Ben Geraghty
Benjamin Raymond Geraghty was an American infielder in Major League Baseball and one of the most successful and respected minor league managers of the 1950s.
A Jersey City native, Geraghty went right from Villanova University to the Brooklyn Dodgers, appearing in 51 games with the team in his rookie season. He appeared in 19 more games with the Boston Braves over the 1943 and 1944 seasons, compiling a batting average of.199 in 146 at bats with 29 hits in 71 career games. In 1946, he survived a horrific bus crash that killed nine of his Spokane Indians teammates.
As he wound up his playing career, Geraghty started managing. He was part of the Milwaukee Braves system for nine years from 1953 through 1961, during which time Hank Aaron played for him. Aaron considered Geraghty the best manager he ever had. In his 18-year managing career, Geraghty won 1,432 games and lost 1,154. He won five pennants in seven years while piloting Braves affiliates. In the ten seasons of 1953 through 1962, a Geraghty-managed team never finished lower than second place. He was managing the Jacksonville Suns in 1963 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on June 18, just shy of his 51st birthday.
Early life
Benjamin Raymond Geraghty was born on July 19, 1912, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was the youngest of eight children of Patrick and Ida Geraghty 2nd generation Americans from the Paul Hook section of Jersey City. Patrick was the first President to the first Teamsters Union of Jersey City. He owned several trucks that ran products from the Colgate Palmolive company. He was employed for over ten years as a teamster, then as a chauffeur for a tea factory, and finally as a night manager at the garage for the National Grocery Company. The Geraghtys owned 157 Grand Street in Jersey City, along with two of Ida's brothers, the four-member Greaves family, and a boarder from Sweden. Patrick died in an accident not long after Ben's 14th birthday, when he was crushed between two trucks at work. Thomas, the second-oldest boy who worked as a policeman in the community, helped raise the younger children after Patrick's death.During his freshman and sophomore years of high school, Geraghty attended St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, where he played baseball as a pitcher and also was part of the basketball team. He transferred to St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark as junior. By this time, he had begun playing football as well, though his high school yearbook implied that basketball was his best sport. He graduated in 1932.
Geraghty then attended Villanova University, majoring in journalism. He continued to play baseball and basketball, both of which were coached by George Jacobs. Standing tall and weighing, Geraghty was shorter than average for a basketball player, but he scored a great deal of points and was named the team captain as a senior. For the baseball team, he played third base, though he had to battle Frank Skaff for playing time.
Brooklyn Dodgers (1936)
While Geraghty was playing baseball for Villanova, scout Mel Logan recommended him to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Geraghty attended spring training for the Dodgers in 1936 and made a strong impression with manager Casey Stengel. Lonny Frey, the incumbent shortstop for the team, was error-prone and missed time in mid-March with an injury. At the close of spring training, Stengel decided to move Frey to second base and added Geraghty to the Opening Day roster.Jimmy Jordan made the first three starts of the year at shortstop; then, Geraghty played 15 straight games at the position. Making his MLB debut on April 17, he played all 10 innings of a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, recording two hits and a run batted in in a 4–3 Dodger victory. He batted.429 in his first 10 games. On April 19, Jimmie Wilson of the Phillies kicked the baseball away from Geraghty as he stole second base. "He won't pull that again on me. The next time I'll just take that throw and tag him on the nose with the ball," Geraghty informed Stengel. Seven days later, also against Philadelphia, Geraghty became the first of a handful of players to reach first base on catcher's interference twice during a game. Phillies catcher Earl Grace wrongly calculated that the rookie Geraghty and an inexperienced umpire would not notice him block Geraghty's swing.
A hand injury caused Geraghty to miss five games in May. Upon his return, he struggled to hit. He made just one start at shortstop after June 9, though he began getting playing time at other infield positions, such as second base and third base. After July 29, the Dodgers sent him to the Allentown Brooks of the Class A New York-Penn League. In 51 games with Brooklyn, he had batted.194 with 11 runs scored, 25 hits, and 9 RBIs. He hit no home runs for the Dodgers; in fact, Geraghty would never hit a home run professionally. Later recalling his rookie year in 1963, Geraghty said, "I knew, the first month I was up with Brooklyn, that I was not good enough to play this game. I made up my mind that if I was going to stay in baseball I'd have to do it with my head."
