Background
Joseph Vincent McCarthy was born on April 21, 1887, in the Germantown area of Philadelphia. The information on his parents is scanty.
Joseph Vincent McCarthy was born on April 21, 1887, in the Germantown area of Philadelphia. The information on his parents is scanty.
McCarthy attended high school in that city. While still a student, he suffered a broken kneecap while playing a sandlot game of baseball. From 1905 to 1907, McCarthy attended Niagara University, but he left without a degree when offered a chance to play baseball for the minor-league Wilmington, Delware team.
McCarthy then played for a succession of seven minor league teams, playing both infield and outfield positions and maintaining a batting average of . 300 to . 325. His earlier knee injury hampered his speed and kept him from having a real chance at a major league career. In 1919, McCarthy became player-manager for the American Association team in Louisville, Ky. In 1921 he stopped playing to serve as manager only. The Chicago Cubs of the National League hired McCarthy as manager in 1926 despite the fact that he had never played a single inning in the major leagues. By 1929, McCarthy had led the Cubs from a last-place finish to the league pennant. However, the Cubs lost the 1929 World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League.
Public opinion in Chicago and disappointment by the Cub's owner led to McCarthy's resignation in the face of certain dismissal. He was hired immediately by the New York Yankees, where he spent the greater part of his career. In 1932, his second year with the Yankees, McCarthy's team played the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and defeated them soundly. From 1933 to 1935 the Yankees finished consistently in second place, but McCarthy was increasingly putting his personal stamp on the team. With the departure of Babe Ruth to the Boston Braves in 1935, McCarthy completely dominated the team. In 1936 the Yankees clinched the American League title by September 9, the earliest date at which the title had ever been won. In the second game of the World Series for that year, the Yankees broke or tied eleven records for a single World Series game. A sequence of World Series victories from 1936 to 1939 gave rise to the phrase "Yankee dynasty, " a team dominance of major league baseball marked by a cold, efficient, machinelike style of play that was all business. This dynasty was fueled by a steady stream of well-trained players moving up from an extensive farm club system in the minor leagues. During this period, the Yankees achieved a winning percentage of . 702.
World War II had a major impact on the 1942 baseball season, as many experienced players were drafted into the armed forces. He was also named manager of the year in a major league sportswriters poll for a third time in 1943, earlier awards having been given in 1936 and 1938. The stress of managing the wartime and postwar Yankees began to tell on McCarthy's health. His blood pressure was quite high, aggravated by a quick temper and occasional heavy drinking. He retired in 1946 but returned to the game in 1948 to manage the Boston Red Sox for two years, retiring permanently in 1950.
In his association with the Louisville ball club, McCarthy established a reputation for producing winning teams and, equally important for his later career, as an excellent teacher who sent on to the major leagues players who had received sound, all-around training. As manager in Chicago Cubs of the National League McCarthy began to show the hard-bitten style of leadership that would mark his managerial career. (He was often called "Marse Joe" because his management was likened to that of a plantation overseer. ) When he found Grover Cleveland Alexander, the Cubs' best pitcher, to have a negative and uncooperative attitude, McCarthy quickly traded him to another team.
McCarthy was a firm believer in discipline. He maintained strict control over his team even in the locker room after a winning series. He discouraged rowdiness, practical jokes, and individualistic behavior. McCarthy was also a fine teacher, even when dealing with talented athletes. McCarthy demonstrated this teaching ability by showing stars like Tommy Byrne how to play new positions. Byrne came to the Yankees as a pitcher who had just received the largest bonus for signing ever paid to a rookie player. McCarthy turned him into an effective first baseman. McCarthy was often selected as the American League all-star manager, a post he filled seven times between 1936 and 1946. On at least one occasion in 1940, McCarthy was passed over for this honor merely because league officials thought somebody else deserved a chance to manage. In the 1937 all-star game, McCarthy received the unprecedented opportunity to name all members of the roster without the involvement of league officials or fans. McCarthy spent the last years of his life with his wife on their farm near Buffalo, N. Y. He died on January 13, 1978 from pneumonia in Buffalo and was buried there.
Quotes from others about the person
Joe DiMaggio, who McCarthy said had more natural talent than any player he ever managed, said of McCarthy, "Never a day went by when you didn't learn something from him. "
On February 14, 1921, McCarthy married Elizabeth ("Babe") McCave.