Books and articles about Miller Huggins

The smart, scrawny 5'6" Huggins was a first-rate second baseman before he became famous for managing the Yankees to their first six pennants and three World Championships. He was fast and sure-handed afield; his record is dotted with games in which he handled 15 chances, or figured in three double plays. He led the league in putouts, assists, double plays, and fielding once each, and twice in errors. The Mighty Mite was the ideal leadoff man, a switch-hitter who coaxed 1,002 career walks (four times leading the league) and stole some 50 bases a season (though stolen bases were not tabulated during his six early years with Cincinnati). Not a long-ball hitter, he did have three triples in a game in 1904.

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The Cardinals acquired Huggins in 1910. By 1913 he was player-manager, and by 1917 had retired to the bench. He prodded two third-place finishes out of his nondescript team, and guided a green and awkward Rogers Hornsby through his first ML seasons. Holder of a law degree (though he never practiced) and a shrewd investor in the stock market, Huggins was businessman enough to think he could buy the St. Louis club. His bid rebuffed, he resigned. Ban Johnson, the opportunistic president of the American League, promptly urged Jacob Ruppert, the Yankees' principal owner, to grab Huggins. The manager's record was not distinguished, but he was a sound baseball man, and Johnson was happy to help steal him from the NL.

Together with imperious Ed Barrow, the GM, Huggins developed the slugging Yankee teams that ended the dead-ball era forever. A mediocre lot when he arrived, they were among the all-time greats at his death. They were a bunch of carousers and bad actors until an appalling slump in 1925 and the $5,000 fine and nine-day suspension of Babe Ruth. With Ruppert's backing, Huggins brought his unruly crew to heel, and established himself as boss, beginning the club's tradition of Yankee pride. Though history recalls the pillage of Harry Frazee's Red Sox as the making of the Yankees, Gehrig, Earle Combs, and Tony Lazzeri were discovered elsewhere, and others (Bob Meusel and Herb Pennock, for example) blossomed under Huggins's encouragement and handling. When he died'n-(((of erysipelas in 1929, at age 50, judgment was nearly universal that Huggins was in a managerial class by himself. A plaque in his honor was placed in Yankee Stadium's centerfield in 1932. (ADS)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » October 8, 1904: In a 7-inning nitecap, called on account of darkness, the Reds Miller Huggins lashes three triples against the Cardinals. The Reds win, 8-1. » August 5, 1905: The Reds score eight runs in the 1st en route to a 19–6 win over Brooklyn. Miller Huggins score five runs for Cincinnati. » June 19, 1907: Miller Huggins, diminutive 2B of the Reds, leads off the game against New York with a home run off Christy Mathewson. The rare occurrence (he hits only nine in his career) astonishes the home town fans and they celebrate by presenting him with a pair of shoes, a gold watch, a 5-pound box of chocolates, a scarf pin, and a Morris chair. The Reds win in the 9th when Larry McLean drives home two runs for a 3-2 win. » April 14, 1910: Reds pitcher Fred Beebe fires a 3-hitter in stopping the Cubs, 1–0, in 10 innings. Wildfire Schulte has all three Chicago hits. Beebe was acquired in February from the Cards, along with Alan Storke, for Miller Huggins, Rebel Oakes, and Frank Corridon. » June 1, 1910: At Philadelphia, the Cardinals double the Phillies, winning 10–5 before a chilly crowd of 800 fans. The Phils have now dropped 14 of their last 15 games. The Cards are paced by leadoff hitter Miller Huggins, who has no official at bats in six appearances, the first time this has ever happened. Huggins walks his first three times up, hits a sac fly and a sacrifice in his next two, and walks with the sacks full in the 8th to push across the lead run. Huggins will lead the NL in passes with 116. » November 4, 1912: Miller Huggins is named manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, beginning his 17-year career as a skipper. » August 7, 1915: As Brooklyn's rookie pitcher steps to the mound, St. Louis manager Miller Huggins, coaching at 3B, calls for the ball. The rookie obliges, Huggins steps aside, and the Cardinal runner scores. A change in the rules will prevent such trickery in the future. » October 26, 1917: Miller Huggins, who managed the Cardinals to a 3rd-place finish, is signed to run the Yankees by owner Jake Ruppert. Co-owner Til