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| Larry MacPhail |
| by Ralph Berger |
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Flamboyant, visionary, ego- or monomaniacal, tempestuous, alcoholic, and self-destructive-the words approach but do not satisfactorily explain Larry MacPhail. His innovative approach to the game brought about night baseball and baseball on the radio. He was a mover and shaker in the world of major league baseball until in a fury he catapulted himself right into retirement.
MacPhail was unquestionably a genius. A list of his innovations and accomplishments in the game boggles the mind:
1. First night game in the major leagues
2. First televised game (August 26, 1939)
3. First to introduce "Old Timers' Games" to the majors
4. First to establish pension funds for club employees throughout all levels of baseball
5. Headed first committee for players' pension funds, the finest in sports
6. First to use air plane travel for baseball teams
7. First to shake up New York City by broadcasting all home and road games. (The first radio broadcast of a baseball game in the majors was by Harold Arlen in Pittsburgh in 1921.)
8. First to introduce yellow baseballs, which were never accepted in baseball came to the fore in both tennis and golf
9. First to regularly schedule doubleheaders
10. First to install a stadium club
11. First to introduce season ticket plan
12. First to develop and introduce protective batting helmets (see McKelvey, The MacPhails)
To observe MacPhail is to watch the up-and-down motion of a seesaw. He had a talent for bailing out poor teams in desperate financial straits. Able to wheel and deal, he saw opportunities way ahead of other baseball executives. But just when his clubs were making money and winning, he self-destructed. While alienating almost everyone around him, MacPhail was an oracle who saw how baseball could survive, and even flourish, in a changing world.
Larry MacPhail got in people's faces. He wore flashy clothes and drank heavily, yet had the nerve of an entrepreneur. His swiftly changing moods made him difficult if not impossible to comprehend. He would fire Leo Durocher many times only to rehire him the next day. But his teams always made money. Not surprisingly, many thought he verged on insanity.
Leland Stanford MacPhail was born in Cass City, a tiny city in the Thumb of Michigan on March 3, 1890. His father William Curtis MacPhail, a Scottish immigrant, was a storekeeper and a banker. MacPhail's mother, nee Catherine Ann MacMurtrie, was a close friend of Mrs. Leland Stanford, the wife of the famous railroad builder, governor and senator from California, and founder of Stanford University. Due to this close friendship, MacPhail's mother named him Leland Stanford. Larry was born into a successful and prosperous banking family. At the age of sixteen he was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy but instead went to Beloit College, the University of Michigan and George Washington University, emerging with a law degree. At Beloit he played baseball and was a halfback on the football team. He was unsuccessful as a lawyer, finishing 0-for-200 representing the Union Pacific Railroad against the Midwestern Shippers from suits stemming from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
When America entered the war in 1917, MacPhail enlisted as a private in the US Army and helped form a volunteer regiment from Kentucky. He rose to the rank of Captain, becoming commander of an artillery battery. He fought at St. Mihiela and at the Argonne Forest, and was both gassed and wounded. At the end of the war, MacPhail and some buddies tried to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm. They almost were imprisoned themselves as they were unsuccessful in the attempt and barely got out with their lives and a monstrosity of a souvenir, an ashtray featuring a pipe-puffing wolf.
After being discharged from the Army, MacPhail refereed Big Ten football games and toyed with various ventures, most of which were unsuccessful. Nineteen thirty proved to be the turning point in his life as he acquired an option to buy the Columbus baseball team that was in dire financial straits. MacPhail brokered the sale of the club to Branch Rickey, and Columbus became part of the St. Louis farm system. MacPhail was made president of the Columbus club.
