Hank Bauer
Encyclopedia
Henry Albert "Hank" Bauer (July 31, 1922 – February 9, 2007) was an American
right fielder
and manager
in Major League Baseball
. He played with the New York Yankees
( – ) and Kansas City Athletics
( – ); he batted and threw right-handed. He served as the manager of the Athletics in both Kansas City (-62) and in Oakland , as well as of the Baltimore Orioles
(-68), becoming the winning manager of the 1966 World Series
, four games to none, over the Los Angeles Dodgers
.
as the youngest of nine children, Bauer was the son of an Austrian
immigrant
, a bartender
who had earlier lost his leg in an aluminum mill. 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 said that his care-worn face "looked like a clenched fist".)
While playing baseball and basketball
at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, Bauer suffered permanent damage to his nose, which was caused by an errant elbow from an opponent. Upon graduation in 1941, he was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox
system, was able to get him a tryout that resulted in a contract with Oshkosh of the Class D Wisconsin State League
.
, Bauer contracted malaria
on Guadalcanal
, but he recovered from that well enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars
and two Purple Heart
s (for being wounded in action) in 32 months of combat. Bauer was wounded his second time during the Battle of Okinawa
, when he was a lieutenant in command of a platoon of 64 Marines. Only six of the 64 Marines survived the Japanese counterattack, and Bauer was wounded by shrapnel in his thigh. His wounds were severe enough to send him all the way back to the United States
to recuperate.
. The terms of the contract were as follows: just $175 a month (with a $25 per month increase if he made the team) and a $250 bonus.
Batting .300 at Quincy and with the team's top minor league unit, the Kansas City Blues
, Bauer eventually made his debut with the Yankees in September .
with 164 home run
s and 703 runs batted in in 1,544 games played
. Bauer played on seven World Series
-winning New York Yankees teams, and he holds the World Series record for the longest hitting 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 by Sal Yvars for the final out. At the close of the 1959 season, Bauer was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in the trade that brought them the future home run king Roger Maris
(1961). This deal is often cited among the worst examples of the numerous trades between the Yankees and the Athletics during the late 1950s - trades that were nearly always one-sided in favor of the Yankees.
In 1961, the year Maris broke Babe Ruth
's single-season home run record, Bauer, at 38 years of age was coming to the end of the line in his playing career. On June 19, Bauer was named as the playing-manager of the Athletics, and he retired from the baseball field one month later. In Bauer's first stint as the Athletic's manager - through the end of the 1962 season, the Athletics won 107 games and lost 157 (0.405), and his teams finished ninth in the ten-team American League twice.
After his firing at the close of the 1962 campaign, Bauer spent the 1963 season as first-base coach
of the Baltimore Orioles. He was elevated to manager at the end of the season, as the Orioles sought a firmer hand in command of the team. The move was successful: Baltimore contended aggressively for the 1964 American League pennant, finishing third, and then — bolstered by the acquisition of the future Hall of Fame outfielder, Frank Robinson
, its first AL pennant and World Series
championship in 1966. However, when the Orioles, hampered by an injury to Robinson, finished in the second division in 1967 and then fell far behind the eventual champion Detroit Tigers
in 1968, Bauer was dismissed as the manager on July 12, in favor of Earl Weaver
, then the Oriole's first-base coach.
Weaver proceeded to forge a Hall of Fame career over the next 14½ years as the Orioles' pilot.
Bauer then returned to the Athletics, now based in Oakland, for the 1969 campaign. He was fired for the second and final time by Finley after bringing Oakland home second in the new American League West Division. Overall, his regular-season managerial record was 594-544 (0.522).
Bauer managed the Tidewater Tides
, the AAA affiliate of the New York Mets
, in 1971 - 72. The Tides made the finals of IL Governors' Cup
playoffs each season, winning the playoff title in the latter campaign.
Bauer then hung up his uniform, returning home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted for the Yankees and for the Kansas City Royals
.
, Kansas
in 1949 after playing with the 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, then Bishop Miege High School in Shawnee Mission
.
Hank owned and managed a liquor store in Prairie Village for a number of years after retirement from baseball.
Bauer died in his home on February 9, 2007 at the age of 84 from lung cancer
.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/02/09/bc.bbo.obit.bauer.ap/.
Bauer was a no-nonsense leader and could be unforgiving if he felt his teammates' off-the-field activities were hurting the Yankees' on-the-field performance. Pitcher Whitey Ford remembered how Bauer reacted when he thought players like Ford and Mantle were overindulging themselves after hours: He pinned me to the wall of the dugout one day and said, 'Don't mess with my money.' New York Times, obituary,February 10, 2007.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
right fielder
Right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound...
and manager
Manager (baseball)
In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. He played with the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
( – ) and Kansas City Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
( – ); he batted and threw right-handed. He served as the manager of the Athletics in both Kansas City (-62) and in Oakland , as well as of the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
(-68), becoming the winning manager of the 1966 World Series
1966 World Series
The 1966 World Series matched the Baltimore Orioles against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Orioles sweeping the Series in four games to capture their first championship in franchise history...
