Joe McCarthy’s Ten Years as a Louisville Colonel

Unlikely as it may seem, a careful reading of Louisville’s two major daily newspapers in January 1978 does not reveal a single article of local origination announcing that one of the city’s former sports cornerstones had passed away in upstate  New York. Perhaps it was a mark of shame to Louisville’s sense of  history that it ignored this man of intelligence and distinction; perhaps it was only another sign that the last quarter of the 20th century could be a  trifle inhospitable to its diamond heroes.

Joe McCarthy died on January 13, 1978 at the age of 90. Bowie Kuhn, then commissioner of baseball, said, “I thought McCarthy was the greatest manager there ever was.” But McCarthy’s importance to Louisville baseball went virtually unnoticed in the Louisville Courier-Journal and Louisville Times. Only Israel “Izzy” Goodman, formerly one of the state’s most popular sportsmen, noted his friend’s death in a letter to the editor, in which he called Joe the most successful manager baseball had ever known. “I knew McCarthy during the years he managed the Colonels and  later the New York Yankees into one championship after another,” Izzy noted. “He was a calm man with not only an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball, but of men and how to handle them.”

Although Joe eventually counted a host of friends from coast to coast, none was more staunchly loyal than Izzy and the group from Louisville who formed the Colonels’ Brotherhood of Boosters. The years Joe spent in Louisville were some of the happiest he knew, when people such as Izzy Goodman and Mitchell Roth counted him as their friend before fame beckoned.

“Good-field-no-hit”

Joseph Vincent McCarthy was born in 1887 in the Germantown suburb of Philadelphia where he played sandlot and high school ball. A good Catholic boy, he attended Niagara University in Buffalo, New York for two years before launching his professional baseball career. Short and stocky (5-foot-8, 170 lbs.), he was a multi-talented defensive player, noted for his aggressiveness and keen knowledge of the game.

McCarthy for played briefly for Wilmington of the Tri-State League in 1907 and then for the Franklin Club of the outlaw Inter-State League. In only two years, he signed with Triple-A Toledo of the American Association (AA), where he spent three full seasons. But his bat betrayed him, and he never hit over .254 there. He also played for Indianapolis of the AA, but, by 1912, he was playing for Wilkes-Barre of the New York State League. Impressing everyone with his leadership skills, McCarthy was named playing-manager in 1913 at age 26. He hit .325 there, his best year ever at the plate.

By 1914, he was playing second base for Buffalo of the International League, managed by “Derby Day” Bill Clymer, who had been a successful skipper at Louisville in 1902-1903. While at Buffalo, McCarthy went 0-4 against  Babe Ruth in the latter’s pitching debut for Baltimore in 1914 (in front of only 200 fans). When Clymer (who earned his nickname from the long jockey-type peak of his cap) was rehired to manage Louisville’s Colonels in 1916, he needed a second baseman.

By chance, McCarthy was available. In the winter of 1915-16, Ed Barrow, president of the International League, recommended McCarthy to the Yankees. A deal was in serious negotiation when McCarthy decided to sign with Brooklyn of the Federal League. When the league folded before the season, so did McCarthy’s only chance to avoid the tag of “career minor league player.”  Joe once recalled, I was twenty years in the minor leagues as a player and manager before I made it. I think I spent more time trying to get up there than almost anybody I know of.” In any event, he wound up at Louisville, where he became a “Corncracker,” as the local papers once called the Colonels.

McCarthy blossomed in Louisville. He became one of the best fielders and “brainiest” players in the league. His popularity soared with the fans, and he was greatly appreciated. His mediocre hitting (.259) typified the “good-field-no-hit” Colonels of 1916, who won 101 games and Louisville’s second AA pennant. A news account of a Colonel shutout of Memphis in 1919 characterizes McCarthy’s play:

Another Corncracker who dazzled the Memphians with his inside play was none other than sturdy Joe McCarthy. In the 3rd, the Colonel second sacker raced into deep right field and captured Griffin’s fly. A moment later he invaded left and camped under “Slats” Slattery’s pop-up. Before he went to the showers to remove the dust from his pulchritude, Joe helped wring the necks of eight chickens. Being in a truculent mood, he slaughtered five single-handed.

By 1919, McCarthy had become a fixture at second base. And when field manager Joseph Patrick Henry “Patsy” O’Flaherty resign in mid-season that year, apparently due to differences with general manager Cap Neal, the popular McCarthy was named player-manager. The press described him as “one of the brainiest players cavorting in the minors” and the local sports page headline read: “Brainy Second Baseman Chosen.”