Finishing the 1936 season with Allentown, Geraghty batted.246 with 28 hits in 35 games. That fall, he returned to Villanova, finishing his journalism degree. He did not play at all in 1937. The exact reasons for this are unknown; though two articles from 1943 said he was in an automobile accident that year, the Dodgers placed him on their ineligible list in February. Geraghty had to appeal to commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for reinstatement in order to make his return in 1938. Meanwhile, Geraghty secured a job off the field as a cemetery superintendent, which would remain his offseason occupation for several years.
Washington Senators organization, break from the game (1937–42)
Geraghty's rights had been acquired by the Trenton Senators, a Class A Eastern League affiliate of the Washington Senators, in August 1937. He debuted with the team in 1938, batting.264 with 117 hits in 120 games. Trenton moved to Springfield in 1939, and Geraghty played 38 games for them, batting.233. His time was limited by a broken elbow. Another injury occurred on July 28, against the Williamsport Grays. Geraghty scored from first base on a dropped pop fly, but his celebration was short-lived, as he collapsed because of a hemorrhage. Williamsport purchased his contract after the game, and Baseball-Reference.com indicates he was under contract to the Grays in 1940, though no statistics are recorded. He sat out the 1941 and 1942 seasons, taking a job with a California shipyard before Stengel, now manager of the Boston Braves encouraged him to return east and make a comeback in 1943.Boston Braves (1943–44)
Due to World War II, all MLB teams except the St. Louis ones trained east of the Mississippi River and north of the Potomac and Ohio River, not in the south like they normally did. Training in Wallingford, Connecticut, the Braves tried to do most of their work indoors initially, but they ended this practice after Geraghty and two others suffered minor leg injuries because of the slick floor. Geraghty made the team and was still with them by the time the All-Star Game was played. However, he only appeared in eight games and only had one at bat. Mostly, he was utilized as a pinch runner; he scored two runs in this capacity. The Braves optioned him to the Eastern League's Hartford Bees on July 18, and Geraghty batted.312 in 39 games.Geraghty started 1944 with the Braves, appearing in seven games through mid-May before again getting sent to the minors, this time to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AA International League. He played 84 games for the Chiefs, batting.224 with 22 RBI. Recalled by Boston in September, he played in four more games, the last appearances of his MLB career. His final game was against the Dodgers on September 14; pinch-running for Buck Etchison, he scored to give the Braves the lead, though Boston allowed runs in the eighth and ninth and lost 5–4. After going hitless with the Braves in 1943, Geraghty had four hits in 16 at bats for them in 1944. He actually began the 1945 season on Boston's roster but was sent to the minors in mid-May without having played. In 70 total MLB games, he compiled a batting average of.199 in 146 at bats with 29 hits, four of which were doubles, and nine RBI.
Minor league player-manager (1945–48)
Indianapolis Indians
After being demoted in 1945, Geraghty finished out the year playing 117 games for the Indianapolis Indians of the Class AA American Association. In 117 games, he batted.270 with 63 runs scored, 111 hits, and 25 RBI. Heading west in 1946, he joined the Sacramento Solons of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League but only lasted four games before getting released. Geraghty then signed with the Spokane Indians of the Class B Western International League, with whom his life would be forever altered.Survived 1946 Spokane bus tragedy
On June 24, 1946, Geraghty survived one of the greatest tragedies in baseball history, when the bus carrying the Spokane Indians crashed and caught fire after attempting to avert an oncoming car on a rain-slicked mountain pass. Nine players were killed; Geraghty was among the injured. He sustained a severe head wound when he was thrown through a window before the bus burst into flames, but he was able to climb up the hillside and signal for help. The Spokane club was decimated and could only continue the season with players loaned from other teams and organizations. "I guess I'm pretty lucky", Geraghty told the Associated Press the day after the crash. "I was thrown right out a window. I took the window frame right with me. I remember flying out the window, but I must have been knocked out because I don't remember landing." Geraghty's head wound required 28 stitches to close, and he was on crutches as the result of a broken kneecap.Despite his head injury, Geraghty was named the immediate replacement for Mel Cole—the team's catcher and player-manager who perished in the crash—as the Indians' first post-accident skipper. But his injuries were too serious, and former big-leaguer Glenn Wright assumed the reins for the rest of 1946. Geraghty was able to return to Spokane to play for and manage the Indians in 1947. He appeared in 31 games for the Indians, batting.348. Meanwhile, he led them to a second-place finish and 87 victories. His health, however, would never be the same. He would manage in the minors for the next 16 seasons, but he was troubled by heart disease, cardiovascular disease and ulcers, and developed a reputation as a heavy drinker.