Bill Carrigan

William Francis Carrigan (October 22, 1883 – July 8, 1969), nicknamed "Rough", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher and manager. He played for the Boston Red Sox between 1906 and 1916, and he was a player-manager for the last four of those seasons. In 1915 and 1916, Carrigan's teams won back-to-back World Series. He was said to exert a positive influence on young Red Sox star Babe Ruth, serving as his roommate and his manager. He has the highest postseason winning percentage (.800) of any manager with multiple postseason appearances, and was named to the Honor Rolls of Baseball in 1946.

After his playing career, Carrigan was a partner in a large chain of New England vaudeville and movie theaters. He returned to the Red Sox as a manager between 1927 and 1929; the team finished in last place in each of those seasons. He then returned to his native Lewiston, where he was named a bank president in 1953 and where he died in 1969.

Early life Carrigan was born in Lewiston, Maine. Carrigan's brother John was a talented pitcher, and Carrigan served as his catcher. Carrigan played football and baseball at Lewiston High School; he also played roller polo, but it caused him to get into fights, and his brother pleaded with him to stop playing. He studied at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the time, Holy Cross was known for sending its baseball players to the major leagues. Author Thomas Whalen writes that Speaker and Carrigan once had a fistfight, and Carrigan won the fight, helping him to establish a sense of authority.

The Red Sox finished in second place in 1914. In July of that year, they paid $25,000 to Baltimore of the International League for Babe Ruth, Ernie Shore and Ben Egan. Ruth gave up 21 hits in 23 innings pitched for the Red Sox that year.

Carrigan received a dispensation from the Catholic Church to marry a Protestant woman, Beulah Bartlett, before the 1915 baseball season. They had been friends since childhood. Carrigan led the team to world championships in 1915 and 1916, compiling an 8–2 record as a manager in World Series play. Until Terry Francona duplicated the feat in 2007, he was the only manager to have won two World Series titles with Boston.

In August 1916, Carrigan approached Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin about the possibility of retiring soon. His father-in-law's death had left some family business outstanding. The next month he decided that he would step down at the end of the season, wanting to decrease the time he spent traveling. He was also looking to devote more attention to a movie theater partnership known as the Maine and New Hampshire Theater Corporation. Lannin had hoped that Carrigan would change his mind, but other things were on Carrigan's mind. He and his wife had a child, also named Beulah, in November, and they later had another daughter, Constance, and a son, William Jr. Carrigan pursued his theater venture. The group owned as many as fifty theaters and there were three other partners in the corporation: a Lewiston man named William P. Gray; a former Mayor of Portsmouth, Albert Hyslop; and former New Hampshire Governor John H. Bartlett. In January 1922, Carrigan sold his interests in the corporation to Gray; the Washington Times said that Carrigan was thought to have received between $200,000 and $250,000.

Return to the Red Sox In the years after Carrigan's unexpected departure from the Red Sox, he was often the subject of rumors about a return to baseball. In the article announcing the sale of his theater shares, the Washington Times even speculated that he might be preparing to buy the Red Sox from Frazee.

By early December 1929, Carrigan said he was uncertain whether he would accept President Bob Quinn's offer to return as Red Sox manager. Despite the team's struggles, James O'Leary of The Boston Globe wrote that "Pres Quinn and every baseball fan in New England and throughout the entire American League circuit would like to see the veteran back on the job next season." Carrigan resigned on December 20.

Managerial record Team Year Regular season PostseasonGamesWonLostWin %Finish Won Lost Win % ResultBOS 704030 4th in AL – – – –BOS 1539162 2nd in AL – – – –BOS 15110150 1st in AL 4 1 .800 Won World Series (PHI)BOS 1549163 1st in AL 4 1 .800 Won World Series (BKN)BOS 15453101 8th in AL – – – –BOS 1535796 8th in AL – – – –BOS 1545896 8th in AL – – – –Total 1,003 489 500 8 2 .800

Later life In 1933 and 1934, Carrigan was the head baseball coach at Bates College. In 1953, he was named president of People's Savings Bank in Lewiston. In 1958, Carrigan's wife died. Carrigan died at Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston at the age of 85. He was posthumously elected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004.