Red Rolfe
Encyclopedia
Robert Abial "Red" Rolfe (October 17, 1908 – July 8, 1969) was an American
third baseman
, manager
and front-office executive in Major League Baseball
. A native of Penacook, New Hampshire
, he is one of the most prominent players to come from the Granite State
. Rolfe, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy
, also was an Ivy League
r: a graduate, then long-time athletic director of Dartmouth College
, and (from 1943–46) baseball and basketball
coach at Yale University
.
During his playing career, Rolfe was the starting third baseman on the New York Yankees
of the late 1930s. The "Bronx Bombers" of Lou Gehrig
, Joe DiMaggio
, Bill Dickey
, Lefty Gomez
and Red Ruffing
won American League
pennants from 1936–39 and took all four World Series
in which they appeared, winning 16 games and losing only three in Fall Classic play over that span. Rolfe played 10 major league seasons, all with New York, batting
.289 in 1,175 games. His finest season came in 1939, when he amassed 213 hits
, 139 runs
scored, and 46 doubles
while hitting .329 with 14 home run
s and 80 runs batted in. He retired following the 1942 season.
After his four-year coaching stint at Yale, Rolfe coached the Toronto Huskies
of the BAA
in 1946-1947 and returned to the Yankees as a coach
. After the season, Rolfe joined the Detroit Tigers
as director of their farm system. But he returned to the field after only one season, when he succeeded Steve O'Neill
as Tiger manager after the campaign.
In , Rolfe's first season as manager, the Tigers improved by nine games and returned to the first division. Then, in , they nearly upset the Yankees, winning 95 games and finishing second, three games behind. A fluke botched double play
was the team's undoing. Late in September at Cleveland, the Indians
had the bases loaded in the tenth inning with one out and the score tied. Visibility was poor because smoke from Canadian forest fires was blowing across Lake Erie
. On an apparent 3-2-3 double-play grounder to first base, Detroit catcher
Aaron Robinson
thought he simply needed to touch home plate for a force play
to retire the Indians baserunner charging in from third. But in the smoky conditions Robinson had not seen that a putout had already been made at first base, necessitating that the catcher tag the runner, not the plate, to record an out. Robinson mistakenly tagged the plate, the run counted and Cleveland won the game. It was the turning point in the pennant race, for the postwar Tigers, and for Rolfe's managerial career.
Beset by an aging starting rotation, the Tigers faltered in , slipping to 73 wins and finishing fifth, 25 games behind New York. Then Detroit completely unraveled in , winning only 23 of 72 games under Rolfe. On July 5, he was fired and replaced by one of his pitchers, Fred Hutchinson
. The 1952 club won only 50 games, losing 104 – the first time ever that the Tigers lost 100+ games.
Rolfe then returned to Dartmouth as the athletic director of his alma mater from 1954-67. The college's baseball diamond is named in his honor. Rolfe died at Gilford, New Hampshire
, in 1969 at age 60 from chronic colitis
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
third baseman
Third baseman
A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run...
, 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...
and front-office executive 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...
. A native of Penacook, New Hampshire
Penacook, New Hampshire
Penacook, originally called "Fisherville", is a village within the city of Concord in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, USA. It lies along Concord's northern border with Boscawen. The name comes from the Pennacook tribe that lived in the area...
, he is one of the most prominent players to come from the Granite State
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. Rolfe, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, also was an Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
r: a graduate, then long-time athletic director of Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, and (from 1943–46) 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...
coach at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
During his playing career, Rolfe was the starting third baseman on 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...
of the late 1930s. The "Bronx Bombers" of Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
, Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
, Bill Dickey
Bill Dickey
William Malcolm Dickey was a Major League Baseball catcher and manager.He played his entire 19-year baseball career with the New York Yankees . During Dickey's playing career, the Yankees went to the World Series nine times, winning eight championships...
, Lefty Gomez
Lefty Gómez
Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez was an American left-handed major league pitcher who played in the American League for the New York Yankees between 1930 and 1942. Considered one of the great pitchers of the day, Gomez was a seven-time All-Star and a five-time World Series Champion with the Yankees...
and Red Ruffing
Red Ruffing
Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing was a Major League Baseball pitcher most remembered for his time with the highly successful New York Yankees teams of the 1930s and 1940s...
won American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
pennants from 1936–39 and took all four 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...
in which they appeared, winning 16 games and losing only three in Fall Classic play over that span. Rolfe played 10 major league seasons, all with New York, batting
Batting 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 :...
