Vern Benson
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Vernon Adair Benson (born September 19, 1924, in Granite Quarry, North Carolina) is a retired infielder/outfielder, coach, scout and interim manager in American Major League Baseball. During his playing career, he stood 5'11" (180 cm) tall, weighed 180 pounds (82 kg), batted lefthanded, and threw righthanded.
Benson attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He originally came to the majors with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943 and had a second trial with the Mackmen in 1946, but most of his career would be spent in the organization of the St. Louis Cardinals. While he appeared in only 46 games for St. Louis between 1951-53, he was a fixture with the Cards' Rochester Red Wings and Columbus Red Birds AAA farm clubs as a player. Overall, Benson batted .202 in 104 MLB at bats over five seasons, with three home runs and 12 runs batted in. In his finest minor league season, 1951 at Columbus, he batted .308 with 18 home runs and 89 RBI.
He became a manager in the Redbird system in 1956 with the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Goldeyes of the Class C Northern League. During the middle of the 1961 season, he was promoted to the Cardinals to serve as a coach under new skipper Johnny Keane.
Benson worked with Keane through the Cards' 1964 World Championship, then moved to the New York Yankees when Keane switched to the Bombers (his 1964 World Series opponent) in 1965. But the Yankees were in a downward spiral at the time, finishing sixth in the '65 American League race. Then they won only four of their first 20 games in 1966, resulting in Keane's firing and Benson's resignation on May 7.
Two months later, on July 13, 1966, Benson returned to the National League as a coach for fellow North Carolinian Dave Bristol, newly appointed pilot of the Cincinnati Reds. He spent the remainder of his MLB career in the Senior Circuit, as a coach for the Reds (through 1969), the Cardinals again (1970 through 1975), Atlanta Braves (1976-77), and San Francisco Giants (1980), working in the latter two posts under Bristol once again. He managed the Syracuse Chiefs, AAA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, in 1978-79. He won three playoff championships in the minor leagues, in: the Northern League (with Winnipeg) in 1957; the Texas League (with Tulsa) in 1960; and the International League (with Syracuse) in 1979.
He also managed the Braves for one game in 1977 under unusual circumstances. After the club lost 21 of its first 29 games, Bristol was fired and replaced by the team's owner, Ted Turner, a world-class yachtsman and television executive who had no baseball experience. After Turner lost his only game as the team's skipper, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered him to relinquish his managerial duties. Benson then stepped in for one game — which he also lost — before Bristol was rehired for the remainder of the season.
[edit] References
- Balzer, Howard M., ed. The Baseball Register, 1980 edition. St. Louis: The Sporting News.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Ted Turner |
Atlanta Braves Managers 1977 |
Succeeded by Dave Bristol |
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