Background
Connie Mack was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts on December 22, 1862.
baseball player manager team owner
Connie Mack was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts on December 22, 1862.
Connie Mack was educated in East Brookfield.
By the time Connie Mack was nine, the tall, thin boy, nicknamed "Slats, " was working at a cotton mill.
While working at the factory, McGillicuddy played semi-pro baseball for East Brookfield.
At that time it was a hefty salary.
Meriden shortened his name to "Connie Mack" to fit on scorecards, and the nickname stuck.
Mack went on to play for Hartford and then Newark, two other minor league teams.
But after that season there was a key rule change: batters could no longer call for the pitcher to throw a high or low pitch.
When pitchers learned that Mack couldn't hit low pitches, his batting average sunk to . 201 in 1887 and to . 187 in 1888.
In 1897, he played his last games while managing Milwaukee in the Western League.
Mack was the major force behind the establishment of a Philadelphia club in the American League.
The new league wanted to challenge the supremacy of the established National League, represented in Philadelphia by the Phillies.
Shibe Park was built for a home field.
Mack led the team to a second pennant in 1905 and to its first appearance in the World Series, in which the Athletics lost to John McGraw's New YorkGiants.
The team was anchored by its famous "$100, 000 infield" of Hall of Famers Frank Baker, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry, and Stuffy McInnis.
Mack said the 1912 team was one of his best, though it finished third.
During that season the owners of the New York Highlanders (later renamed the Yankees) offered Mack the manager's job there, but he remained loyal to Shibe and Philadelphia.
Again in 1913, the Athletics beat the Giants in the World Series.
They repeated as league champions in 1914 but were upset by the Boston Braves in the Series. Mack often was contrasted with McGraw, the fiery leader of the Giants, because their personalities and leadership styles were so opposite.
Collins was among many who praised Mack for expressing strong confidence in his players' abilities.
In his first 14 seasons at Philadelphia, Mack's Athletics finished in first place six times and in second place three times.
They had only one losing season.
But with the rival Federal League luring star players away and the club's finances dwindling due to indifferent attendance, Mack suddenly sold off all his aging stars.
This move forever gained the cautious Mack the reputation in Philadelphia of being a skinflint who cared more about profits than pennants. In 1914, Mack's team won 99 games and lost 53.
The next year, the Athletics won 43 games and lost 109.
Mack hunkered down to survive the lean years of World War I. Starting in 1916, his club finished in last place for seven consecutive years before making a slow climb back to contention in the mid-19206.
He worked hard to learn about promising young players and sign them, and always made a long-term commitment to their success.
In 1929, Mack stunned fans and baseball experts by passing up Grove to start journeyman Howard Ehmke in the World Series opener against the Cubs.
With the Great Depression deepening, attendance continued to fall.
Mack again broke up his team, selling four of his stars to Boston in 1935.
"It has hurt me worse to break up my great teams than it has the fans, " Mack wrote in an article in 1936 for the Saturday Evening Post.
In 1937, Mack became the Athletics' president and treasurer.
With his own finances tied even more closely to those of the club, he continued to spend little on acquiring established players.
In Mack's final 16 seasons, his club became the laughingstock of baseball, never finishing higher than fourth place, and ending up in last place ten times. Nonetheless, Mack's popularity grew.
Fans would come to games just to see him standing in the dugout, waving his scorecard to signal his players on the field.
He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame at its inception as one of fifteen "Builders of Baseball. "
Philadelphia's George M. Cohan wrote a song, "Connie Mack Is the Grand Old Name. "
In 1941, against his wishes, the name of Shibe Park was changed to Connie Mack Stadium. In a 1944 poll, Mack was voted the favorite manager of players and sportswriters.
That year, a tribute to Mack was held before a home game.
He was showered with accolades, and a baseball "dream team" as named by Mack appeared in their old uniforms.
Still, Mack refused to retire from the game he loved. In Mack's later years, he would not appear in the dugout until the game started, always dressed in his crisp blue suit with his high stiff collar.
Decades before, most other managers had begun wearing team uniforms; Mack never did.
He projected the formality and dignity of a bygone era, and was looked upon as a living baseball relic.
Though he was still formally manager, his son Earle and others coaches actually ran the team in Mack's later years.
Sometimes he could be heard ordering the names of bygone players into the game. Historians argue that Mack's dismal final 16 seasons shouldn't diminish his credentials as one of baseball's greatestmanagers.
He managed 7, 755 big-league regular-season games and 43 World Series games, nearly 3, 000 more than McGraw, who is second to Mack in games and victories.
Mack's teams won 3, 731 games and lost 3, 948.
He managed almost twice as many losses as anyone else in history; second was Bucky Harris with 2, 218.
With his refusal to give up despite losing season after losing season, Mack became the enduring, implacable symbol of baseball's resiliency and relentless optimism. Mack remained president of the Athletics until 1954.
U. S. House of Representatives, Knights of Columbus
On November 2, 1887, Connie Mack married Margaret Hogan. They had three children, Earle, Roy, and Marguerite.
