skills during the latter season with the Bisons, making 126hits and raising hisaverage to .282.
Harris then was recommended to theWashington Senators by baseball promoterJoe Engel, who led theChattanooga Lookouts atEngel Stadium. In August 1919, at the age of 22, he came up to Washington but was unimpressive at first,[7] batting a meager .214 and getting into only eight games that first season. Despite this poor showing, owner-managerClark Griffith made him Washington's regularsecond baseman in 1920, and before long Harris was batting .300 and making a mark for himself as a tough competitor, standing up to even ferocious superstarTy Cobb, who threatened Harris when he tagged Cobb in their first encounter.[7]
Harris spent most of his playing career as a second baseman with the Senators (1919–1928). In 1924, he was named player-manager; at the age of 27 he was the youngest manager in the Majors.[7] He proceeded to lead the Senators to their onlyWorld Series title in Washington inhis rookie season, and was nicknamed "The Boy Wonder."[8] He won a second consecutiveAmerican League pennant in 1925, but the Senators lost the1925 World Series in Pittsburgh in the late innings of Game 7 after leading 3–1 in the Series.[9] Baseball historian William C. Kashatus wrote of his dominant play in the 1924World Series:[10] "Not only did he set records for chances accepted, double plays and put-outs in the exciting seven-game affair, but he batted .333 and hit two home runs"[10] — including an important roundtripper in Game 7 which opened the scoring and gave Washington a 1–0 lead in the 4th inning. These feats are even more impressive considering that the light-hitting Harris only hit nine home runs during his entire career.
After Harris‘ back-to-backpennants in 1924–1925, he was able to keep the Senators in thefirst division for the next three seasons, but their win totals declined, from 96 (1925) to 81 (1926), then 85 (1927).
When, in1928, they won only 75 games (against 79 losses), Griffith traded Harris to Detroit and changed managers, with Hall of FamepitcherWalter Johnson named as his successor. The1928 Tigers had won only 68 games, and Harris'1929 edition offered only a slight improvement, winning 70. Harris’ initial departure from the Senators in 1928 (he would twice return to manage them again from 1935–1942 and 1950–1954) came in a trade to the Tigers as player-manager.[2] Although he retired as a player after the 1931 season, his playing career effectively ended with his trade to Detroit. Harris only made 11 cameo appearances in the Tiger lineup: seven in 1929 and four in 1931. In all, he appeared in 1,263 games over all or portions of 13 seasons, and collected 1,297hits, with 224doubles, 64triples, ninehome runs, 472bases on balls, and 167stolen bases. Harris batted .274 lifetime with 508 careerruns batted in.
In five full seasons as the Tigers' manager, he produced only one winning year,1932, when Detroit went 76–75 and finished fifth and29+1⁄2 games behind the Yankees. In the waning days of1933, Harris stepped down. His eventual successor,Mickey Cochrane, a future Hall-of-Famecatcher who was acquired from thePhiladelphia Athletics, would lead the Tigers as a player-manager to back-to-back pennants in 1934–1935 (and theirfirst-ever world championship in the latter year).
Harris signed as manager of the Red Sox for1934. Boston was then a habitual tail-ender in the American League, and had registered 15 consecutive losing seasons since its1918 world championship. The 1933 Red Sox had won only 63 games and finished seventh in the eight-team AL underMarty McManus, but their wealthy new owner,Tom Yawkey, had begun a major rebuilding of both the ball club andFenway Park. Yawkey jettisoned McManus and personally selected Harris as his new manager, and his1934 Red Sox, despite an injury-riddled season by newly purchased ace left-handedpitcherLefty Grove, broke the losing-season streak, finishing at .500 (76–76). But Harris's stay in the Boston dugout lasted only one season. He andEddie Collins, the Red Sox'general manager, had feuded since their playing days[11] and Yawkey may have hired Harris without consulting Collins. WhenJoe Cronin, the hard-hitting, 28-year-old playing manager of the Senators, became available on the trade market, Yawkey and Collins moved quickly, sendingshortstopLyn Lary and $225,000 to Washington on October 26, 1934,[12] for Cronin, and then naming him manager for1935. Harris then took Cronin's old job, returning to Clark Griffith and the Senators.
