Hank Bauer

At 84 years old, Hank Bauer has this physical status:

Henry Albert Bauer (July 31, 1922 – February 9, 2007) was an American right fielder and manager in Major League Baseball.

He played for the New York Yankees (from 1948 to 1959) and Kansas City Athletics (from 1960 to 1961); he batted and threw right-handed.

He was the manager of the Athletics in Kansas City (1961–621) and Oakland (1969), as well as the Baltimore Orioles (1964–68), leading the Orioles to the World Series title in 1966, a four-game victory over the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers.

This was the first World Series title to be released in the franchise's history.

Early years

Bauer, the son of an Austrian immigrant, a bartender who had previously lost his leg in an aluminum mill, was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, as the youngest of nine children. Bauer was compelled to wear clothes made from old feed sacks, contributing to his hard-nosed approach to life. (It was reported that his care-worn face "looked like a clenched fist.)

Bauer sustained permanent damage to his nose while playing baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, owing to an opponent's persistent elbow. He was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox system, was able to give him a tryout, which culminated in a contract with Oshkosh of the Class D Wisconsin State League.

Bauer enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served with the 4th Battalion and G Company, the 4th Marines, just over a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Bauer contracted malaria on Guadalcanal, but he recovered quickly enough to win 11 campaign awards, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts (for being injured in combat) in 32 months of war and the Navy Commendation Medal. Bauer was wounded in his second time in the Battle of Okinawa, when he was commanding a platoon of 64 Marines. Only six of the 64 Marines survived the Japanese counterattack, and Bauer was wounded by shrapnel in his thigh. His wounds were severe enough to bring him back to the United States to recover.

Bauer joined the local pipe fitter's union in East St. Louis, and he stopped by the local bar where his brother Joe Bauer worked. Danny Menendez, a scout for the New York Yankees, has agreed to work with the Yankees' farm team in Quincy, Illinois, where he will begin trying out for a tryout. His terms were $175 a month (with a $25 per month increase if he was on the team) and a $250 bonus.

At Quincy, he batted.300, and the Kansas City Blues, the team's top minor league unit, made his debut with the Yankees in September 1948.

Personal life

Bauer began playing with the Blues of 1947 and 1948 in the Kansas City area. Charlene Friede, the club's office secretary, was introduced and married while he was there. She died in July 1999.

The family's children attended St. Ann's Grade School in Prairie Village, then Bishop Miege High School in Shawnee Mission.

After retiring from baseball, Hank owned and operated a liquor store in Prairie Village for a number of years.

Bauer died of lung cancer in his home on February 9, 2007.

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Career as player, coach and manager

Bauer had a.277 batting average with 164 home runs and 773 RBIs in 1,544 games played in his 14-season Major League Baseball career. He had a career-wide fielding percentage of 982. Bauer has appeared on seven World Series-winning New York Yankees teams and holds the World Series record for the longest hitting streak (17 games). Bauer's best showing came in his sixth and final game of the 1951 World Series, where he claimed a three-run triple. He also saved the game by diving for a line drive off Sal Yvars' final out.

Bauer was traded by the Yankees to the Kansas City Athletics at the end of the 1959 season, giving them the future home run king Roger Maris (1961). This is one of the worst instances of the numerous trades between the Yankees and the Athletics during the late 1950s, with the Yankees practically always one-sided in favour of the Yankees.

In 1961, Athletics boss Joe Gordon decided to start Leo Posada over Bauer in the Opening Day starting lineup. Gordon and Bauer were fired as the Athletics' playing-manager on June 19. Bauer was fired as a player a month later. The Athletics won 107 games and lost 157 (0.405), and his teams finished ninth in the ten-team American League twice during John Thompson's first tenure as the Athletics' coach from 1962 to the end of the 1962 season.

Bauer spent the 1963 season as the Baltimore Orioles' first-base coach after his firing at the end of the 1962 season. Billy Hitchcock, who had been fired 51 days earlier, was promoted to boss on November 19, 1963. Baltimore fought hard for the 1964 American League pennant, placing third in third place, and then, aided by the acquisition of future Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson — the first AL pennant and World Series championship in 1966. Nevertheless, the ballclub was hampered by Robinson's injury and major off-years as a result of a number of regulars and pitchers, finishing in the second division in 1967. Bauer was fired on July 10 in favour of first-base coach Earl Weaver as the Orioles entered the 1968 All-Star break in third place, 10+12 games behind the eventual World Series champion Detroit Tigers.

Bauer then returned to the Athletics, who are now headquartered in Oakland, for the 1969 season. Finley fired him for the second time and final time after bringing Oakland home second in the new American League West Division. Overall, his regular-season managerial record was 594–544 (0.522).

In 1971–72, Bauer operated the Tidewater Tides, the New York Mets' AAA affiliate. In the latter year, the Tides made the finals of the Illinois Governors' Cup playoffs each season, winning the championship in the second campaign.

Bauer hung up his uniform after returning home to the Kansas City area, where he worked with the Yankees and the Kansas City Royals.

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