September 25, 1929: Miller Huggins dies. He remains the only manager of the New York Yankees to die in office. In spite of his illness, and the black-and-white pictures that make everybody look older, he was only 51 years old.
Miller James Huggins was born on March 27, 1878 in Cincinnati. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati and its law school, he was a pretty good player despite his size (5-foot-6, 140 pounds), playing 2nd base for the Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals, batting .304 in 1912 and leading the NL in walks 4 times. He managed the Cardinals from 1913 to 1917, and was then hired to run the Yankees, leading them to their 1st 6 Pennants, a pair of three-peats: 1921, '22, '23, '26, '27 and '28, winning the World Series in '23, '27 and '28.
From 1915 to 1923, the Yankees were owned by Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston. Huston had been an engineer, including in the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War. He re-enlisted in World War I, and it was while he was away that Ruppert hired Huggins to manage the team.
Huston was furious, because he wanted to hire Wilbert Robinson away from the crosstown Brooklyn Dodgers. (They were actually known as the Robins while Robinson managed them, from 1914 to 1931.) But Ruppert was in New York to make the decision, and Huston wasn't, and Huggins was the manager.
Huston never liked Huggins, and undermined him whenever he could, occasionally telling the newspapers that Huggins would soon be fired. Ruppert assured them that this was not the case. Shortly after Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, Ruppert bought Huston's shares out, and told the media so. The next thing out of his mouth was, "Miller Huggins is my manager."
Huggins and the Yankees' star player, Babe Ruth, often clashed. In 1925, Huggins suspended Ruth indefinitely for insubordination, and Ruth told Huggins that he would appeal this to Ruppert, and that Huggins would be fired, because Ruth was more important to the team than Huggins. Ruth miscalculated: Ruppert was completely committed to Huggins, and, after apologizing to Huggins and to his teammates, Ruth was reinstated after 6 games.
The altercation seemed to raise the diminutive Huggins in the Babe's eyes, and there was mutual respect from then on. In September 1929, Huggins developed erysipelas, a blood disorder that, today, is cured by antibiotics in a matter of days. He went into St. Vincent's Hospital on September 20, and Ruth visited him. Art Fletcher, the 3rd-base coach, managed the team for the rest of the season.
Ruth was in left field at Fenway Park -- not his usual right field, and this was before the left-field wall became the 37-foot-high "Green Monster" -- as the Yankees were playing the Boston Red Sox when an announcement was made over the public-address system that Huggins had died. A moment of silence was held, and the American flag was lowered to half-staff.
The game resumed, and the Yankees won, 11-10, with Lou Gehrig driving Tony Lazzeri home with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 11th inning. Ruth had gone 1-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs; Gehrig, 3-for-4 with a walk and 4 RBIs.
On May 30, 1932, between games of a Memorial Day doubleheader, the Yankees dedicated a Monument to him, on the field in front of the flagpole at Yankee Stadium. This was the beginning of what became first "the Monuments" and then, after the 1973-76 renovation, "Monument Park."
In 1964, Miller Huggins was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was only the 6th person ever elected as a manager, following Connie Mack and John McGraw in 1937, the aforementioned Wilbert Robinson in 1945, Joe McCarthy (who became the next great Yankee manager) in 1957, and Bill McKechnie in 1962.
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September 25, 1929 was a Wednesday. These other games were played that day:
* The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 8-4 at the Polo Grounds. Bill Terry went 1-for-5. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Brooklyn Robins were swept in a doubleheader by the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-9 and 8-5 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-7 at League Park in Cleveland.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Al Grabowski pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.
* The Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators were rained out at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The A's had already clinched the American League Pennant, and the game was never made up.
* And the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Cubs had already clinched the National League Pennant, and this game was never made up, either.
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