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Harris' second term in Washington lasted for eight seasons (1935–1942), his longest tenure as a skipper. However, he never approached the highs of 1924 or 1925. Only one of his teams, the1936 Senators, had a winning record (82–71) and first-division finish. Harris kept the club out of the American League basement, but three consecutive seventh-place finishes from 1940–1942 led to his departure.
His only season in theNational League was spent as skipper of the1943 Phillies.
Perhaps the worst team (42–109, .278) in baseball in1942, the Phillies had just been sold to lumbermanWilliam D. Cox. Under Harris, the 1943 edition improved to play .424 baseball (39–53) by July 27, with just three fewer victories than they had in all of 1942. However, Harris chafed at Cox' constant interference. When Harris protested, Cox abruptly fired him after only 92 games.
Harris then played a role in Cox' banishment from professionalbaseball for betting on games. On the day after his firing, Harris dropped a bombshell at his hotel room — he had evidence that Cox was betting on baseball.[13] Harris's friends, outraged at his firing, informedCommissioner of BaseballKenesaw Mountain Landis that Cox was violating baseball's anti-gambling mandate.[14] Landis then summoned Harris to his office to testify in person about Cox' behavior. The owner was suspended indefinitely three months later and banned from baseball outright soon afterward. The Phillies were sold toR. R. M. Carpenter in November 1943.
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Harris then spent three seasons out of the big leagues, serving asgeneral manager (1944–1946) and field manager (1944–1945) of the Buffalo Bisons, his old team in the International League. In August 1946, the Yankees' co-owner and GM,Larry MacPhail, appointed Harris to a front-office position.
The tumultuous1946 season saw MacPhail employ three managers —Joe McCarthy,Bill Dickey andJohnny Neun — and finish third, 17 games in arrears of thepennant-winning Red Sox. At the close of the season, MacPhail named Harris the Bombers' 1947 manager, and he led them to his third American League pennant — the Yankees' 15th league title.
BehindMost Valuable PlayerJoe DiMaggio and newly acquiredstarting pitcherAllie Reynolds, the1947 Yanks won 97 games and prevailed over the Tigers by a 12-game margin. Then they won Harris's secondWorld Series championship, defeating theJackie Robinson-ledBrooklyn Dodgers in a thrilling, seven-game Fall Classic.
MacPhail sold his stake in the Yankees and left baseball immediately after the 1947 Series and Harris returned for a second season as manager. His1948 Yankees won 94 games to finish a close third in a hectic pennant race, two games behind theCleveland Indians and Red Sox, who ended the regular season in a tie for first place.[2] But the result dissatisfied the Yankees' post-MacPhail ownership team,Dan Topping andDel Webb, and their new general manager,George Weiss, and they replaced Harris withCasey Stengel. Stengel would lead New York to ten American League pennants and seven World Series titles in the next 12 seasons.
Harris returned to theminor leagues in 1949 as manager of theSan Diego Padres of thePacific Coast League, before launching his third stint as skipper of the Senators, coming off a 104-loss 1949 season. His first campaign,1950, saw a 17-game improvement for Washington, then he led the Senators to a winning (78–76) mark in1952, but the team could not escape thesecond division in Harris's five-year, final term as Washington's manager.