Through his entrepreneurial farsightedness and innovative boldness MacPhail brought back the ailing Columbus team to financial stability. He had a new stadium built and introduced Ladies Day season tickets whereby women could purchase a season ticket for all home games for just $3.00 or a nickel a game. He organized a knothole gang that thrilled Judge Landis and also had lights installed. In 1932 the Columbus team outdrew their parent Cardinals 310,000 to 279,000. At the beginning of the 1933 season MacPhail had what he thought was a team that would win the pennant of the American Association. The St. Louis team, however, needed an outfielder and asked MacPhail to send Burgess Whitehead up to the parent team. MacPhail acceded to Branch Rickey's wishes but only after Rickey agreed send to the Columbus club Gordon Slade, Jim Lindsey, Charley Wilson, Ralph Judd and Art Shires. MacPhail's insistence on putting the welfare of the Columbus team ahead of the parent team caused the first rift between Rickey and MacPhail.
Rickey was also unhappy with the office Larry had provided for himself. It was lavish compared to Rickey's office, and the older man did not approve. Rickey soon had his boss Sam Breadon on Larry's case. Called on the carpet to Mr. Breadon's office, MacPhail was asked if he saw any paneling. Larry chortled, for he knew who had whispered to Breadon about his plush office. "Mr. Breadon," he said, "if you could get solid walnut paneling for your office at no cost and Oriental rugs for the cost of a kitchen floor, wouldn't you do it?" Larry went on to explain that the contractor who had built the ballpark had done such an excellent job with Larry's help that he finished ahead of schedule, thereby earning himself a $50,000 bonus. Out of gratitude for the bonus he repaid Larry by giving him a fancy office.
MacPhail and Rickey, of course, never saw eye to eye. Rickey was an abstemious, church going person; Larry was a drinker, a flashy dresser, and a loudmouth. Cincinnati offered MacPhail a way out from under Rickey.
Sidney Weil, President and Director of the Cincinnati ballclub, decided to retire in 1933 and turned his stock over to the Central Trust Company in Cincinnati. The previous year, MacPhail and a group of friends had attempted to purchase the Reds. However, they needed at least one million dollars to pull off the deal; not having that backing, they decided not to purchase the club. Now that Mr. Weil had retired this previous contact and the praise MacPhail had received from his success at Columbus pointed to him as the ideal person to change the fortunes of the Cincinnati ballclub. He was elected Vice-president and General Manager of the Reds. But before it was official he had to be confirmed by the rest of the National League. At a meeting on December 12-13, 1933, MacPhail's fate was decided by the owners of the various National League clubs including Mr. Branch Rickey. After a long debate the owners approved MacPhail as the Vice-President and General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
Larry MacPhail soon brought winning baseball back to Cincinnati. In 1934, after a hard sell with Powel Crosley Jr., owner of radio manufacturing plants and radio stations, MacPhail persuaded Crosley to purchase the Reds for $450,000, and take an option. Crosley picked up the option from the bank in 1936. MacPhail put in lights at Crosley Field; this ramped up the attendance, and with newly found cash MacPhail was able to build a winning team. Players such as Johnny Vander Meer, Paul Derringer, Bucky Walters, Ival Goodman and Ernie Lombardi helped pave the way for pennant winners in 1939 and 1940 and a World Series championship in 1940.
Embroiled in controversy, however, MacPhail left at the end of the 1937 season before the Reds won any of these championships. Crosley was displeased with MacPhail's altercations with the police. It seemed after some heavy drinking MacPhail had run-ins with police officers, most notably in an elevator where he had a fistfight with police Sgt. John Oman. Crosley confronted MacPhail and told him he was unhappy with the notorious publicity. MacPhail departed and spent the rest of 1937 in the banking business in Michigan.
Many teams rejected night baseball at first, and The Sporting News hesitated to endorse it. On December 12, 1934, the National League voted to allow each of its franchises to play seven night games. The Giants, Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates voted against the proposal. The Cardinals were interested but said they only leased Sportsman's Park. The Boston Braves and the Phillies expressed interest but declined because of economic problems. The Chicago Cubs supported the use of lights but chose not to do so in 1935. This left only the Cincinnati Reds to play night baseball in 1935. They were given permission to play seven games under the lights, one against each of their opponents in the National League unless an opponent objected.
