Connie Mack


Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. Mack holds records for the most wins, losses, ties, and games managed in Major League Baseball history. His victory total is 847 more than the second-highest: Tony La Russa's 2,884 wins. Mack's lead in career losses is even greater, with 1,449 more than La Russa's 2,499. Mack also has 17 more ties than the next-closest manager, Clark Griffith, who has 59.
Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for its first 50 seasons of play, starting in 1901; was at least part-owner from 1901 to 1954; and retired after the 1950 season at age 87. He was the first American League manager to lead a team to 100 wins, doing so in 1910, 1911, 1929, 1930, and 1931; his five 100-win seasons are second-most in MLB history, with only two other managers surpassing him. He was the first manager to win the World Series three times, and he is the only manager to win consecutive Series on two occasions ; his five Series titles remain the third-most by any manager, and his nine American League pennants rank second in league history. However, constant financial struggles forced repeated rebuilding of the roster, and Mack's teams also finished in last place 17 times, including ten seasons in which the Athletics lost 100 games.
Mack was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

Early life and education

Mack was born Cornelius McGillicuddy on December 22, 1862, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, in what is now East Brookfield. His parents, Michael McGillicuddy and Mary McKillop, were immigrants from Ireland: Michael from Killarney in County Kerry, and Mary from the Catholic section of Belfast. A wheelwright by trade, Michael served with the 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. He suffered from several ailments as the result of his military service; after the war, he was able to work only infrequently and drew a disability pension.
As with many Irish immigrants whose names began with "Mc", the McGillicuddys were often referred to as "Mack", except in official and legal documents. Michael’s father was named Cornelius McGillicuddy, and by tradition, the family named at least one son in each generation Cornelius. "Connie" is a common nickname for Cornelius, so Cornelius McGillicuddy was called "Connie Mack" from an early age. He did not have a middle name, but many accounts erroneously give him the middle name "Alexander"; this error probably arose because his son Cornelius McGillicuddy Jr. took Alexander as his confirmation name. Connie Mack never legally changed his name; on the occasion of his second marriage at age 48, he signed the wedding register as "Cornelius McGillicuddy". His nickname on the baseball field was "Slats", for his height of 6 feet 2 inches and thin build.
Mack was educated in East Brookfield, and began working summers in local cotton mills at age 9 to help support his family. He quit school after completing the eighth grade at age 14, intending to work full-time to contribute to the family's support, as several of his siblings had done. He clerked at a store, worked on local farms, and worked on the production lines of the shoe factories in nearby towns.
Mack was also a good athlete and frequently played baseball and some of its predecessor games with local players in East Brookfield. In 1879 his skills landed him a place on East Brookfield's town team, which played other town teams in the area. Though younger than his teammates by several years, Mack was the team's catcher and de facto captain.

Professional career

Beginning in 1886, Mack played 10 seasons in the National League and one in the Players' League, for a total of 11 seasons in the major leagues, mainly as a catcher.
Beginning in 1884, he played on minor league teams in the Connecticut cities of Meriden and Hartford before being sold to the Washington Nationals of the National League in 1886. In the winter of 1889, he jumped to the Buffalo Bisons of the new Players' League, investing his entire life savings of $500 in shares in the club. But the Players' League went out of business after only a year, and Mack lost his job and his whole investment. In December 1890 Mack signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and remained with them for the rest of his career as a full-time player.
As a player, Mack was "a light-hitting catcher with a reputation as a smart player, but didn't do anything particularly well as a player."
Mack was one of the first catchers to position himself directly behind home plate instead of in front of the backstop. According to Wilbert Robinson, "Mack never was mean... if you had any soft spot, Connie would find it. He could do and say things that got more under your skin than the cuss words used by other catchers."
In addition to verbally needling batters to distract them, he developed skills such as blocking the plate to prevent base runners from scoring and faking the sound of a foul tip. Besides tipping bats to fake the sound of a foul tip, Mack became adept at tipping bats to throw off the hitter's swing. Mack never denied such tricks:
Farmer Weaver was a catcher-outfielder for Louisville. I tipped his bat several times when he had two strikes on him one year, and each time the umpire called him out. He got even, though. One time there were two strikes on him and he swung as the pitch was coming in. But he didn't swing at the ball. He swung right at my wrists. Sometimes I think I can still feel the pain. I'll tell you I didn't tip his bat again. No, sir, not until the last game of the season and Weaver was at bat for the last time. When he had two strikes, I tipped his bat again and got away with it.

