47 Facts About Connie Mack

1.

Cornelius McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner.

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2.

Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the club's first 50 seasons of play, starting in 1901, before retiring at age 87 following the 1950 season, and was at least part-owner from 1901 to 1954.

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3.

Connie Mack was the first manager to win the World Series three times, and he is the only manager to win consecutive Series on separate occasions ; his five Series titles remain the third most by any manager, and his nine American League pennants rank second in league history.

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4.

Connie Mack was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

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5.

Connie Mack 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.

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6.

Connie Mack was educated in East Brookfield, and began working summers in local cotton mills at age 9 to help support his family.

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7.

Connie Mack 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.

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8.

Connie Mack clerked at a store, worked on local farms, and worked on the production lines of the shoe factories in nearby towns.

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9.

Connie Mack was a good athlete and frequently played baseball and some of its predecessor games with local players in East Brookfield.

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10.

In December 1890 Connie 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.

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11.

Connie Mack was one of the first catchers to position himself directly behind home plate instead of in front of the backstop.

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12.

Connie Mack could do and say things that got more under your skin than the cuss words used by other catchers.

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13.

Connie Mack managed the Brewers for four seasons from 1897 to 1900, their best year coming in 1900, when they finished second.

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14.

In 1901 Connie Mack became manager, treasurer and part owner of the new American League's Philadelphia Athletics.

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15.

Connie Mack won nine pennants and appeared in eight World Series, winning five.

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16.

College football pioneer Amos Alonzo Stagg surpassed Connie Mack in overall tenure, though not in tenure for a single employer; he was a head coach for 55 seasons in all, with the first 41 at Chicago .

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17.

Connie Mack was widely praised in the newspapers for his intelligent and innovative managing, which earned him the nickname "the Tall Tactician".

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18.

Connie Mack valued intelligence and "baseball smarts, " always looking for educated players.

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19.

Connie Mack 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.

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20.

Connie Mack never imposed curfews or bed checks, and made the best of what he had.

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21.

Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team's logo, which the Athletics still use today.

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22.

Team was dispersed due to financial problems, from which Connie Mack did not recover until the 20s, when he built his third great team.

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23.

Connie Mack stopped for treatment at the Medical and Surgical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where he was in passage on a train.

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24.

Connie Mack would make strange decisions, make inexplicable outbursts, and call for players from decades earlier to pinch-hit.

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25.

Connie Mack spent most games asleep in the dugout, leaving his coaches to run the team most of the time.

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26.

Connie Mack was unable to handle the post-World War II changes in baseball, including the growing commercialization of the game.

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27.

Six weeks after his mid-season retirement, Connie Mack was honored by baseball when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the 1950 All-Star Game.

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28.

In return, Connie Mack was allowed to buy a 25 percent stake, and was named secretary and treasurer of the team.

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29.

In 1913, Hough and Jones sold their 25 percent to Connie Mack, making him a full partner in the club with Shibe; Connie Mack actually borrowed the money for the purchase from Shibe.

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30.

Under their agreement, Connie Mack had full control over baseball matters while Shibe handled the business side.

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31.

However, Connie Mack had enjoyed more or less a free hand over the baseball side since the team's inception.

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32.

John Shibe died in 1937, and Connie Mack bought 141 shares from his estate, enough to make him majority owner of the A's.

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33.

Connie Mack answered every letter and listened patiently to every sales job, and.

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34.

Connie Mack saw baseball as a business, and recognized that economic necessity drove the game.

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35.

Connie Mack celebrated his 70th birthday in 1932, and many began wondering if his best days were behind him.

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36.

Connie Mack briefly entertained replacing himself as manager with Babe Ruth, but ruled that idea out, saying that the Babe's wife, Claire, would be running the team inside of a month.

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37.

When Connie Mack resigned as manager, he largely withdrew from active control of the team.

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38.

Connie Mack's sons handled his correspondence by 1953 as he had become too frail by that point to do it himself.

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39.

Roy and Earle Connie Mack did not want to move the team, but pressure from the Yankees and blowback from several bad business decisions finally moved their hand and they agreed to the sale.

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40.

When that deal collapsed, a bitter Connie Mack wrote a letter blasting his fellow owners for sinking the Crisconi deal.

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41.

Connie Mack was still chauffeured around to games by his caretaker.

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42.

Connie Mack attended the 1954 World Series and the occasional regular season game, but in October 1955, he fell and suffered a hip fracture.

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43.

Connie Mack's friend Red Smith called him "tough and warm and wonderful, kind and stubborn and courtly and unreasonable and generous and calculating and naive and gentle and proud and humorous and demanding and unpredictable".

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44.

Connie Mack supported a large extended family and was generous to players in need, often finding jobs for former players.

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45.

Connie Mack lived through the entire era of racially segregated baseball, and even afterwards never displayed any serious interest in signing blacks.

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46.

Connie Mack is mentioned in the 1949 poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:.

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47.

In more recent years, his descendants have taken to politics: Mack's grandson Connie Mack III was a member of the U S House of Representatives from Florida and the United States Senate ; and great-grandson Connie Mack IV served in the U S House of Representatives, representing Florida's 14th congressional district.

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