Nocturnal baseball in the major leagues (minor leagues had been playing under lights for some time) began on May 24, 1935. At 8:30 P.M. President Roosevelt pushed a button in the White House, signaling MacPhail to turn on the lights at Crosley Field. The Reds defeated the Phillies, 2-1. The ballplayers' reaction to nighttime ball was positive. There had been some speculation that under lights only the top side of the ball would be visible; this was not the case, and everyone was quite satisfied with the game. Some 20,422 fans attended that first major league night game. Larry MacPhail had shown his ability to anticipate the fans' and eventually the owners' satisfaction in what has become a staple of major league baseball.
In 1938, MacPhail received a call from a bank to come to Brooklyn and bail out the team that was in dire financial straits. McPhail answered the call and put the Dodgers back into contention. McPhail saw baseball and radio as a match made in heaven. Recognizing this, he set about furthering the cause of baseball on the radio. MacPhail also realized that average working men and women could rarely go to a ball game in the afternoon and saw night baseball as a means of fostering their interest. Accordingly, he reasoned, he could increase profits at the box office. Too, at Brooklyn in his first year he hired Babe Ruth as a coach and tried out a lemon yellow ball; neither of these experiments helped much.
However, it was his clever trading ability that really counted. In 1938, he fired Casey Stengel and hired Burleigh Grimes as manager. He got Dolph Camilli from the Phillies, Cookie Lavagetto from Pittsburgh and Freddie Fitzsimmons from the Giants. In 1939, he hired Leo Durocher as manager and secured Luke "Hot Potato" Hamlin and Hugh Casey. Attendance soared and the Dodgers outdrew the mighty Yankees 960,000 to 860,000 with the Giants lagging at 700,000. It was at Brooklyn that Larry made possible daily broadcasts of Dodger games. He hired Red Barber, whose soothing Southern voice taught many a housewife and young boys and girls the intricacies of baseball, to call the games. At first many club owners were leery of broadcasting games but soon found out that it brought more fans to the ballpark. In 1940, he put more pieces of the puzzle together when he added PeeWee Reese at shortstop and Dixie Walker and Joe Medwick in the outfield along with pitcher Curt Davis. In 1941, he plucked Pete Reiser out of the St.Louis chain gang, and the result was the first Dodger pennant since 1920.
Branch Rickey and MacPhail had become entangled over Reiser during the 1939 season. Rickey had him in his St. Louis farm system when Judge Landis felt that Sam Breadon and Rickey had conspired to obtain complete control over the lower classification clubs through "secret understandings." Landis punished the Red Birds by cutting loose 74 players under their control. The only player cut loose under Landis' edict that Rickey hated to lose was Reiser, whom he thought could develop into a combination of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth (see Warfield, The Roaring Redhead.
Rickey contacted MacPhail, asking him to sign Reiser and keep him out of sight in the low minors until 1940, when it would be legal for Reiser to be traded and signed by Rickey. Signed by the Dodgers and assigned to Elmira for the farcical sum of $100, Reiser was impossible to get out and was phenomenal in the field whether at shortstop or in the outfield. At spring training in 1940 Durocher, unaware of the deal with Rickey, started playing Reiser in exhibition games. In three exhibition games against, coincidentally, the Cardinals all he did was get on base eleven consecutive times, bang out seven hits, four of them homers, and field sensationally. Durocher naturally bragged about this rookie, and the sportswriters ate it up. MacPhail stormed about in a fit, and Rickey was boiling mad. MacPhail sent a wire to Durocher, "DO NOT PLAY REISER AGAIN." At first Leo was puzzled, wondering who was running the team. When the Dodgers moved on to Macon, Leo again penciled in Reiser. Just as the game was about to start, John MacDonald, the Dodgers' traveling secretary and Larry's right-hand man, told Durocher not to play Reiser and to report to MacPhail on the double. As soon as Leo entered MacPhail's suite, MacPhail told Durocher he was fired, to pack his bags and get out of the organization. But he didn't stop there; he ripped Durocher up and down, cursing him vehemently. Durocher finally had enough and shoved MacPhail, who fell over the bed in a somersault. Up popped MacPhail, and as if by magic he seemed to release his pent-up emotions, and put his arm around Leo and told him he was still the manager. MacPhail calmly went on to say that Reiser should be optioned to Elmira so that he could further develop his talent.
