Happy Birthday John McGraw!

         I wish a Happy Birthday to the late and great John McGraw, one of the greatest skippers of all time. He served as the Manager for the Baltimore Orioles from (1901-1902), and for the then-New York Giants from (1902-1932). In his over thirty seasons managing, McGraw won 2,763 games, (.586%) Winning Percentage, three World Series titles, and ten Pennants. Today only Connie Mack and Tony La Russa have won more games than McGraw in history.

        Growing up wasn't easy for John McGraw coming from a low-income family with seven other siblings and an abusive father. He would lose four of his siblings in the diphtheria epidemic. McGraw would use his harsh upbringing to become a hardnose and gritty third baseman and play pro baseball for 17 seasons. Not only was he a .334 lifetime hitter, but he was also known as a hitter who fouled off many pitches. In 1896, playing for the Baltimore Orioles, he fouled off 24 consecutive pitches. In 1901, he became a full-time manager for the Orioles until the midseason of 1902, when McGraw left and became the Manager of the New York Giants, where he would remain for the next 31 seasons.

What made John McGraw so successful?

By the time McGraw got to the Giants, they were a last-place team, and players were there but just hanging on for their paychecks. When McGraw took over, there was a new standard in which all players would be required to meet his standards, or they would be elsewhere. He took the firey and no-nonsense player that he was and translated it into the Manager. While he was demanding of his players, he was also demanding of himself.

Do you know what happened? The Giants started winning, and in 1905 the Giants would win the World Series. Not only during his tenure, but they would also win the World Series three times and play in the World Series ten times; the Giants would only have three losing seasons under the leadership of John McGraw. When you think of managers who were hotheads and weren't afraid to scream at umpires, the names Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, and Bobby Cox come to mind. Well, those three guys got it from John McGraw; he was tossed out of the game 131 times., While he wasn't alive for it, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, almost three years after his death.

Written & Published by Robert Dobek

Follow on Twitter @RobTheYankee

References:

1. Bleacher Report. The Marvelous Story of John McGraw via Bleacher Report November 15th, 2008: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/82320-the-marvelous-story-of-john-mcgraw 

2. Mink, Michael. John McGraw Played Hardball To Win Pennants And World Series via Investors April 4th, 2016: https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/john-mcgraw-played-hardball-to-win-pennants-and-world-series/#:~:text=McGraw%20really%20put%20his%20stamp,instituted%20his%20aggressive%20running%20style.