Miller James Huggins

Background

Huggins was born in Cincinnati on April 19, 1879. He was the son of James Thomas Huggins and Sarah (Reid) Huggins. He was the third child in a family of four children and the youngest boy.

Education

He went through public school and high school in Cincinnati and entered the University of Cincinnati, graduating from the law school of that institution in 1902 and being admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, the same year.

Career

At an early age he displayed unusual skill at baseball and was captain of the team in high school and college. Though he became one of the famous ball players of his time, Miller Huggins was very small in comparison with his rivals on the diamond. Through his active playing career he was a second baseman. His first professional engagement was with the Mansfield, Ohio, club in 1899. Later he played with St. Paul, American Association (1900 - 03), Cincinnati Reds, National League (1904 - 08), and St. Louis Cardinals, National League (1909 - 17).

Early in his big-league career he took rank with the leading players, excelling in fielding and ingenuity on the attack and defense. What he lacked in size he more than made up by his alertness, physical and mental. He was appointed manager of the St. Louis team in 1913 but, handicapped in various ways, made little progress with the team. It was as manager of the New York Yankees from 1918 to the time of his death that Huggins rose to nationwide prominence in the field of sport. The Yankees, organized in 1903, had never won a pennant. Most of the time the team had been well down in the race. In the twelve years of Huggins's leadership, the Yankees won three world's championships and six American League pennants, a record that no other manager or team equaled.

Because of his unimpressive appearance and modest retiring disposition, the general followers of baseball did not at first realize just how much the directing genius of the "mite manager" had to do with the success of his teams. The earlier championships were generally attributed to the liberality of the Yankee owners in spending money for the purchase of good ball players, and to the skill of these ball players rather than to the shrewdness of the manager; but when his first championship team fell to pieces and in two years Huggins built up another, using young players he developed himself, credit could be withheld no longer.

Though his life work lay among crowds, he kept himself in the background as much as possible. He was studious, on and off the ball field. He completed his education and law course in the fall and winter seasons when he was playing professional ball through the spring and summer. He was also a keen student of financial affairs and, through profitable investments, was a wealthy man at the time of his death.

Never physically strong, the burden and worry of directing, handling, building, and rebuilding championship teams wore down "the little fellow. " He took up golf a few years before his death but he was far from strong when, late in the baseball season of 1929, blood poisoning resulted from the infection of a cut under his eye, and he died in a short time. He is buried in his native city of Cincinnati.

Achievements

• At the time of his death he was regarded as one of the ablest managers in baseball history. The Yankees dedicated a monument to Huggins on May 30, 1932, placing it in front of the flagpole in center field at Yankee Stadium. Huggins was the first of many Yankees legends granted this honor, which eventually became "Monument Park", dedicated in 1976. The monument calls Huggins "A splendid character who made priceless contributions to baseball. " The Yankees also named a field at Al Lang Stadium, their spring training home, after Huggins. Huggins was included on the ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1948, and 1950, failing to receive the number of votes required for election on those occasions. The Veterans Committee elected Huggins to the Hall of Fame in February 1964, and he was posthumously inducted that summer.

Views

Quotations: “A manager has his cards dealt to him and he must play them. ”

Personality

He was a scant five feet four inches tall and never weighed more than 140 pounds.

Connections

He never married. His sister kept house for him and was the principle legatee of his estate.

Father:

James Thomas Huggins

1846–1913

Mother:

Sarah A. Reid Huggins

1848–1896

sibling:

Arthur Wilson Huggins

1874–1963

sibling:

Myrtle M Huggins

1882–1938

sibling:

Clarence Walter Huggins

1875–1955