Joe began to develop managing traits which would serve him well in the future: sound tactics, stable atmosphere, ability to handle stars, an infielder’s perspective and a low-key-ego. The main feature of the end of the Colonels’ season was winning 12 out of the last 13 games, all on the road!

McCarthy’s excellent showing with the club during the latter part of that season assured his selection for the same position in 1920. He took over the Louisville team just as it was ready to go to pieces and, despite injuries, bad luck and weak pitching, made a credible showing (finishing third).

McCarthy’s last season as a player was 1921, when he hit .278 (his Louisville high) in only 11 games. (His lifetime average was .261.)  That was also the year he married his Buffalo sweetheart “Babe” (who seldom viewed a Colonels’ game). He stayed in Louisville as a manager through the 1925 season. McCarthy was widely regarded as the best manage in the minor leagues; he was popular, settled, secure and relatively well-paid.

And on his way to the Hall of Fame!

Success in Louisville

During his 6 1/2 seasons at the helm in Louisville, McCarthy won two AA pennants (1921 and 1925) and one Junior World Series (1921). His upset defeat of Jack Dunn’s 1921 Baltimore Orioles came against a team described as “the finest minor league team of that era, perhaps one of the best in organized baseball at any level.”

McCarthy’s keen mind and ability to handle players made him a superlative manager. His formula for success was: get the players and keep them happy. In later years, he bristled when Jimmy Dykes of the White Sox called him a “push-button manager.”  His friends defended McCarthy from such sniping, saying, “…it took great understanding to mold divergent temperaments of star performers into a team that could win so often.”  In Louisville, McCarthy was lighthearted and at ease with himself, perhaps due to the influence of friends around him. “It is not strange that whenever he is sitting around talking baseball so many of his stories begin with: ‘I remember when I was in Louisville one day…”, reported Frank Graham in a 1946 New York Journal American column.

When pitcher Dixie Davis paid him a 1919 pre-season salute to the press by saying, “This is going to be his banner year,” McCarthy, usually mild-mannered, yelled “Thank you, hog-head, for your compliment!”  (Team secretary Pat Clark said sarcastically, “That’s a dadblamed refined way for Joe to acknowledge gratitude!”) On July 24 of that year, a McCarthy foul ball rebounded from the grandstands and hit his friend, John Ganzel, on the head, knocking the Kansas City Blues’ manager out for several minutes before being revived. All enjoyed a good chuckle. When that season concluded, Joe formed a business partnership with former Colonel captain Roxey Roach to open a string of poolrooms and amusement emporiums in Pennsylvania.

Evidently, Joe traveled with a rather large wardrobe. He was kidded that it would take him three or four hours to pack his garments. In response, he joked that slugging first sacker Jay Kirke was never known “..to travel with heavy luggage. It usually consists of the civilian suit he has been wearing since his 21st birthday, a plug of licoriced tobacco and his diamond toggery, which he uses for a pillow when he is embraced by Morpheus.”

Reports Arthur Daley in a 1948 New York Times column:

Marse Joe McCarthy’s life is so wrapped up in baseball that he has no interest in any other sport. But he did have bets riding on four successive Derbies, and if Commissioner Chandler wants to do anything about it, he’s welcome. It happened this way. When McCarthy was at Louisville, he struck up a warm friendship with Izzy Goodman.

Just for old times’ sake, Izzy bet $2 for Joe on a Derby and, the colt winning, mailed him a check. The astonished McCarthy stuck it away in his desk and many months later mailed it back to Goodman with a note of thanks. So Izzy bet the sum on the next Derby and mailed another check. Joe returned it. The indefatigable Goodman parlayed it on the next Derby and won once more. By then the sum was up in the hundreds and McCarthy’s embarrassment grew. He sighed with relief when he lost the wad on the fourth Derby. End of McCarthy as a hoss player.

During Joe’s tenure as manager, fire claimed Eclipse Park at 7th and Kentucky streets after the 1922 season. This led to the construction of concrete Parkway Field, which opened on May 1, 1923, and which was used by the Colonels for 33 years until all home games were moved to Fairgrounds Stadium in 1957.

