John McHale (baseball)
| John McHale | |||
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| First baseman | |||
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Born: September 21, 1921 Detroit, Michigan |
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Died: January 17, 2008 (aged 86) Stuart, Florida |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 28, 1943, for the Detroit Tigers | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| April 23, 1948, for the Detroit Tigers | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .193 | ||
| Home runs | 3 | ||
| Runs batted in | 12 | ||
| Teams | |||
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John Joseph McHale (September 21, 1921 – January 17, 2008) was an American first baseman and executive in Major League Baseball who served as the general manager of three teams: the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, and Montreal Expos. He served as the first president and executive director of the Expos during their maiden years in the National League, and owned ten percent of the team. His son John McHale Jr. is the current MLB executive vice president (administration).
McHale was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, and attended Detroit Catholic Central High School (Class of 1938) and the University of Notre Dame. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, and his weight was 200 pounds (91 kg). He signed with his hometown Tigers in 1941 and two years later made his first MLB appearance. In five seasons and 64 games with the Tigers (1943–45, 1947–48), McHale compiled a batting average of .193 with 22 hits. He was hitless in three at bats in the 1945 World Series, in which Detroit defeated the Chicago Cubs.
He eventually became director of minor league operations for the Tigers and was named general manager in 1957 at the young age of 35. But he soon was recruited by the defending NL champion Braves, where he succeeded John Quinn as general manager in January 1959.
As it turned out, McHale presided over the slow decline of the Braves on the field. While superstar Hank Aaron was in the prime of his career, eventual Hall of Famers Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews—along with Del Crandall, Lew Burdette, Joe Adcock and other stars of the Braves' 1957–58 NL championship clubs—aged and fell off in production. Meanwhile, the young players developed by the team's farm system could not pick up the slack. However, according to an April 8, 1963 article in Sports Illustrated, it was McHale himself who disposed of young talent and decimated the farm system: "With General Manager John McHale trading away brilliant young pitchers ( Joey Jay and Juan Pizarro) and solid everyday performers like Billy Bruton and Joe Adcock, and then unloading over half the once fertile farm clubs, Bragan will have to depend on old Braves who may prefer peace to war."
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