Syd Thrift
| Syd Thrift | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 25, 1929 Locust Hill, Virginia |
| Died | September 18, 2006 (aged 77) Milford, Delaware |
Sydnor W. Thrift Jr. (February 25, 1929 – September 18, 2006) was an American scout and executive in Major League Baseball who served as the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1985 to 1988, and the de facto general manager of the Baltimore Orioles from 1999 to 2002. During a 50-year career in professional baseball, he also spent time as a player, scout, or executive with the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, and Kansas City Royals.
Thrift was born in Locust Hill, Middlesex County, Virginia, part of the historic Middle Peninsula area, where his mother and father ran a general merchandise store. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. While working as high school teacher and coach from 1953 to 1956, Thift was a part-time scout for the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the Pirates' scouting supervisor in 1957. He left the Pirates after the 1967 season to join the Kansas City Royals as scouting director and in 1970 founded the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy. Renowned for its player development, the Academy produced 14 major league players. After two years with the Oakland Athletics, Thrift started a successful real-estate business in Fairfax, Virginia.
Thrift had been out of baseball for nine years when in 1985 he was the surprise choice for general manager by a new Pirates ownership group. Thrift hired a relatively unknown Jim Leyland, then the Chicago White Sox third base coach, as manager. Together they turned the last place Pirates around and by 1988 the club finished second to the New York Mets, which was considered by some a miracle. Thrift's time in Pittsburgh ended immediately after the 1988 season when he was fired after butting heads with team ownership. Thrift's management and personnel decisions were later widely attributed for the team's subsequent success, as they won National League Eastern Division titles from 1990 through 1992.
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