The Brotherhood of Boosters was continually organizing support for McCarthy and the “Corncrackers”. When Louisville clinched the 1925 Association pennant in Columbus, the Boosters met them upon the Colonels’ return at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast. On September 25, 1925, a glorious “Joe McCarthy Day” was planned at Parkway Field by the Boosters, apparently the only such major public Gabby Hartnett with McCarthy recognition he received in Louisville during his 10 seasons there. A crowd of up to 15,000 was expected, but the next day’s headline read, “Rain Undermines McCarthy Day, But Not For McCarthy.” The rain, which began at noon, held attendance to 5,260 fans, and it also decreased the sales of the souvenir programs, the proceeds of which went into a pot of gold and silver given to Joe by the Boosters. Even though the Boosters were depressed over the rain-caused low turnout, McCarthy was extremely gracious in his remarks. He thought the day was an “unbounding success” and said that “the day could not have been any better … the goodness of everyone stunned me.” Joe further commented that the remembrances and speeches made him blush for the first time in his life!

McCarthy also reminisced about Kentuckian Combs: “I had Earle Combs playing for me when I was managing Louisville. The Yankees wanted to buy him – that was around 1924. We told them that we’d make the deal if they would throw in this kid they had at Hartford named Gehrig … but they wouldn’t turn him loose. We made the deal anyway.”

As Joe matured as a manager, he began to perfect his managerial philosophy: always Think Baseball; no petty rules but no complacency or frivolous behavior; all-out effort; pride in appearance; respect older players and develop young ones, but have no favorites; lead by example; be willing to experiment; and, choose a lineup and let it play. And, contrary to some reports, he was not tagged with the moniker “Marse Joe” until after his Louisville years.

Thinking back on the days when Joe was managing the Colonels, Izzy Goodman later said,

” … we knew we had a big league manager here before anybody in the big leagues tumbled to him. He was just the same then as he is now. If a player didn’t hustle for him or gave him any trouble, Joe would get rid of him, no matter how good he was. And those he kept played ball like the big leaguers. I don’t mean they were as good as big leaguers but they played smart. You never saw a pitcher McCarthy had who didn’t know how to field his position and never saw anybody throw to the wrong base.

He sent up some pretty good players, too. The best player he ever had here was Earle Combs, and Joe sent him up to the Yankees — and then caught up with him seven years later. The best pitcher he had, in my book, was Wayland Dean — you remember him? Well, most people up there in the big leagues don’t, I guess, because he went up 20 years or so ago, but we remember him around here. Joe thought he was going to be a great pitcher some day when he sent him up to the Giants and I thought so, too, but the poor kid got sick and died in a couple of years, as you know.”

Joe Leaves Louisville

On September 4, 1925, toward the conclusion of the Colonels’ pennant-winning season, a small article in the sports pages of the Courier-Journal presaged change. It reported that George C. Gibson would manage the Chicago Cubs for the remainder of the season, taking Rabbit Maranville’s place. (Maranville had been hastily selected to succeed Bill Killefer in July.) “Reports were current that Joe McCarthy, manager of the Louisville club, is under consideration as manager of the Cubs next year.”

In spite of their first-place finish, and a chance to again defeat the mighty Baltimore Orioles of the International League, McCarthy and the Colonels faced postseason problems. Sale of seats was termed “distressingly sluggish,” and the team averaged only 6,788 fans during its split of four home games in the series. Then, Pel Ballenger, the Colonels’ veteran third baseman who was hitting .437 in the series, was kicked off the team following an incident on the train to Baltimore. Refusing to return to his berth when halted while walking in his underwear near a McCarthy card game, Ballenger publicly insulted Joe with owner William Knebelkamp nearby.

The incident received nationwide attention as McCarthy received praise for his “courageous” actions. The Louisville press supported the discharge, stating that Ballenger was “kicked off the ball team, in miserable disgrace, forever and a day, by the kindly Joe McCarthy.” Meanwhile, some players pleaded for Ballenger’s reinstatement, but McCarthy said, “It is better for us to lose with our heads up, then to win with our heads down.”

In the meantime, while McCarthy was “meriting the respect and admiration of the nation” and “placing virtue over victory,” Ballenger showed up at the Baltimore ball park and, although not in uniform, indulged in part of the Colonels’ practice after initially watching from the stands1 The Colonels won their next game, 7-1, but McCarthy was still under severe pressure to reinstate Ballenger after they dropped the sixth game 5-3, evening the best-of-nine series. In the midst of this squabble, on October 10, 1925 a small news article reported: “Here it is again! Reports persist that Joe McCarthy would be named Cubs manager, but Cubs’ president Veeck would have no comment until after the series.”

Prior to the seventh game, McCarthy reinstated Ballenger, illogically claiming that the International League should not have reinstated a suspended Baltimore player; therefore, McCarthy would not continue to punish his player. Whatever the reason for his return, Ballenger did his club no favors as they lost to the Orioles 10-9 in 11 innings. Ballenger dropped a fly ball and later failed to run out a dropped pop-up and was thrown out by 60 feet. McCarthy was incensed! On October 11, 1925 the Orioles wrapped up the Junior World Series with a 5-2 win. The Colonels immediately began a barnstorming tour across the country to San Francisco, where they were to begin a series with the Pacific Coast League champs on October 22.

