In reminiscence of Philadelphia Athletics Supervisor Connie Mack

news

The former catcher made his major league debut this month on September 11, 1886, 135 years ago. His longevity at Doug Out is an accomplishment never seen before in professional sport.

Get compelling, long reading and important lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning. It goes great with coffee.

Connie Mack on January 7, 1911. / Photo by Paul Thompson via Flickr

The Phillies have been so mixed up with seasons that we have to think second year coach George Girardi might find his job. He is currently the fifth Phils manager since 2013, the year he ended his nine-year tenure with Charlie Manuel. He was the sixth MLB manager to last at least 12 seasons in total. (Manuel also ran the Cleveland Indians for three seasons.) That lack of administrative longevity made him think of Connie Mack, Philadelphia Athletics manager known as the “Grand Old Man of Baseball.” He cast A’s Doug Out (from 1901 to 1950 he wore a suit and tie for an amazing stretch).

Adding his 11-year playing career and the three seasons he directed at the Pirates, a total of 65 years can be spent playing the game. Perhaps even more surprising is that his player supposedly loved him and won or lost him. There are a few more facts about Mack, who made his Major League debut on September 11, 1886.

About this name …
Mack, maiden name Cornelius McGillicuddy, was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1862 to an Irish immigrant. The story of shortening his name to fit the printed box score is likely an apocryphal, but it’s a lot of Monica. He dropped out of school after 8th grade to work and added to the family budget, but he was also an eye catcher for the town’s baseball team. It led to a stint on a Connecticut minor league team before being signed by the Washington Nationals. He made a temporary leap into the early Players League in 1889 and invested $ 500 in his life in Buffalo bison. Buffalo Bisons quickly folded and sacrificed his investment. He switched to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he ended his playing career, famous for his skillful imitation of sounds, especially with rubbish-speaking opponents. Foul tip that hits the bat.. He appears to be responsible for the 1891 rule change which, in the latter position, stated that the batter must be called twice to hit him if the catcher catches a foul tip. .. His nickname as a player was “Slat” because the Mac is 6 feet 2 tall and very thin.

After Mack founded the Philadelphia A franchise, his team won the World Series title in 1910, 1911, and 1913 with six of the first 14 American League pennants. The radical step of selling the best players in the club – a step in his obituary he repeats over and over again. New York Times I got it, “No other manager in the history of the game has dealt with more young players, brought more players to fame, and happiness. But he’s a sensational championship machine. Scrap, the ripping apart of the team other men would have wanted to lead, would be best remembered. “Sixers, are you listening?

Chicken salad and chicken …
When Mac was manager, A Shibe Park was the first steel and concrete stadium to be used for baseball on the 20th and in Lehi. The 23,000-seat park opened in 1909 and is five blocks west of Baker Bowl, the team’s former home field. The Baker Bowl was considered ultra-modern when it was built in 1887 and held 12,500 spectators. Phil’s Hall of Famer and longtime broadcaster Richie Ashburn once described Shibe like this: It smelled like a baseball field. Feelings and heartbeats were all baseball personalities. (However, Ashburn once said that the difference between Veterans Stadium and Shiba Inu, Shiba Inu’s successors, appears to be “the difference between chicken salad and chicken seat.”)

Mack is a reorganized team that lost to the Cardinals in 1931 after winning the A in a row in the World Series in 1929 and 1930. Other managers have come closer or will probably do so ”and explains:

Older leaders who were ruled by violence often beat players who did not obey orders, made mistakes on the field, or dropped club rules from the field. He was one of the kindest and gentlest men who always claimed to be kind and get better results. He never humiliated the player through public criticism. No one heard him scold the man during the most difficult times of his many pennant fights.

About this elephant …
Even so, he was once a sober businessman I’ll explain to my cousin. “The best thing for the team is to run and finish second. If you win, all players expect a raise. ”Another nickname for Mac was“ Tall Tactician ”. .. He valiantly evaluated his brain and once traded Shoeless Joe Jackson for a bad attitude. It might not be the smartest strategy. Mack was often tied to cash and insisted on running his own team even after most of the others hired a general manager.

As a gentleman, Mack wasn’t interested in breaking the baseball-colored wall, even after Jackie Robinson made his debut as Dodgers first baseman in 1947. ..

Mack had two sons and a daughter by his first wife, who died after giving birth to his third child, and Cornelius Jr., whose second child had four daughters and one son. Son Connie Mack III was a member of the US House of Representatives and US Senator from Florida in the early and early 1980s. III’s son, Connie Mack IV, was a former Florida US lawmaker, now a lobbyist, and formerly married to Sonny Bono’s widow, Mary.

Mac was chosen Second grade Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. In 1953 Shibe Park was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in his honor. In 1955, family A sold to Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson due to financial difficulties. In 1968 the franchise moved to Auckland again. In 1905, Giants manager John McGraw was appointed by Mack. “White Elephant” McGraw, along with A’s team, claimed that no one else wanted it. Mack immediately adopted a white elephant as the team logo. This is the symbol A is still using. He died in 1956 at the age of 93.

Comments are closed.