Best all-time general managers: #22 Larry MacPhail

More than just what he did, #22 in our best all-time general managers began a baseball lineage that’s unmatched

Cincinnati Reds, 1934-37,
Brooklyn Dodgers, 1938-42,
New York Yankees 1945-47)

Founder of the only family to have produced three generations of general managers who each lasted five or more seasons, Larry MacPhail enjoyed interesting and controversial tenures with three teams to rank among our best all-time general managers.

MacPhail got his start in Cincinnati when Powell Crosley purchased the Reds and realized immediately that he knew more about the merchandising and media networks he owned than baseball. A graduate of Beloit College in Michigan and captain of artillery during World War I, MacPhail had practiced law in Columbus, Ohio and purchased an interest in that city’s minor league team before joining the Reds at age 43.

MacPhail also ran the Yankees for three seasons before his boorish behavior at a post-World Series victory party sufficiently offended co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb to buy him out.

But it is as general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers between 1938 and 1942 that MacPhail is best-known. He was hired away from Cincinnati by the Brooklyn businessmen who obtained control of the club’s extremely troubled assets from the remnants of the Ebbets-McKeever organization that had allowed the Dodgers to deteriorate for a decade. Under MacPhail, there would be no such decay.

One of his first actions was to install lights at Ebbets Field; the action replicated a key to his turnaround of the Reds in 1935. He also persuaded the owners to pour $400,000 into a renovation of the ballpark. In that respect, MacPhail is the underlying reason why many today still celebrate Ebbets Field as a lost shrine rather than a dump.

MacPhail has been widely praised for his player procurement moves, although a better description would be “steady and unspectacular.” The Dodgers climbed from seventh in MacPhail’s first season to third in 1939, second in 1940 and to a club-record 100 victories and the pennant in 1941.

There was no single acquisition at work in this success. Of the key hands on the field in 1941, Dolf Camilli had arrived in 1938, Dixie Walker and Whitlow Wyatt in 1939, and Pete Reiser and Joe Medwick in 1940.

Larry MacPhail built the Dodgers gradually and solidly, so solidly in fact that they won 104 more games in 1942, even though losing the NL pennant by two games to the Cardinals.

MacPhail resigned late in the 1942 season, the announced reason being his desire to help the war effort. Having served as an artillery captain in World War I, he had the credentials, and the record shows that he did join the Army, rising to the rank of colonel.

But there was more to it than that. The boozy, blustery style that would five years later offend Topping and Webb had already grown wearisome to Dodger ownership, which made no effort to stop him.

MacPhail’s profile is neither decidedly short-term nor long-term; it’s actually rather muddy. His standard deviations are solid but unremarkable.

The sole exception was his total residual impact, in which he was extraordinary, even among the best all-time general managers. MacPhail left the Reds in position to win pennants in 1939 and 1940, using MacPhail products such as Ernie Lombardi, Frank McCormick and Johnny Vander Meer.

The intervention of World War II renders it a guessing game what the Dodgers might have done in a peaceful world. MacPhail left behind such regulars as Camilli, Billy Herman, PeeWee Reese and Pete Reiser, but most saw at least some service time.

When he caught the midnight train out of New York, he left his successor, George Weiss, a core that included Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto, Vic Raschi and Allie Reynolds.

MacPhail’s total residual impact on his three teams is +161.9 games, the second highest behind only Branch Rickey.

MacPhail was chosen Executive Of The Year in 1939. Had there been an award in 1935 – it was instituted the following year – he would have deserved to win it for his improvement of the Reds.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1978, three years after his death. His son, Lee MacPhail, and grandson, Andy MacPhail, both succeeded him as major league general managers.

Those interested in a more extensive biography of MacPhail can view his Hall of Fame or SABR bios, https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/macphail-larry, and https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1b708d47