Scroll Down to Read Today’s Essay

Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive for automatic updates. As a Free Bonus, you’ll get instant access to my Special Report: Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

Joe McCarthy Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

 

Joe McCarthy’s Boston Years, 1948-1950

“Sure I’m lucky…to have spent the last nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the greatest manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy.” –Lou Gehrig, from his “Luckiest Man” Speech, July 4, 1939.

Forty-six years ago today, January 13, 1978, Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy passed away at age 90. We’re all familiar with Joe McCarthy’s success as the winningest manager in Yankee history from 1931-1946. In 16 seasons at the Yankees helm, all he did is go 1460-867 (.627) with eight pennants and seven World Series championships. And all this came after a pennant with the Cubs in 1929, their first in eleven years.

But how many fans remember that Joe McCarthy was also the Red Sox manager from 1948 to 1950? He continued his winning ways in Boston, compiling a remarkable 229-145 (.606) record. Although he failed to win a pennant in Boston with two heart-breaking second-place finishes, he came awfully close. In 1948, his Red Sox finished in a tie for first with the Indians, but he lost a one-game playoff for the American League pennant to the Tribe; and in 1949, he lost the pennant in the final weekend of the season to the Yankee (detailed beautifully in David Haberstram’s book: The Summer of ’49). Ted Williams felt the two emotionally draining second-place finishes took the heart out of McCarthy, adding “He finally quit during the ’50 season, I think, out of his own extreme disappointment.”

Of course, McCarthy’s overall managerial success over 24 seasons ranks him as one of the greatest managers in baseball history. He’s first in many significant categories, including holding the highest winning percentage during both the regular season (2125-1333, .615) and post-season (26-13, .667); and was the first manager to win pennants in both the National and American Leagues. His 3487 games managed rank eighth all-time and his 2125 wins rank ninth all-time. His teams won 100 or more games six times (a record shared with Bobby Cox). In a total of 32 years managing in the major and minor league level, his 1922 Louisville club was the only team to finish either with a losing record or below fourth place.

McCarthy cited “health reasons” for his resignation from the Yankee helm three months into the 1946 season, but there were also persistent rumors that he resigned due to a personality conflict with new Yankee president, the mercurial Larry MacPhail. After two years out of baseball, McCarthy was hired by the Red Sox, who had finished 14 games behind the Yankees in 1947, for the 1948 season.

Some detractors believed Joe McCarty’s success was simply due to being fortunate enough to have talented teams. He was once described by White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes as a “push-button” manager. Yet McCarthy was an outstanding teacher and developer of talent, and was particularly adept at handling temperamental players such as Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig, as his above quote attests, would certainly disagree with Dykes’ assessment of Joe McCarthy. 

When McCarthy resigned as Boston manager on July 22, 1950, again citing ill health, his critics were ready to pounce. Ed Fitzgerald in Sport magazine wrote:

“The sportswriters of the town, who greeted McCarthy with open arms when he took over the job, have been beating him over the head ever since… They criticized his handling of his players, his relations with the press, his every positive or negative act.”

But he was not without his admirers. Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times,

“Joe McCarthy failed at Boston. It’s unfortunate that his departure had to come on such a sour note because the small-minded men who don’t know any better will definitely remark that he could never manage a ball club anyway and add that it’s good riddance. They’ll even add that the records are false in proclaiming that the square-jawed Irishman from Buffalo won more pennants than John McGraw and Connie Mack.”

Joe McCarthy, one of the most successful managers in baseball history, was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1957.  In a 1969 poll by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, McCarthy finished third in voting for the greatest manager in history, behind John McGraw and Casey Stengel. On April 29, 1976 the Yankees dedicated a plaque to him in Monument Park.

So today, on the anniversary of his death, we gladly shine our baseball spotlight on “Marse Joe,” Joe McCarthy. 

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: “The Baseball Hall Of Fame Collection,” by James Buckley; the “New York Yankees’ Illustrated History,” by the New York Times; and public domain, Getty Images, the Leslie Jones Boston Public Library Baseball collection, and the Charles Conlon collection

Information: Excerpts edited from “Cooperstown, Hall of Fame Players” by Publications International; and the Joe McCarthy Wikipedia page.

Subscribe to our website, Baseball History Comes Alive with over 1400 fully categorized baseball essays and photo galleries, now surpassing the one million hits mark with 1,142,000 hits and over 950 subscribers