, four games to none, over the Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
.
Early years
Born in East St. Louis, IllinoisEast St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 27,006, less than one-third of its peak of 82,366 in 1950...
as the youngest of nine children, Bauer was the son of an Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
immigrant
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
, a bartender
Bartender
A bartender is a person who serves beverages behind a counter in a bar, pub, tavern, or similar establishment. A bartender, in short, "tends the bar". The term barkeeper may carry a connotation of being the bar's owner...
who had earlier lost his leg in an aluminum mill. 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 said that his care-worn face "looked like a clenched fist".)
While playing baseball and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, Bauer suffered permanent damage to his nose, which was caused by an errant elbow from an opponent. Upon graduation in 1941, he was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
system, was able to get him a tryout that resulted in a contract with Oshkosh of the Class D Wisconsin State League
Wisconsin State League
There was a class D league called the Wisconsin State League which began in 1905. In 1908 it changed its name to the Wisconsin-Illinois League. Another Wisconsin State League began in 1940, shut down for World War II from 1943 through 1945, then operated from 1946 through 1953...
.
World War II - Marine Corps
One month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While serving in the Pacific TheaterPacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
, Bauer contracted malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
on Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
, but he recovered from that well enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
and two Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
s (for being wounded in action) in 32 months of combat. Bauer was wounded his second time during the Battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
, when he was a lieutenant in command of a platoon of 64 Marines. Only six of the 64 Marines survived the Japanese counterattack, and Bauer was wounded by shrapnel in his thigh. His wounds were severe enough to send him all the way back to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to recuperate.
After the war - minor leaguer
Returning to East St. Louis, Bauer joined the local pipefitter's union, and he stopped by the local bar where his brother Joe Bauer worked. Danny Menendez, a scout for the New York Yankees, decided to sign him for a tryout with the Yankees' farm team in Quincy, IllinoisQuincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
. The terms of the contract were as follows: just $175 a month (with a $25 per month increase if he made the team) and a $250 bonus.
Batting .300 at Quincy and with the team's top minor league unit, the Kansas City Blues
Kansas City Blues (American Association)
The Kansas City Blues are a former minor league baseball team located in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Midwestern United States. The team was one of the eight founding members of the American Association....
, Bauer eventually made his debut with the Yankees in September .
Career as player, coach and manager
In his 14-season Major League Baseball career, Bauer had a .277 batting averageBatting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
with 164 home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
s and 703 runs batted in in 1,544 games played
Games played
Games played is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated ; the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested.-Baseball:In baseball, the statistic applies also to players who, prior to a game,...
. Bauer played on seven World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
-winning New York Yankees teams, and he holds the World Series record for the longest hitting streak
Hitting streak
In baseball, a hitting streak refers to the number of consecutive official games in which a player gets at least one base hit.According to the Official Baseball Rules, such a streak is ended when a player has at least 1 plate appearance and no hits...
(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 by Sal Yvars for the final out. At the close of the 1959 season, Bauer was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in the trade that brought them the future home run king Roger Maris
Roger Maris
Roger Eugene Maris was an American Major League Baseball right fielder. During the 1961 season, he hit a record 61 home runs for the New York Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs...
(1961). This deal is often cited among the worst examples of the numerous trades between the Yankees and the Athletics during the late 1950s - trades that were nearly always one-sided in favor of the Yankees.
In 1961, the year Maris broke Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
's single-season home run record, Bauer, at 38 years of age was coming to the end of the line in his playing career. On June 19, Bauer was named as the playing-manager of the Athletics, and he retired from the baseball field one month later. In Bauer's first stint as the Athletic's manager - through the end of the 1962 season, the Athletics won 107 games and lost 157 (0.405), and his teams finished ninth in the ten-team American League twice.
After his firing at the close of the 1962 campaign, Bauer spent the 1963 season as first-base coach
Coach (baseball)
In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, or head coach, who determines the lineup and decides how to substitute players during the game...
of the Baltimore Orioles. He was elevated to manager at the end of the season, as the Orioles sought a firmer hand in command of the team. The move was successful: Baltimore contended aggressively for the 1964 American League pennant, finishing third, and then — bolstered by the acquisition of the future Hall of Fame outfielder, Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson , is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He played from 1956–1976, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. He is the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues...
, its first AL pennant and World Series
1966 World Series
The 1966 World Series matched the Baltimore Orioles against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Orioles sweeping the Series in four games to capture their first championship in franchise history...
championship in 1966. However, when the Orioles, hampered by an injury to Robinson, finished in the second division in 1967 and then fell far behind the eventual champion Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
in 1968, Bauer was dismissed as the manager on July 12, in favor of Earl Weaver
Earl Weaver
Earl Sidney Weaver is a former Major League Baseball manager. He spent his entire 17-year managerial career with the Baltimore Orioles . Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.-Playing career:After playing for Beaumont High School in St...