Managerial career

Mack's last three seasons in the National League were as a player-manager with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1894 to 1896, with a 149–134 record. Fired on September 21, 1896, he retired as a full-time player and accepted a deal from Henry Killilea to act as manager and occasional backup catcher for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. He agreed to a salary of $3,000 and 25% of the club. He managed the Brewers for four seasons from 1897 to 1900, their best year coming in 1900, when they finished second, behind the Chicago White Stockings. It was in Milwaukee that he first signed pitcher Rube Waddell, who would follow him to the big leagues.
On November 8 1900, Mack became manager of the new American League's then unnamed Philadelphia ballclub, which eventually became known as the Athletics. Shortly after, he would be named treasurer and part owner of that said franchise.
Mack managed the Athletics through the 1950 season, compiling a record of 3,582–3,814 when he retired at 87. Mack won nine pennants and appeared in eight World Series, winning five.
File:Connie Mack and John McGraw - DPLA - 33d9a803e17827e29c4cf877541ccc4b.jpg|alt=Connie Mack and John McGraw, . Michael T. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy Collection, Boston Public Library|left|thumb|Connie Mack and John McGraw, . Michael T. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy Collection, Boston Public Library
Mack's 50-year tenure as Athletics manager is the most ever for a coach or manager with the same team in North American professional sports, and has never been seriously threatened. A few college coaches had longer tenures: John Gagliardi was a head football coach from 1949 to 2012, ending with 60 seasons at Saint John's of Minnesota; Eddie Robinson was head football coach at Grambling State for 57 seasons, from 1941 to 1997; Herb Magee served as head men's basketball coach of the institution now known as Jefferson for 54 years from 1967 to 2022, with the first 41 at Chicago.
Mack was widely praised in the newspapers for his intelligent and innovative managing, which earned him the nickname "the Tall Tactician". He valued intelligence and "baseball smarts," always looking for educated players. "Better than any other manager, Mack understood and promoted intelligence as an element of excellence." He wanted men who were self-directed, self-disciplined and self-motivated; his ideal player was Eddie Collins. According to baseball historian Bill James, Mack was well ahead of his time in having numerous college players on his teams. Several of his players went on to become well-respected college coaches. Jack Coombs, the ace of Mack's 1910–11 champions, became the longtime coach at Duke. Andy Coakley, who won 20 games for Mack's 1905 pennant winners, coached for over 30 years at Columbia, where he was the college coach for Lou Gehrig. Dick Siebert, longtime coach at Minnesota, played for Mack from 1938 to 1945. James believed that Mack's influence on the game, as great as it was, would have been even greater had the college game been more popular during the 1920s and 1930s, when Mack was at his peak.
According to James, Mack looked for seven things in his players—"physical ability, intelligence, courage, disposition, will power, general alertness and personal habits."
As a result of Mack's striving to have his players become better people as well as baseball players, he created a Code of Conduct following the 1916 season:
  • I will always play the game to the best of my ability.
  • I will always play to win, but if I lose, I will not look for an excuse to detract from my opponent's victory.
  • I will never take an unfair advantage in order to win.
  • I will always abide by the rules of the game—on the diamond as well as in my daily life.
  • I will always conduct myself as a true sportsman—on and off the playing field.
  • I will always strive for the good of the entire team rather than for my own glory.
  • I will never gloat in victory or pity myself in defeat.
  • I will do my utmost to keep myself clean—physically, mentally, and morally.
  • I will always judge a teammate or an opponent as an individual and never on the basis of race or religion.
He also looked for players with quiet and disciplined personal lives, having seen many players in his playing days destroy themselves and their teams through heavy drinking. Mack himself never drank; before the 1910 World Series he asked all his players to "take the pledge" not to drink during the Series. When Topsy Hartsel told Mack he needed a drink the night before the final game, Mack told him to do what he thought best, but in these circumstances "if it was me, I'd die before I took a drink."
In any event, his managerial style was not tyrannical but easygoing. He never imposed curfews or bed checks, and made the best of what he had. Rube Waddell was the best pitcher and biggest gate attraction of Mack's first decade as the A's manager, so he put up with his drinking and general unreliability for years, until it began to bring the team down and the other players asked Mack to get rid of Waddell.
Unlike most other baseball managers, Mack chose to wear a business suit and overcoat in the dugout rather than a team uniform.
Mack's strength as a manager was finding the best players, teaching them well and letting them play. "He did not believe that baseball revolved around managerial strategy." He was "one of the first managers to work on repositioning his fielders" during the game, often directing the outfielders to move left or right, play shallow or deep, by waving his rolled-up scorecard from the bench. After he became well known for doing this, he often passed his instructions to the fielders by way of other players, and simply waved his scorecard as a feint.