During the 1940 season MacPhail needed a hard-hitting veteran outfielder. His gaze rested upon Joe Medwick of the Cardinals. Rickey said Medwick would be available but at a steep price. The Dodgers did acquire Medwick on June 12, 1940, giving up four players and $125,000. MacPhail felt he had all the pieces for a pennant. But fate intervened, changing both the course of Medwick's career and the means baseball employed to keep players safe. About noon on June 19, Durocher and Medwick were going down the elevator in the New Yorker Hotel to prepare for the game with the Cards. The elevator stopped on a lower floor where Bob Bowman of the Cardinals got on. Bowman was scheduled to pitch that day in Brooklyn. Durocher started to needle Bowman with Medwick following suit. Bowman took it for some time and then exploded. "I'll take care of you! I'll take care of both of you," he said. Leo replied, "Why you bum, you'll be out of there before Joe and I get to bat!"
After the Cardinals were retired in the top of the first inning, the Dodgers came to bat. When Medwick came up, Bowman's first pitch struck him full force on his left temple. Medwick went down like he was shot. Medwick lay unconscious at the plate. The Dodgers poured out of their dugout, some with bats in hand, and the Cardinals came out of their dugout to protect Bowman. And MacPhail (according to some newspapers) went berserk. At this point stories and truth collided. The next day both the New York Times and the New York Herald reported that MacPhail ran onto the field and to the Cardinals dugout challenging everyone in sight. However, in a 1958 interview with Gerald Holland in Sports Illustrated he vehemently denied ever running onto the field of play. Whether MacPhail was on the field or not, the important thing was Medwick's condition. Medwick was rushed to the Caledonia Hospital, where the doctors found a severe concussion but no fracture. Medwick recovered but was never the same player.
As to the game, Cardinal manager Billy Southworth removed Bowman from the game; Bowman needed a police escort to get out of Ebbets Field safely. MacPhail phoned National League president Ford Frick demanding that Bowman be barred from baseball. Frick did nothing about the incident, and MacPhail cooled down as Medwick's condition improved, and the season continued.
MacPhail, not forgetting the incident, contacted George Eli Bennett, professor of orthopedic surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the two devised a protective helmet for players. Bennett recalled that MacPhail got a jockey's protective cap from Alfred Gynne Vanderbilt and they took it to Dr. Walter Dandy, a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins who was working on a protective helmet for boxers. Just before he died Bennett gave full credit to Larry MacPhail for the use of protective batting helmets in the major leagues.
Jubilation reigned in 1941 when the Dodgers won their first pennant since 1920. But some unhappy moments followed the jubilation. After the team clinched the flag in Boston, MacPhail tried to meet their return train at New York's 125th Street Station so that he would be aboard when they triumphantly reached a throng of fans at Grand Central. Upon hearing that some players were going to disembark at 125th Street, Durocher decided to skip the stop in order that the whole team could get off at Grand Central. Eagerly awaiting the train, MacPhail was left standing, mouth agape, as the train rushed by him in a whirl of dust. Finally catching up with the team, MacPhail was livid and fired Durocher on the spot, only to rehire him a short time later. As Durocher said, "There is a thin line between genius and insanity, and in Larry's case it was sometimes so thin you could see him drifting back and forth."
The World Series of 1941with the Yankees produced the infamous third strike miss by Mickey Owen and an eventual Yankee victory. Despite the bitter loss, the Dodgers had become a force in the National League.
MacPhail's family life was as tormented as his baseball career. He married Inez Thompson of Oak Park, Illinois, on October 19, 1910, and had three children with her: Leland Jr., William and Marian. William was a television executive, Marian was the head of research at Time and Lee MacPhail became a renowned baseball executive in his own right. Life as the wife of a baseball executive and the move of the family from Columbus to Larchmont, New York, left Inez feeling alone and deprived of the many friends she had in Ohio. The strain between the two could not be resolved. MacPhail had started divorce proceedings in 1941, but the final decree wasn't rendered until 1945. After divorcing Inez, he married Jean Bennett Wanamaker on May 16, 1945, and the couple had one daughter, Jennie..