, then the Oriole's first-base coach.
Weaver proceeded to forge a Hall of Fame career over the next 14½ years as the Orioles' pilot.
Bauer then returned to the Athletics, now based in Oakland, for the 1969 campaign. He was fired for the second and final time by Finley after bringing Oakland home second in the new American League West Division. Overall, his regular-season managerial record was 594-544 (0.522).
Bauer managed the Tidewater Tides
Norfolk Tides
The Norfolk Tides are a minor league baseball team in the Triple-A International League. They play at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia. Since 2007 they have been a farm team of the Baltimore Orioles; prior to that, they had a 38-year affiliation with the New York Mets.-Franchise history:The...
, the AAA affiliate of the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
, in 1971 - 72. The Tides made the finals of IL Governors' Cup
Governors' Cup
The Governors' Cup is the trophy awarded each year to the champion of the International League, one of the two current Triple-A level minor leagues of Major League Baseball.-Governors' Cup history:...
playoffs each season, winning the playoff title in the latter campaign.
Bauer then hung up his uniform, returning home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted for the Yankees and for the Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...
.
Family life
Bauer moved to the Kansas City area Prairie VillagePrairie Village, Kansas
Prairie Village is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 21,447.- History :...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
in 1949 after playing with the 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, then Bishop Miege High School in Shawnee Mission
Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Shawnee Mission, Kansas is a name created by the United States Postal Service to describe an area of Johnson County, Kansas that contains numerous towns. Parts of southern Overland Park are not part of Shawnee Mission as they were annexed from unincorporated Stanley and use zip code 66085...
.
Hank owned and managed a liquor store in Prairie Village for a number of years after retirement from baseball.
Bauer died in his home on February 9, 2007 at the age of 84 from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/02/09/bc.bbo.obit.bauer.ap/.
Highlights
- October, 10, : Bauer's bases-loaded triple lead the Yankees to 4–3 win over the New York GiantsSan Francisco GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
to clinch the 1951 World Series1951 World SeriesThe 1951 World Series matched the two-time defending champion New York Yankees against the New York Giants, who had won the National League pennant in a thrilling three-game playoff with the Brooklyn Dodgers on the legendary home run by Bobby Thomson .In the Series, the Yankees showed some power of...
. - Three-time American League All-StarMajor League Baseball All-Star GameThe Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
(1952–54). - From 1956–58, Bauer set a World Series hitting streak record of 17 games in a row, which was later matched as a post-season batting record by Derek JeterDerek JeterDerek Sanderson Jeter is an American baseball shortstop who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. A twelve-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Jeter's clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning have made him a central...
, also of the Yankees. - Bauer led the American League in tripleTriple (baseball)In baseball, a triple is the act of a batter safely reaching third base after hitting the ball, with neither the benefit of a fielder's misplay nor another runner being put out on a fielder's choice....
s (nine) in 1957.
Quotes
- Hank crawled on top of the Yankee dugout and searched the stands, looking for a fan who was shouting racial slurs at Elston HowardElston HowardElston Gene Howard was an American Negro League and Major League Baseball catcher, left fielder and coach. During a 14-year baseball career, he played from 1955–1968, primarily for the New York Yankees...
. When asked about the incident, Bauer explained simply, "Ellie's my friend". -- Excerpt of the book "Clubhouse Lawyer," by Art DitmarArt DitmarArthur John Ditmar is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Athletics and the New York Yankees . He batted and threw right-handed.A finesse control pitcher, Ditmar divided his career between the Athletics and Yankees...
, former major league pitcherPitcherIn baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
http://www.clubhouselawyer.com/
- Hank lost four prime years from his playing career due to his Marine service. This is heavy duty when you figure such a career is usually over when a player reaches his mid-thirties. This is something that does not bother Hank. "I guess I knew too many great young guys who lost everything out there to worry about my losing part of a baseball career," he says. -- From the book Semper FI, MAC, by Henry Berry
- Tommy LasordaTommy LasordaThomas Charles Lasorda is a former Major League baseball player and manager. marked his sixth decade in one capacity or another with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers organization, the longest non-continuous tenure anyone has had with the team, edging Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully...
on Bauer: "This guy's tough. He had a face that looked like it'd hold two days of rain." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZR7BPg1CE&feature=related
Bauer was a no-nonsense leader and could be unforgiving if he felt his teammates' off-the-field activities were hurting the Yankees' on-the-field performance. Pitcher Whitey Ford remembered how Bauer reacted when he thought players like Ford and Mantle were overindulging themselves after hours: He pinned me to the wall of the dugout one day and said, 'Don't mess with my money.' New York Times, obituary,February 10, 2007.