Best all-time general managers: No. 4, George Weiss

George Weiss was ran both New York teams over an 18 year span. In building the second Yankees dynasty, he propelled himself to the fourth best all time general manager.

 (New York Yankees, 1948-60; New York Mets, 1962-66)

There is a perception that the Yankees dominated baseball in the 1950s because they had Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra. Those guys certainly helped, but the Yankees had one other important element: general manager George Weiss.

Between 1949 and 1960, the Yankees won 10 pennants, and Weiss was a central player in the winning of five of them.

Born in 1895, Weiss attended Yale, but left college when his father died and pursued his dream of running a baseball organization. That dream began with a local club, and advanced with his 1919 purchase of the New Haven, Ct. franchise in the Eastern League.

He assumed control of the American Association’s Baltimore Orioles in 1928, and within a few years was running the Yankees’ Newark farm team. When Larry McPhail was removed following the 1947 championship, Weiss was the obvious choice to replace him.

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Weiss built his reputation largely as a trader. Between his arrival following the 1948 season and 1960, Weis acquired 51 players who subsequently played for the Yankees. Those 51 netted +12.3 games of short-term value – that’s almost one game per season – and more than +24.0 games of long-term value.

Short-term, Weiss was substantially less productive in the use of his farm system. In fact, the cumulative short-term value of every rookie playing for Weiss was negative. But do not be misled. The cumulative long-term value of Weiss’s rookies was +105.3, or better than +8 per season.

Oh, by the way, those rookies included Mantle and Ford.

Weiss had one big advantage, of course, a willing trading partner in the Kansas City Athletics. Between 1956 and 1960, the teams made 13 swaps that brought more than two dozen players to New York, among them Roger Maris, Ralph Terry, Ryne Duren, and Clete Boyer. Those trades were central to the 1957 and 1960 pennants.

But it oversimplifies Weiss’s impact to link it all to the Yankees’ relationship with the Athletics. The key to the Yankees’ 1955 pennant was a November 1954 deal with the Orioles that brought in Bob Turley, Don Larsen and Billy Hunter, while moving out Jim McDonald.

Prior to the 1949 season, Weiss traded, sold or released four players who saw duty with other teams in 1949; all four produced negative values for those teams.

In fact, Weiss’ short-term moves were the driving force behind five of the 10 pennants won during his tenure. Only one other GM in history – John Schuerholz – can claim to have influenced the winning of five pennants by his moves.

Weiss was four times named Sporting News Executive Of The Year, annually from 1950 through 1952 and again in 1960. The latter, coming as it did following his removal, was probably an editorial statement by J.G. Taylor Spink, but it was actually merited. Weiss’ moves upgraded the Yankees by 12.8 games that season.

He also deserved the award in 1957 when the 9.5 game improvement he worked on the Yanks again was the difference between first and second place.  Weiss didn’t actually earn the 1950 through 1952 awards, but hey, the Yankees were world champions.

He was fired along with Casey Stengel following the Yankees’ loss of the 1960 World Series to Pittsburgh, but caught on with the Mets as their first GM, hiring Stengel to be field manager. All that needs to be said about Weiss’ tenure with the Mets was that it was less successful.

Weiss died in 1972.

George Weiss

In the first six categories, values reflect the standard deviation of the GM’s performance above or below the historical mean for that category. Category 7 awards or deducts points for seasons in which the GM’s short-term impact exceeded the margin by which his team either reached post-season or failed to do so. Category 8 represents post-season appearances; in categories 7 and 8 indicated points are based on numbers of teams and post-season berths.

1 Short-term average: -0.03

2 Short-term total: -0.14

3 Long-term average: +0.60

4 Long-term total: +0.79

5 Residual average: +0.52

6 Residual total: +0.58

7 GM’s post-season shares:

• 1949 award +1.0. Weiss aided the Yankees by +2.4 games; they qualified for post-season by 1 game. Key move: Traded Red Embree, -1.4.
• 1950 award. +1.0. Weiss aided the Yankees by +8.3 games; they qualified for post-season by 3 games. Key move: Promoted Whitey Ford, +1.5.
• 1955 award +1.0. Weiss aided the Yankees by +8.1 games; they qualified for post-season by 3 games. Key moves: Acquired Bob Turley, +2.4; acquired Don Larsen, +1.0; traded Jim McDonald, -2.5.
• 1957 award +1.0. Weiss aided the Yankees by +8.6 games; they qualified for post-season by 8 games. Key moves: Acquired Bobby Shantz, +2.7; traded Billy Martin, -1.5; traded Billy Hunter, -2.1.
• 1960 award +1.0. Weiss aided the Yankees by +8.5 games; they qualified for post-season by 8 games. Key moves: Acquired Roger Maris, +3.7; traded Hank Bauer, -1.1; traded Don Larsen, -1.4.

Category 7 total: +5.0.

8 Credit for post-season appearances (1949, +1.0; 1950, +1.0; 1951, +1.0; 1952, +1.0; 1953, +1.0; 1955, +1.0; 1956, +1.0; 1957, +1.0; 1958, +1.0; 1960, +1.0): +10.00.

Grand total: +17.32

Next: No. 3, Ed Barrow