Nevertheless, the Tigers chose Harris to replaceFred Hutchinson as their manager for1955, and in the first season of his second term in Detroit, Harris again produced a turnaround. The1955 Tigers won 79 games (eleven more than1954's edition) and had their first above-.500 season since1950. PitcherNed Garver described Harris as "sympathetic," recalling that he would wait until an inning was over before replacing a pitcher on the mound.[15] Then, Detroit won 82 games in1956. But the Tigers finished fifth each season, and were experiencing turmoil in their front office; outspoken ownerWalter Briggs Jr. was harshly critical of Harris and his coaches during the season[16] and was in the process of selling the team.[17] Fired by new ownerFred Knorr, Harris closed out his 29-year MLB managing career with awin–loss record of 2,158–2,219 (.493). As of September 2019, Harris ranked seventh inMLB manager career wins.[18]
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| WSH | 1924 | 154 | 92 | 62 | .597 | 1st in AL | 4 | 3 | .571 | WonWorld Series (NYG) |
| WSH | 1925 | 151 | 96 | 55 | .636 | 1st in AL | 3 | 4 | .429 | LostWorld Series (PIT) |
| WSH | 1926 | 150 | 81 | 69 | .540 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1927 | 154 | 85 | 69 | .552 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1928 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1929 | 154 | 70 | 84 | .455 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1930 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1931 | 154 | 61 | 93 | .396 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1932 | 151 | 76 | 75 | .503 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1933 | 152 | 73 | 79 | .480 | resigned | – | – | – | – |
| BOS | 1934 | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BOS total | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| WSH | 1935 | 153 | 67 | 86 | .438 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1936 | 153 | 82 | 71 | .536 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1937 | 153 | 73 | 80 | .477 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1938 | 151 | 75 | 76 | .497 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1939 | 152 | 65 | 87 | .428 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1940 | 154 | 64 | 90 | .416 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1941 | 154 | 70 | 84 | .455 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1942 | 151 | 62 | 89 | .411 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| PHI | 1943 | 92 | 39 | 53 | .424 | fired | – | – | – | – |
| PHI total | 92 | 39 | 53 | .424 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| NYY | 1947 | 154 | 97 | 57 | .630 | 1st in AL | 4 | 3 | .571 | WonWorld Series (BKN) |
| NYY | 1948 | 154 | 94 | 60 | .610 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| NYY total | 308 | 191 | 117 | .620 | 4 | 3 | .571 | |||
| WSH | 1950 | 154 | 67 | 87 | .435 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1951 | 154 | 62 | 92 | .403 | 7th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1952 | 154 | 78 | 76 | .506 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1953 | 152 | 76 | 76 | .500 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH | 1954 | 154 | 66 | 88 | .429 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| WSH total | 2752 | 1336 | 1416 | .500 | 7 | 7 | .500 | |||
| DET | 1955 | 154 | 79 | 75 | .513 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 1956 | 154 | 82 | 72 | .532 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| DET total | 1073 | 516 | 557 | .481 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| Total[19] | 4377 | 2158 | 2219 | – | 11 | 10 | .524 | |||
In 1957, at 60, Harris rejoined the Red Sox in a front office capacity. He was assistant general manager to Joe Cronin for two seasons, and then, when Cronin was named president of the American League, succeeded him as GM in January 1959, 24 years after Cronin had displaced Harris as Boston's field manager. Harris served for two losing seasons as general manager of the Red Sox before his firing in late September 1960. On his watch, the Red Sox finally broke thebaseball color line by promotingPumpsie Green from Triple-A on July 21, 1959, more than a dozen years after Robinson's debut with the Dodgers. They were the last of the 16 pre-expansion teams tointegrate.[20]
But the Red Sox went 75–79 in1959 and fell into thesecond division, beginning a streak of eight straight losing seasons. Then, in1960, Hall of FamerTed Williams's final season, they won only 65 games and finished seventh in the eight-team league.RightfielderJackie Jensen, still productive at age 33 — he had been1958'sAmerican League MVP and the AL's 1959runs batted in leader — sat out the entire 1960 campaign in retirement due to hisfear of flying.
Harris made a flurry of minor trades in an attempt to shake up his faltering team. His two highest-profile transactions, which occurred during the 1959–1960 offseason, saw him sendleft-handedpitcher and formerbonus babyFrank Baumann to theChicago White Sox and veteran starting catcherSammy White to the Indians. But Baumann led the AL inearned run average with the 1960 Chisox (while the player Harris obtained,first basemanRon Jackson, struggled through only ten games with Boston before being traded away again) and White abruptly retired rather than report to Cleveland, canceling his trade.[21] Harris also ran afoul of Yawkey when he fired Yawkey associatePinky Higgins as manager and replaced him withBilly Jurges, a Senators' coach, on July 3, 1959, without consulting the owner.[20] Jurges lasted less than a calendar year as the Red Sox' pilot before his firing in June 1960 — and replacement by Higgins. Harris's dismissal followed not quite four months later.
Harris ended his long MLB career as ascout for the White Sox (1961–1962) and special assistant for the newexpansionWashington Senators franchise that played in D.C. from 1961 to 1971 before moving on toArlington, Texas. All told, he spent over 55 years in baseball. He died inBethesda, Maryland, on his 81st birthday. According to his obituary in the November 10, 1977 Washington Post, Harris died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was buried at St. Peter'sLutheran Church in Hughestown.
Harris's father-in-law during his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1951, wasHoward Sutherland, formerUnited States Senator fromWest Virginia.[22]
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Buffalo Bisonsmanager 1944–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | San Diego Padres (PCL)manager 1949 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
