Bucky Harris | |||
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Second baseman / Manager | |||
Born: November 8, 1896 Port Jervis, New York |
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Died: November 8, 1977 Bethesda, Maryland |
(aged 81)|||
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MLB debut | |||
August 28, 1919, for the Washington Senators | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
June 12, 1931, for the Detroit Tigers | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .274 | ||
Hits | 1,297 | ||
Runs batted in | 508 | ||
Games managed | 4,410 | ||
Managerial record | 2,158–2,219 | ||
Winning percentage | .493 | ||
Teams | |||
As player As manager |
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Career highlights and awards | |||
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Member of the National | |||
Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
Inducted | 1975 | ||
Election Method | Veteran's Committee |
As player
As manager
Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris (November 8, 1896 – November 8, 1977) was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and executive. In 1975, the Veterans Committee elected Harris, as a manager, to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Of Swiss and Welsh descent, Harris was born in Port Jervis, New York, and raised after the age of six in Pittston, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas, had emigrated from Wales, while his mother, Catherine (Rupp), hailed from Hughestown, near Pittston. His elder brother, Merle, was a minor league second baseman. Bucky Harris left school at age 13 to work at a local colliery, the Butler Mine, as an office boy and, later, a weigh master. In his spare time, Harris played basketball for the Pittston YMCA team as well as sandlot baseball.
Harris was listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 156 pounds (71 kg); he threw and batted right-handed. In 1916, when Harris was 19, Pittston native and future Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings, then the manager of the Detroit Tigers, signed him to his first contract and farmed him to the Class B Muskegon Reds of the Central League, where he struggled as a batsman and was released. Harris then caught on with the Scranton Miners, Norfolk Tars and Reading Pretzels through 1917, before reaching the highest level of minor league baseball with the 1918–19 Buffalo Bisons of the International League. Harris improved his batting skills during the latter season with the Bisons, making 126 hits and raising his average to .282.