Hank Bauer

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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 (1948-1959) and Kansas City Athletics (1960-61); he batted and threw right-handed. He served as manager of the Athletics in both Kansas City (1961-62) and Oakland (1969), as well as of the Baltimore Orioles (1964-68), winning the 1966 World Series championship.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Career 3 Family life 4 Highlights 5 Quotes 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Early years

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois as the youngest of nine children, Bauer's Austrian immigrant father was 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.

Playing baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, Bauer's nose was permanently damaged after 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.

One month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While in the South Pacific, Bauer contracted malaria, but recovered enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars and a pair of Purple Hearts in 32 months of combat. His second injury came during the Battle of Okinawa, when he commanded a platoon of 64 men. Only six survived the brutal siege, with shrapnel hitting Bauer in the thigh and sending him home.

Returning to East St. Louis, he joined the local pipe fitter's union and stopped by a local bar where his brother Joe worked. Danny Menendez, a New York Yankees scout, signed him for a tryout with the team's farm club in Quincy, Illinois. The terms: $175 a month (a $25 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 Bronx Bombers in September 1948.

[edit] Career

In a 14-season career, Bauer had a .277 batting average with 164 home runs and 703 RBI in 1544 games. He had a career Equivalent Average ( EqA) of .277 and a WARP3 (Wins Above Replacement Player - version 3) of 51.7. He won the World Series with the Yankees seven times, and managed the Orioles to another World Series championship in 1966. He holds the World Series record for the longest hitting streak, at 17 games.

As a manager, he helped guide the Orioles to the 1966 World Championship. During the regular season he posted a 594-544 record, including two second-place finishes for the 1967 Orioles and 1969 Athletics.

After he retired, he returned home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted for the Yankees and the Royals.

[edit] Family life

Bauer moved to the Kansas City area 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.

Bauer died in his Kansas City area home on February 9, 2007 at the age of 84 from lung cancer.[1].

[edit] Highlights

• October 10, 1951: Bases loaded triple leads Yankees to 4-3 win over the New York Giants to clinch the 1951 World Series.
• 3-time All-Star (1952-54).
• From 1956-58 set a World Series hitting streak record of 17 games, which was later matched as a postseason record by Derek Jeter.
• Led American League in Triples (9) in 1957.

[edit] Quotes

• Hank crawled on top of the Yankee dugout and searched the stands, looking for a fan who was shouting racial slurs at Elston Howard. When asked about the incident, Bauer explained simply, "Ellie's my friend". -- Excerpt of the book "Clubhouse Lawyer", by Art Ditmar, former major league pitcher [2]

• 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

[edit] See also

• List of famous U.S. Marines

[edit] External links

• Baseball-Reference.com - career playing statistics and managing record
• BaseballLibrary - profile and career highlights
• Kansas City Star obituary

Preceded by Joe Gordon	Kansas City Athletics Manager 1961-1962	Succeeded by Eddie Lopat
Preceded by Billy Hitchcock	Baltimore Orioles Manager 1964-1968	Succeeded by Earl Weaver
Preceded by Bob Kennedy	Oakland Athletics Manager 1969	Succeeded by John McNamara