Alfonso Ramon Lopez

For some reason I started thinking about Al Lopez the other day. I can't remember why, maybe I had read something or heard something on Sports Center, but somehow, I had Al Lopez on my mind. Al was a Major League baseball player back in the 30's and 40's; playing for Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and the Boston Braves. Al spent 19 years playing ball at this level and was a mediocre player who had a couple of good years. When he quit playing, he had surpassed Gabby Hartnett's record for most games as a catcher, but with 51 lifetime Home Runs and a .261 career batting average, it was a cinch that he wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.

However, Al became a manager in 1951 and 15 seasons later; he had amassed a record of 1381 wins and 969 losses. Al tried to come back and manage again in 1968, but health problems forced him into retirement. In 1977 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Al never managed a team through a season with a losing record and he did something in 1954 and 1959 that no other American League manager could do from 1949 through 1964; he beat the New York Yankees. The Yanks won the American League Pennant every year from 1949 through 1964 except when the Al Lopez led Cleveland Indians beat them in 1954 and then the White Sox, led by the same Al Lopez, beat them in 1959. In 1954, Al's Cleveland Indians established a record with 111 wins in a season. When the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, it was the first time that they had been back to the Series since Al Lopez led them there in 1959. Four days after the White Sox wrapped up their first Series title in 88 years, Al Lopez passed away in Tampa, Florida.

Al Lopez was a ballplayer, a manager and, according to those who played with him and for him, a great person to be around. Al grew up in Tampa and lived there after his retirement. Tampa honored him by naming a baseball field Al Lopez Park. There is an old story about Al getting thrown out of his own park as a spectator for heckling an umpire. An interesting side note; in 1963, just 4 days before he was assassinated, JFK delivered a speech at Al Lopez Park.

Another old story has circulated for years about Al deciding to get thrown out of a game on a hot summer day in Brooklyn just so he could get a day off. According to the story (as I remember it), Al turned to the umpire, a veteran by the name of Charley Moran and asked, "Hey Charley didn't you used to be a famous football coach?" Moran replied, "Of course I was, I coached the Praying Colonels of Centre College." To this Al asked again, "What were they praying for, a new coach?" And then, he promptly got thrown out of the game and got his day off.

"Uncle" Charley Moran was the Head Coach of the Praying Colonels from 1917 through 1923 and had a 42-6-1 record. He had also been the Head Coach of the Texas A&M Aggies for 6 seasons and had accumulated a 38-8-4 record and later coached the Bucknell Bisons to a 19-10-2 record over 3 seasons. His final college coaching job was at Catawba College from 1930 through 1933, where he had a 23-10-5 record. Very impressive, considering that from 1919 through 1935 he worked the off season as a Major League Baseball umpire.

If all of this was not enough for a great life, how about the fact that Charley pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1903; just 24 innings, but he was in the Show. As a matter of fact, Charley played for the Cardinals again in 1908, but this time he came back as a catcher and only played in 21 games. I've not been able to find anyone else in Major League history that made it to the Show as a pitcher, failed to stay and came back as a catcher.

Charley's greatest accomplishment or claim to fame in his football coaching career came in 1921 when Centre College traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to play number one ranked Harvard. (Just to tie JFK back into this story, he was a Harvard man, Class of 1940.) Harvard was in the middle of their third straight undefeated season with a 5-0-1 record; four of which were shutouts and yet, Centre won by a score of 6-0 in what has become one of the greatest upsets in collegiate football history. The only touchdown scored in the game was a 33-yard run by Centre's 3-time All American quarterback, Bo McMillin. Surely, you remember Bo McMillin, don't you?

Bo McMillin later became the Head Coach of the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Nine Conference. He led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season in 1945 and captured the only outright conference title in the history of the school.