MacPhail was back in the Army during World War II, doing public relations work for the Army. His old mentor Branch Rickey replaced him at Brooklyn.
Baseball's Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, died on November 25, 1944. MacPhail, still in the Army but apparently on leave, attended meetings on February 3, 1945, to elect a new commissioner and actively promoted Albert "Happy" Chandler, United States Senator from Kentucky, for the position. In April of 1945 Chandler was elected Commissioner of baseball, MacPhail's influence having been considerable.
Discharged from the service on February 10, 1945, MacPhail went to the New York Yankees. His tempestuous side was in such full swing that three managers quit on him in 1946: Joe McCarthy, Bill Dickey, and Johnny Neunn. MacPhail and Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey sat down one evening and after some heavy drinking almost came to terms in what would have been one of the biggest blockbuster deals in baseball's history-Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams even up. By morning Yawkey, getting greedy, also wanted young catcher Yogi Berra thrown into the deal. By now both had sobered up, and Yawkey's wanting Berra was too much for MacPhail. The trade talks withered away.
In 1946 baseball had to deal with some labor problems. Chandler banned several ballplayers who had signed contracts to play with the Mexican League. Also, Robert Murphy, a young labor lawyer with the CIO, tried to organize a player's union. The owners were worried enough to form a committee that held a series of meetings. Headed up by Larry MacPhail, the meetings took place without Murphy. Some tangible benefits, none of them sweeping, did come out of these discussions, including a $25-a-week allowance during spring training (called Murphy money even today); a $5,000 minimum salary; a modest pension plan; and formal representation of the players on a council with the owners and the league presidents. These were small concessions; the ballplayers would have to wait many years before free agency and greater bargaining power came their way.
MacPhail and Durocher's mouths and general rashness embroiled them in an uproar during spring training in 1947 that would have serious consequences. Durocher, under heavy criticism for fighting with fans and umpires, was also under attack for his life away from the ball field. At a spring training exhibition game Leo pointed to some well-known gamblers who appeared to be in a box seat with Larry MacPhail. Durocher said, "If that was my box I'd be barred from baseball."
Actually, the gamblers were not sitting in the same box as the MacPhail; they were in one box seat behind them. Hearing of Durocher's remark, MacPhail demanded that Chandler do something about it. Chandler held two hearings, on March 24 and March 28. On April 9, just before the regular season was to open, he suspended Leo Durocher from baseball for one year. This suspension resulted in outcries from fans, and even some owners, who felt Durocher had been unfairly punished. Many felt that this harsh treatment was a political payback to MacPhail for his aid in getting the Commissionership for Chandler.
Coincident with the Durocher controversy, major league baseball in 1947 endured the throes and traumas of integration with the arrival of Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn. For his part, MacPhail was ambivalent about the integration of baseball. He felt that the black ballplayers were not disciplined--that natural ability was not enough to enter the major leagues. Many considered this sophistry on the part of MacPhail, but he was by no means alone in his views.
In any case, the Yankees, under MacPhail, won the pennant and the World Series in 1947. MacPhail was ecstatic. As Branch Rickey was leaving the field, MacPhail caught up with the disconsolate Rickey, putting his arm around his shoulder, offering his hand, and starting to congratulate him on the fine job he had done with the Dodgers. Rickey cut him short. "'I am taking your hand,' he said, 'only because people are watching us.'" Rickey then launched into reasons for his disappointment in MacPhail as a man. Finishing his chastisement, he ended their relationship once and for all: "Don't you ever speak to me again." MacPhail's elation turned to deep anger as he entered the Yankees' clubhouse.
As the Yankees were whooping it up, MacPhail entered and turned the clubhouse celebration on its head when, in a drunken stupor, he erupted by unleashing a barrage of insults, punching a writer, and announcing his resignation. His horrendous behavior continued at the Biltmore Hotel, where MacPhail tearfully announced his retirement again. Del Webb and Dan Topping bought out the fifty-seven-year-old MacPhail the next day for two million dollars.