.289 in 1,175 games. His finest season came in 1939, when he amassed 213 hits
Hit (baseball)
In baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice....
, 139 runs
Run (baseball)
In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls are met or assured...
scored, and 46 doubles
Double (baseball)
In baseball, a double is the act of a batter striking the pitched ball and safely reaching second base without being called out by the umpire, without the benefit of a fielder's misplay or another runner being put out on a fielder's choice....
while hitting .329 with 14 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 80 runs batted in. He retired following the 1942 season.
After his four-year coaching stint at Yale, Rolfe coached the Toronto Huskies
Toronto Huskies
The Toronto Huskies were a team in the Basketball Association of America during the 1946–47 season, based in Toronto, Ontario...
of the BAA
Basketball Association of America
The Basketball Association of America was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. The league merged with the National Basketball League in 1949, forming the National Basketball Association ...
in 1946-1947 and returned to the Yankees as a 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...
. After the season, Rolfe joined the 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...
as director of their farm system. But he returned to the field after only one season, when he succeeded Steve O'Neill
Steve O'Neill
Stephen Francis O'Neill was an American catcher, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball.Born to Irish immigrants in Minooka, Pennsylvania , O'Neill was one of six brothers who escaped a life in the coal mines by playing in the major leagues...
as Tiger manager after the campaign.
In , Rolfe's first season as manager, the Tigers improved by nine games and returned to the first division. Then, in , they nearly upset the Yankees, winning 95 games and finishing second, three games behind. A fluke botched double play
Double play
In baseball, a double play for a team or a fielder is the act of making two outs during the same continuous playing action. In baseball slang, making a double play is referred to as "turning two"....
was the team's undoing. Late in September at Cleveland, the Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
had the bases loaded in the tenth inning with one out and the score tied. Visibility was poor because smoke from Canadian forest fires was blowing across Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
. On an apparent 3-2-3 double-play grounder to first base, Detroit catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
Aaron Robinson
Aaron Robinson
Aaron Andrew Robinson , was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from to for the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the New York Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox...
thought he simply needed to touch home plate for a force play
Force play
In baseball, a force is a situation when a baserunner is compelled to vacate his time-of-pitch base—and thus try to advance to the next base—because the batter became a runner. A runner at first base is always forced to attempt to advance to second base when the batter becomes a runner...
to retire the Indians baserunner charging in from third. But in the smoky conditions Robinson had not seen that a putout had already been made at first base, necessitating that the catcher tag the runner, not the plate, to record an out. Robinson mistakenly tagged the plate, the run counted and Cleveland won the game. It was the turning point in the pennant race, for the postwar Tigers, and for Rolfe's managerial career.
Beset by an aging starting rotation, the Tigers faltered in , slipping to 73 wins and finishing fifth, 25 games behind New York. Then Detroit completely unraveled in , winning only 23 of 72 games under Rolfe. On July 5, he was fired and replaced by one of his pitchers, Fred Hutchinson
Fred Hutchinson
Frederick Charles Hutchinson was an American professional baseball player, a major league pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. He also was a manager for three major league teams...
. The 1952 club won only 50 games, losing 104 – the first time ever that the Tigers lost 100+ games.
Rolfe then returned to Dartmouth as the athletic director of his alma mater from 1954-67. The college's baseball diamond is named in his honor. Rolfe died at Gilford, New Hampshire
Gilford, New Hampshire
Gilford is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 7,126 at the 2010 census. Situated on Lake Winnipesaukee, Gilford is home to Governors Island, Ellacoya State Beach, Belknap Mountain State Forest, Gunstock Mountain Ski Resort, and Meadowbrook U.S...
, in 1969 at age 60 from chronic colitis
Colitis
In medicine, colitis refers to an inflammation of the colon and is often used to describe an inflammation of the large intestine .Colitides may be acute and self-limited or chronic, i.e...
.
See also
- List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
- List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
- List of Major League Baseball triples champions