Tommy Holmes
| Tommy Holmes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Holmes with the Boston Braves
|
|||
| Outfielder / Manager | |||
|
Born: March 29, 1917 Brooklyn, New York |
|||
|
Died: April 14, 2008 (aged 91) Boca Raton, Florida |
|||
|
|||
| MLB debut | |||
| April 14, 1942, for the Boston Braves | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 28, 1952, for the Brooklyn Dodgers | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .302 | ||
| Home runs | 88 | ||
| Runs batted in | 581 | ||
| Managerial record | 61–69 | ||
| Winning % | .469 | ||
| Teams | |||
|
As player As manager |
|||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
|
|||
As player
As manager
Thomas Francis Holmes (March 29, 1917 – April 14, 2008) was an American right and center fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played nearly his entire career for the Boston Braves. He hit over .300 lifetime (.302) and every year from 1944 through 1948, peaking with a .352 mark in 1945 when he finished second in the National League batting race and was runner-up for the NL's Most Valuable Player Award.
Holmes was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. Holmes, one of the most popular Boston Braves especially in the twilight of his career, finished second in MVP voting in the National League in 1945 after leading the NL in hits (224), home runs (28) and doubles (47). That season, he set a modern NL record by hitting safely in 37 consecutive games from June 6 through July 8 (Bill Dahlen and Willie Keeler had longer streaks in the 1890s), a mark surpassed 33 years later in 1978 by Pete Rose, with a 44-game streak that tied Keeler's and came the closest to Joe DiMaggio's MLB record 56 in 1941. Holmes struck out just 9 times in 1945, and his ratio of home runs (28) to strikeouts that season is one of the best in baseball history.
Holmes, who batted and threw left-handed, signed his first professional contract with the New York Yankees, but could not break into their outfield of Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller. After three over-.300 seasons with the Yanks' top farm team, the Newark Bears, he was traded to the Braves in February 1942. Given a regular major league job at last, he hit over .300 for five consecutive seasons (1944–48). In 1948, his .325 in 139 games as the Braves' leadoff hitter help lead Boston to the NL pennant (together with slugging MVP third baseman Bob Elliott and the oft-satirized starting rotation of Spahn, Sain and pray for rain).
...
Wikipedia