James summed up Mack's managerial approach as follows: he favored a set lineup, did not generally platoon hitters; preferred young players to veterans and power hitters to those with high batting averages; did not often pinch-hit, use his bench players or sacrifice much ; believed in "big-inning" offense rather than small ball; and very rarely issued an intentional walk.
Over the course of his career, he had nine pennant-winning teams spanning three peak periods or "dynasties." His original team, with players such as Rube Waddell, Ossee Schrecongost, and Eddie Plank, won the pennant in 1902 and 1905. They lost the 1905 World Series to the New York Giants. During that season, Giants manager John McGraw said that Mack had "a big white elephant on his hands" with the Athletics. Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team's logo, which the Athletics still use today.
As that first team aged, Mack acquired a core of young players to form his second great team, which featured Mack's famous "$100,000 infield" of Eddie Collins, Home Run Baker, Jack Barry and Stuffy McInnis. These Athletics, captained by catcher Ira Thomas, won the pennant in 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914, beating the Cubs in the World Series in 1910 and the Giants in 1911 and 1913, but losing in 1914 in four straight games to the "Miracle" Boston Braves, who had come from last place in late July to win the National League pennant by games over the Giants.
That team was dispersed due to financial problems, from which Mack did not recover until the 20s, when he built his third great team. The 1927 Athletics featured several future Hall of Fame players including veterans Ty Cobb, Zack Wheat and Eddie Collins as well as young stars like Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons and rookie Jimmie Foxx. That team won the pennant in 1929, 1930 and 1931, beating the Chicago Cubs in the 1929 World Series and easily defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in 1930. The following year, St. Louis beat the A's in seven games led by Pepper Martin.
That team was dispersed after 1932 when Mack ran into financial difficulty again. By 1934, the A's had fallen into the second division. Although Mack intended to rebuild for a third time, he would never win another pennant. The Athletics' record from 1935 to 1946 was dismal, finishing in the basement of the AL every year except a 5th-place finish in 1944. World War II brought further hardship due to personnel shortages.
In 1938, Mack in his middle seventies successfully battled a blood infection caused when a batted ball injured one of his shinbones. He stopped for treatment at the Medical and Surgical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where he was in passage on a train.
In addition, as Mack entered his 80s, his once-keen mind began fading rapidly. Mack would make strange decisions, make inexplicable outbursts, and call for players from decades earlier to pinch-hit. He spent most games asleep in the dugout, leaving his coaches to run the team most of the time.
According to outfielder Sam Chapman, "He could remember the old-timers, but he had a hard time remembering the names of the current players." Shortstop Eddie Joost said "He wasn't senile, but there were lapses." Despite growing speculation he would step down, Mack brushed it all off and stated simply that he would keep managing as long as he was physically able to do so.
According to Bill James, by the time Mack recovered again financially, he was "old and out of touch with the game, so his career ends with eighteen years of miserable baseball." It was generally agreed that he stayed in the game too long, hurting his legacy. He was unable to handle the post-World War II changes in baseball, including the growing commercialization of the game. His business style was no longer viable in post-World War II America due to various factors, including the increased expense of running a team. For instance, he never installed a telephone line between the bullpen and dugout.
Despite the circumstances, the octogenarian Mack led the team to three winning seasons in 1947–1949. With the A's unexpected resurgence in 1947–1949, there was hope that 1950—Mack's 50th anniversary as the A's manager—would bring a pennant at last. However, the A's never recovered from a dreadful May in which they only won five games. By May 26, the A's were 11–21, 12 games out of first, and it was obvious the season was a lost cause. On that date, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie, Jr. persuaded their father to promote Jimmy Dykes, who had been a coach since 1949, to assistant manager for the remainder of the season. Dykes became the team's main operator in the dugout, and would take over the managerial reins in his own right in 1951. At the same time, Cochrane was named general manager—thus stripping Connie, Sr. of his remaining authority. Six weeks after his mid-season retirement, Mack was honored by baseball when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the 1950 All-Star Game.
Red Smith wrote about his managerial style at the end of his career:
Toward the end he was old and sick and saddened, a figure of forlorn dignity bewildered by the bickering around him as the baseball monument that he had built crumbled away.

At the time of his retirement, Mack stated:
I'm not quitting because I'm getting old, I'm quitting because I think people want me to."