Connie Mack, Baseball Manager
His record from Baseball Reference:
Year League Team Age G W L WP Finish +----+-----------+--------+---+-----+----+----+------+------+ 1894 National Lg Pittsbgh 31 23 12 10 .545 7 1895 National Lg Pittsbgh 32 135 71 61 .538 7 1896 National Lg Pittsbgh 33 131 66 63 .512 6 1901 American Lg Phildlpa 38 137 74 62 .544 4 1902 American Lg Phildlpa 39 137 83 53 .610 AL 1 1903 American Lg Phildlpa 40 137 75 60 .556 2 1904 American Lg Phildlpa 41 155 81 70 .536 5 1905 American Lg Phildlpa 42 152 92 56 .622 AL 1 1906 American Lg Phildlpa 43 149 78 67 .538 4 1907 American Lg Phildlpa 44 150 88 57 .607 2 1908 American Lg Phildlpa 45 157 68 85 .444 6 1909 American Lg Phildlpa 46 153 95 58 .621 2 1910 American Lg Phildlpa 47 155 102 48 .680 WS 1 1911 American Lg Phildlpa 48 152 101 50 .669 WS 1 1912 American Lg Phildlpa 49 153 90 62 .592 3 1913 American Lg Phildlpa 50 153 96 57 .627 WS 1 1914 American Lg Phildlpa 51 158 99 53 .651 AL 1 1915 American Lg Phildlpa 52 154 43 109 .283 8 1916 American Lg Phildlpa 53 154 36 117 .235 8 1917 American Lg Phildlpa 54 154 55 98 .359 8 1918 American Lg Phildlpa 55 130 52 76 .406 8 1919 American Lg Phildlpa 56 140 36 104 .257 8 1920 American Lg Phildlpa 57 156 48 106 .312 8 1921 American Lg Phildlpa 58 155 53 100 .346 8 1922 American Lg Phildlpa 59 155 65 89 .422 7 1923 American Lg Phildlpa 60 153 69 83 .454 6 1924 American Lg Phildlpa 61 152 71 81 .467 5 1925 American Lg Phildlpa 62 153 88 64 .579 2 1926 American Lg Phildlpa 63 150 83 67 .553 3 1927 American Lg Phildlpa 64 155 91 63 .591 2 1928 American Lg Phildlpa 65 153 98 55 .641 2 1929 American Lg Phildlpa 66 151 104 46 .693 WS 1 1930 American Lg Phildlpa 67 154 102 52 .662 WS 1 1931 American Lg Phildlpa 68 153 107 45 .704 AL 1 1932 American Lg Phildlpa 69 154 94 60 .610 2 1933 American Lg Phildlpa 70 152 79 72 .523 3 1934 American Lg Phildlpa 71 153 68 82 .453 5 1935 American Lg Phildlpa 72 149 58 91 .389 8 1936 American Lg Phildlpa 73 154 53 100 .346 8 1937 American Lg Phildlpa 74 120 39 80 .328 7 1938 American Lg Phildlpa 75 154 53 99 .349 8 1939 American Lg Phildlpa 76 62 25 37 .403 7 1940 American Lg Phildlpa 77 154 54 100 .351 8 1941 American Lg Phildlpa 78 154 64 90 .416 8 1942 American Lg Phildlpa 79 154 55 99 .357 8 1943 American Lg Phildlpa 80 155 49 105 .318 8 1944 American Lg Phildlpa 81 155 72 82 .468 5 1945 American Lg Phildlpa 82 153 52 98 .347 8 1946 American Lg Phildlpa 83 155 49 105 .318 8 1947 American Lg Phildlpa 84 156 78 76 .506 5 1948 American Lg Phildlpa 85 154 84 70 .545 4 1949 American Lg Phildlpa 86 154 81 73 .526 5 1950 American Lg Phildlpa 87 154 52 102 .338 8 +----+-----------+--------+---+-----+----+----+------+------+ Phildlpa 7466 3582 3814 .484 Pittsbgh 289 149 134 .527 +----+-----------+--------+---+-----+----+----+------+------+ TOTAL 7755 3731 3948 .486
NL or AL under Finish means team won pennant.
WS under Finish means team won World Series.
50 years straight as the Philadelphia A's manager. How did he do it? He owned the team, that's how. An interesting guy:
Seeing baseball as a business, he once confided that it was more profitable to have a team get off to a hot start, then ultimately finish fourth. "A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don't have to give the players raises when they don't win," he said.
Even back then, baseball was a harsh business:
For 50 of his 60 years in baseball, he had an ownership interest in the team he managed, the Philadelphia Athletics. He started in 1901 with a 25 percent piece of the team and eventually became sole owner. Baseball was his only business. Gate receipts and concessions sales were the only sources of capital he had to work with. He never had any corporate coffers to tap and never took much money out of the game. It was financial realities that forced him to break up two of the greatest teams ever put together. After winning four pennants in five years from 1910 to 1914, he lost some of his stars to the Federal League's higher salaries, and sold off his other top players. The Athletics fell from first to last and stayed there for seven years.
As a manager, Mack was easy to spot on the bench—he was the man in the business suit. He never wore a baseball uniform, as managers do today.
And one more thing. As a kid, I never understood how a team with the name Athletics got a logo like this:
Well, when John McGraw called Connie Mack’s Athletics a "white elephant" that no one else wanted, Mack adopted the pachyderm as his mascot, a symbol still used by the Oakland A’s. Yet another boyhood mystery solved.
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