Strangely enough, McCarthy’s heroic persona seems to dissipate in the Louisville press when it becomes clear that he will sign to manage the Cubs. On October 14, a small story appears telling that the Cubs won the city championship “in the presence of their new boss, Joe McCarthy, defeating the White Sox.” No feature story of his signing appears and it is not until October 17 that a photograph appears with the title “When McCarthy Signed to Manage Cubs,” and stating that “all Louisville will watch with keen interest the work of Joe McCarthy as manager of the Cubs.” Joe was pictured signing his two-year contract with owner William Wrigley, Jr. and president William Veeck.

Thus, McCarthy’s glorious ten years in Louisville came to a bittersweet ending, somewhat ignored in the press.

McCarthy After Louisville

Although Joe McCarthy never played a single game in the major leagues, his superlative managerial genius would carry him to the Hall of Fame. Remembering his idol, Connie Mack, McCarthy said it took “just about three things to be a manager: a good memory, patience and being able to recognize ability and then know what to do with it.”

In his rookie year in Chicago, he fired veteran Grover Cleveland Alexander and was congratulated by owner William Wrigley for his nerve. He was greatly responsible for the development and success of Hack Wilson and Riggs Stephenson. Never failing to finish out of the first division during 24 years, he became the first manager without major league playing experience to win a pennant (1929), but he lost to the great Philadelphia A’s in the World Series. He was given one year to avenge the embarrassment, but failed and was fired by Wrigley four days prior to the end of the 1930 season. Rogers Hornsby replaced him.

Quickly scooped up by the New York Yankees for the 1931 season, McCarthy inherited the touchy situation of Babe Ruth, who had been rebuffed for the managerial post. “Be prompt” was Joe’s only request to Babe, who usually complied. With his 1932 American League pennant success, Joe became the first manager to win championships in both leagues. His World Series success in ’32 was even sweeter since he swept his old Cubs team.

McCarthy stayed with the Yankees until he resigned in 1946, ostensibly for health reasons, although front-office conflicts may have existed. He had won eight American League pennants and seven World Series, including four consecutive in 1936-39! Joe managed the Yankees longer than anyone, before or since.

Sometime during his life Joe had become a heavy drinker, who was able to hide his alcoholism from the public, but not from his players. He was unable to control it as well during the mid-1940s and it began to interfere with his ability.

McCarthy returned to his home in Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo. When his health improved he accepted an offer to lead the Boston Red Sox in 1948. He finally retired in 1950 with the Red Sox in second place.

McCarthy, Manager of the Year three times, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1957. In 1976, a plaque honoring him was placed alongside monuments to Miller Huggins, Col. Jacob Ruppert, Ruth, Gehrig and Ed Barrow in the rebuilt Yankee Stadium. His career-winning percentages of .615 in 24 years and .698 in nine World Series are the highest among all managers.

Even after his departure from Louisville, Joe remained in close and constant contact with his pals in Louisville. They corresponded frequently and reminisced about old times. Whenever Joe was with his major league team nearby, his Louisville friends managed to be there also. But they never referred to the “Cubs” or “Yankees.” It was always “Joe’s team.”

Later Years

In 1971, shortly after Joe had eye surgery, his wife, Elizabeth (“Babe”) died in suburban Buffalo at the age of 84. She had been an invalid for six years and required constant nursing care.

McCarthy’s favorite pursuits of golf, hunting and fishing became limited as he aged, but he remained mentally alert, and virtually every player under his tutelage still held him in the highest esteem. Joe DiMaggio said, “Never a day went by that you didn’t learn something from McCarthy,” and Phil Rizzuto complimented him by stating, “He had more respect than anyone in the game.”

Joe had been in good health until he broke his hip in mid-1977 and subsequently developed lung problems and hearing difficulties. He lost touch with baseball and the Yankees in his last years, and his main joy was the cadre of friends who visited his Tonawanda farm.

In a 1977 interview, McCarthy reflected, “I quit in 1950. I’d gotten tired and I wasn’t feeling well. I still follow the game today. I read the box scores, but I don’t know the names of half those players. It’s a whole new generation in there now. Sometimes I look back and I find it hard to believe it’s all so long ago.”

Joe McCarthy died of pneumonia at age 90 while holding the hand of his friend, sportscaster Ralph Hubbell. He had no children, and he left no known survivors.