Following the "Battle of the Biltmore," MacPhail and baseball with finished with each other. Possibly seeking a more placid life, he bought a farm outside of Baltimore that he called Glenangus near the Bowie Racetrack, where he raised Black Angus cattle and bred racehorses. Larry was also President of the Bowie Racetrack during his retirement. The farm was sold when it ran into financial troubles.
MacPhail had his first battle with cancer in 1952. Informed that he might have cancer in his throat, he asked the opinions of several doctors, some affirming and others denying the diagnosis. But MacPhail was not satisfied with the answers and sought the opinion of his daughter's husband, Dr. Walsh McDermott. Larry sent the slide results up to his son-in-law. On New Year's Eve, he and his wife Jean were drinking when the phone rang. It was Dr. McDermott from New York, saying that three top physicians said he had cancer of the larynx. Larry was ordered to get up to New York post-haste. The operation was a success.
The second go-round with cancer, in 1957, involved the intestines. Again, timely action on Larry's part saved his life. After this operation Larry sold all his remaining horses at Saratoga in August.
MacPhail's last years were sad. The ravages of alcohol and the onset of what we now know as Alzheimer's were affecting his once great entrepreneurial mind. He was failing psychologically and physically. His children wanted to put him into a private institution, but he insisted on going to a Veterans hospital. There he found some solace in the huge American flag that fluttered in the breeze just outside his bedroom window and in the ice cream that was served every day. Going to the Veterans hospital was as if he wanted to recapture the past when he was an officer in both World Wars. He was obstreperous with the staff and to the very end true to his nature as the Roaring Redhead.
MacPhail died on October 1, 1975, at the age of eighty-five, in the Jackson Manor Nursing home in Miami, Florida. Surviving were his wife Jean, son Lee, and daughters Jennie MacPhail and Marian McDermott.
Whatever his shortcomings, MacPhail was a major contributor to baseball. His almost manic energy and far-sightedness carried him far beyond the innate conservatism of major league baseball in his time. For seventeen years he was a prime mover in the world of baseball.
Larry MacPhail was a baseball maverick at a time when his fellow executives were satisfied with the status quo. Larry was a populist who knew that the people who were the backbone of the sport were the average guys struggling to make a living in desperate times. He played a vital role in baseball enduring the difficult times in which he operated.
Not surprisingly, his contributions to the game earned him election to the Hall of Fame in 1978. Not surprisingly, too, his personality ensured that the honor would be posthumous.
Postscript
Three generations of MacPhails became baseball executives. Son Lee was instrumental in continuing the Yankee dynasty into1950s, building the great Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1960s and also served as president of the American League; he was named to the Hall of Fame in 1998. Grandson Andy was general manager of the 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins and remains in the game today as president and general manager of the Chicago Cubs. Neither seemed to inherit Larry's instability.
Sources
Barber, Red. 1947-When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball. New York: Doubleday, 1982.
www.BaseballLibrary.com
Chatter From the Dugout. www.ballparks.com/baseball/general chatter
Crosley, Powell. New York Times Obituary March 29, 1961.
Holland, Gerald. "The Great MacPhail." Sports Illustrated. August 17-31, 1958, 62-68, 62-68, 58-64.
James, Bill. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. New York: The Free Press, 2001.
Karst, Gene. "MacPhail, Leland Stanford, Sr. 'Larry.'" In David L. Porter. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports-Baseball. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Koppett, Leonard. Koppett's Concise History of Major league Baseball. New York: Carroll and Graff, 2004.
"Landis, Kenesaw Mountain." Obituary. New York Times. November 26, 1944.
Light Jonathan Fraser. The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1997.
McKelvey, G. Richard. The MacPhails, Baseball's First Family of the Front Office. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2000.
Rader, Benjamin G. Baseball: A History of America's Game. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
Smith, Red. Red Smith on Baseball. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000.
Warfield, Don. The Roaring Redhead. South Bend: Diamond Communications, 1987.
White, G. Edward. The National Pastime. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
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