Larry MacPhail was an American major-league-baseball executive.
Background
Leland Stanford "Larry" MacPhail, Sr. was born on February 3, 1890, in Cass City, Michigan. He was the son of Curtis McPhail, owner of a general store and later a banker, and Catherine Ann MacMurtrie.
MacPhail was named for the railroad magnate Leland Stanford, whose wife was a close friend of his mother.
In later years, MacPhail changed the spelling of his surname to emphasize his Scottish ancestry.
Education
At age ten, MacPhail entered the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia and graduated six years later. A precocious student, he qualified for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy but chose to enroll at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he majored in liberal arts and played varsity baseball.
A year later, MacPhail enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School but then transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D. C. , where he received his law degree in 1910.
Upon graduating, MacPhail went to work for two Chicago law firms in succession.
Career
In 1915, MacPhail accepted the presidency of a department store in Nashville, Tennessee. When America entered World War I, MacPhail joined a state artillery regiment commanded by former Senator Luke Lea of Tennessee. Nationalized as the 114th Field Artillery Regiment, the unit saw action in two battles. As Colonel Lea's adjutant, Captain MacPhail served as battery commander and was slightly wounded on the last day of the war.
Early in 1919, he participated in Colonel Lea's quixotic attempt to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm II from his sanctuary in the Netherlands. Although the mission failed, widespread publicity made folk heroes of the conspirators, who were reprimanded by General John J. Pershing. MacPhail's participation in this scheme typified the brash, erratic behavior that later marked his career as a baseball executive.
During the 1920's, MacPhail engaged in such lucrative enterprises as a glass manufactury, an auto agency, and a real estate venture. He also served as a college football official and organized a golf club. From 1930, when he organized a syndicate that purchased the moribund Columbus Senators of the minor American Association for $100, 000, until 1947, when he resigned as president of the New York Yankees, MacPhail was one of the most innovative executives in professional baseball.
As president of the Columbus team, he recouped his initial investment by selling the club (renamed the Red Birds) to the major-league St. Louis Cardinals while retaining full control of club operations. Over the next three years, MacPhail used his Cardinals connection to build a winning minor-league team, which he ensconced in a new stadium equipped for night games.
Although criticized as a financially risky venture during the Great Depression, the Red Birds attracted a record 310, 000 fans in 1932. But MacPhail's unbridled individualism angered the owners, who fired him at the close of the 1933 season.
MacPhail's promotional acumen impressed the Cincinnati Reds, who made him the club's vice-president and general manager in 1934. This last-place National League team was in dire financial straits. MacPhail persuaded executive Powel Crosley, a manufacturer of appliances, to assume the club's presidency.
With Crosley's financial support, MacPhail refurbished the Reds' ball park, which he renamed Crosley Field, hired Frank Lane to build a farm system to develop players, and introduced radio broadcasts of road games.
In 1935, he scored his biggest coup when he inaugurated night baseball into the major leagues. The Reds' seven-night games attracted 124, 000 fans and helped double home attendance. The following year, the Reds finished in fifth place, but MacPhail, whose flamboyant, brawling style clashed with that of the conservative Reds owner, was forced to resign. Nevertheless, his policies laid the groundwork for the team's championship seasons of 1939 and 1940.
After a year's hiatus, MacPhail returned to baseball as chief executive of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Although criticized as a financially risky venture during the Great Depression, the Red Birds attracted a record 310, 000 fans in 1932. But MacPhail's unbridled individualism angered the owners, who fired him at the close of the 1933 season.
MacPhail's promotional acumen impressed the Cincinnati Reds, who made him the club's vice-president and general manager in 1934. This last-place National League team was in dire financial straits. MacPhail persuaded executive Powel Crosley, a manufacturer of appliances, to assume the club's presidency. With Crosley's financial support, MacPhail refurbished the Reds' ball park, which he renamed Crosley Field, hired Frank Lane to build a farm system to develop players, and introduced radio broadcasts of road games.
In 1935, he scored his biggest coup when he inaugurated night baseball into the major leagues. The Reds' seven-night games attracted 124, 000 fans and helped double home attendance. The following year the Reds finished in fifth place, but MacPhail, whose flamboyant, brawling style clashed with that of the conservative Reds owner, was forced to resign. Nevertheless, his policies laid the groundwork for the team's championship seasons of 1939 and 1940.
After a year's hiatus, MacPhail returned to baseball as chief executive of the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he took charge, the Dodgers were $1. 2 million in debt to local banks, but MacPhail induced the lenders to advance funds to finance his ideas for park improvement, farm system development, and night baseball. The Dodgers' first night game in 1938 was memorable; visiting pitcher Johnny Vander Meer of the Reds pitched his second consecutive no-hit game.
That year attendance rose to 750, 000, and in 1939 it topped one million. MacPhail added to revenues by selling radio rights to Dodgers games, and in 1939 he arranged for the first telecast of a major-league game. In 1941, by dint of several canny player trades, MacPhail assembled a group of veteran players who won the team's first National League championship in twenty-one seasons. Although they lost the World Series, the Dodgers gained national fame and drew more than one million spectators both at home and on the road.
In 1942, MacPhail resigned to enter military service as special assistant to Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson. MacPhail was still in uniform in the fall of 1944 when he maneuvered to purchase the New York Yankees for $2. 8 million, more than he could afford. To meet the price, he persuaded businessmen Dan Topping and Del Webb to join him as equal partners.
As president of the team, he again applied his successful formula of instituting night baseball, refurbishing the stadium, and selling contracts to local radio stations. In 1947, a contract with a local television station fetched $75, 000 for the rights to all Yankee home games. In 1946, MacPhail flew the team to Panama for spring training and exhibition games that netted $65, 000.
That year, the Yankees attracted a record 2. 3 million fans, and the following year, the Yankees won the American League pennant and the World Series. It was MacPhail's only world championship and the capstone of his baseball career. In the wake of this triumph, he resigned and sold his share of the Yankees for $2 million.
As a baseball executive, he served on major-league committees that selected a commissioner and gave players their first pension plan, a minimum-salary concession, and spring-training money. But if MacPhail was an effective executive, he was also controversial. His feuds with commissioners, fellow owners, managers, and sportswriters were widely publicized.
Still interested in baseball, he offered prophetic advice to major-league owners in a perceptive Life magazine article in which he called for continental expansion of the leagues, realignment into divisions, and new parks, all of which came to pass.
MacPhail died in Miami, Florida.
Achievements
Personality
During the 1950's, MacPhail raised thoroughbred horses and Black Angus cattle at his Glenangus Farms in Bel Air, Marylandd. He also headed a syndicate that purchased and restored the Bowie race track in Maryland.
Connections
In 1910, MacPhail married Inez Frances Thompson of Oak Park, Illinois. They had three children. In 1945, MacPhail was divorced from his first wife. In May, he married Jean Bennett Wanamaker. They had one child.