Huston, who favored Wilbert Robinson for the job, has a falling out with partner Ruppert and will sell his half interest to Ruppert in 1923. » September 29, 1921: With New York in 1st place by one 1/2 games over Cleveland, and facing the Indians in the 4th game of the series, Miller Huggins polls his players to find out who they'd like to see start. The team elects to go with veteran Jack Quinn, but the spitballer comes up dry giving up three runs in the 1st inning before Waite Hoyt relieves. Ruth hits a 1st inning home run, adds an RBI double in the 3rd and a 2-run home run in the 5th to give the Yankees the lead. Carl Mays, who took over in the 5th, strikes out Steve O'Neill with two on in the 9th to end it 5–4. The win increases New York's lead to two 1/2 games. The four-game series at the Polo Grounds draws a record 147,000 people. » October 11, 1921: Miller Huggins gambles in Game six with lefty Harry Harper (4-3), and the Yankees drive Fred Toney (18-11) to cover with three in the first. But the Giants come back with three in the 2nd, and continue the attack against Bob Shawkey while Jess Barnes slams the door, striking out 10, including seven in a row sandwiched around four walks. Emil "Irish" Meusel and Frank Snyder homer for the Giants in an 8–5 win. It is Barnes' 2nd World Series win in relief. » May 5, 1925: Everett Scott is benched by New York manager Miller Huggins, ending his record 1,307-game playing streak. Pee Wee Wanninger replaces him at SS in the 6–2 loss to the A's. Scott will soon go to Washington on waivers. The Yanks send lefty P Ray Francis to the Red Sox for OF Bobby Veach and P Alex Ferguson. The two will be waived together in August. » August 29, 1925: After a night on the town, Babe Ruth shows up late for batting practice. Miller Huggins suspends Ruth and slaps a $5,000 fine on him for disobeying orders on the field and team rules off the field. In the showdown between the Bambino and the tiny manager, Jake Ruppert backs up his manager. Ruth is forced to apologize before he's reinstated nine days later. The day after his return to the lineup, Ruth hits HR number 300. » September 13, 1927: Babe Ruth hits two (52), and the Yankees win a pair from Cleveland to clinch the AL pennant with a 98-41 record and 17-game lead. It is Miller Huggins's fifth pennant, tying him with Connie Mack. » May 24, 1928: In the first game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia, a major-league record 13 future Hall of Famers take the field as the first-place Yankees take on the 2nd-place A's. This number does not include non-playing Hall of Famers Herb Pennock and Stan Coveleski, managers Miller Huggins and Connie Mack, nor umpires Tom Connally and Bill McGowan. [HOFs: Earle Combs, Leo Durocher, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and Waite Hoyt for New York; Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Eddie Collins, Lefty Grove, and Jimmie Foxx for the A's.] Led by Lazzeri's three hits and six RBIs, the Yanks edge the A's, 9–7, handing the defeat to Lefty Grove. The A's win the nitecap, 5–2, behind rookie Ossie Orwell. » September 25, 1929: Three days after turning the team over to coach Art Fletcher, Yankee manager Miller Huggins dies from blood poisoning at New York's St. Vincent Hospital. He was 49. On the day of his funeral in Cincinnati, the AL will cancel all games. » May 30, 1932: A plaque in memory of Miller Huggins, former Yankee manager, is dedicated at Yankee Stadium, the first of an array of monuments erected in the ballpark. The Yanks then sweep the Red Sox, 7–5 and 13–3 to increase their lead to five games over Washington. » November 15, 1945: The rules are revised for election of modern players to the Hall of Fame. A runoff election is formulated as a way to qualify more players for selection, but it fails to meet its objective as no one reaches the 75 percent requirement in the runoff. Frank Chance, Johnny Evers, Miller Huggins, and Ed Walsh come closest. » February 2, 1964: The Hall of Fame Special Veterans Committee tabs Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush, John Montgomery Ward, and Miller Huggins for induction, the biggest veterans class ever. Keefe and Ward were teammates and brothers-in-law, with Ward married to the famous actress Helen Dauvrey and Keefe married to her sister Clara Gibson. » August 25, 1996: The Yankees dedicate their 1st new monument in 47 years, to Mickey Mantle, in Monument Park in center field at Yankee Stadium. Miller Huggins, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig are also honored with monuments, while 15 men are honored on plaques.