Warren Giles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warren Crandall Giles (28 May 1896 - 7 February 1979) was an American executive in Major League Baseball.

Warren Giles is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Giles served as an infantry officer in France during World War I.

Giles was elected president of the Moline, Illinois baseball club in the Three-I League in 1919 and began a 50-year career in baseball that saw him rise all the way to the presidency of the National League. Giles also served as team president of the Cincinnati Reds from 1937 to 1951, a tenure that included pennants in 1939 and 1940.

During his 18-year reign as chief of the National League (1951 to 1969), he presided over several historic events, including the birth of expansion baseball, several franchise moves — most notably, the opening of the West Coast territory by the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in 1958 — and the construction of numerous new stadiums. Giles' presidency also saw the NL widen its advantage over the American League in the signing of African-American and Latin American players, resulting in a dominance of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In clubhouse meetings before the midsummer classic, Giles famously would exhort the NL players to uphold their league's honor, and he lobbied against the trade of NL superstars to the Junior Circuit to preserve the NL's hegemony.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1979, shortly after his death in Cincinnati at age 82. Giles is interred in Riverside Cemetery in Moline, Illinois. The National League Championship Series Trophy is named in his honor.

[edit] External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• Baseball Library.com - biography and career highlights

Preceded by Larry MacPhail	Cincinnati Reds General Manager 1937–1951	Succeeded by Gabe Paul
Preceded by Ford Frick	National League president 1951–1969	Succeeded by Chub Feeney