Bill McKechnie

William Boyd McKechnie (August 7, 1886 – October 29, 1965) was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a third baseman during the dead-ball era. McKechnie was the first manager to win World Series titles with two teams (1925 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1940 Cincinnati Reds), and remains one of only three managers to win pennants with three teams, also capturing the National League title in 1928 with the St. Louis Cardinals. His 1,892 career victories ranked fourth in major league history when he ended his managing career in 1946, and trailed only John McGraw's NL total of 2,669 in league history. He was nicknamed "Deacon" because he sang in his church choir and generally lived a quiet life.

Early life McKechnie was born on August 7, 1886, to Archibald and Mary McKechnie, two Scottish immigrants who had settled in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, shortly before Bill was born.

Playing career

McKechnie made his major league debut in 1907 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, appearing in three games, before reemerging with the team in 1910 in a more substantial role. A utility infielder for the first half of his career before playing more substantially at third base later on, McKechnie played with the Pirates (1907, 1910–1912, 1918, 1920), Boston Braves (1913), New York Yankees (1913), Indianapolis Hoosiers/Newark Peppers (1914–15), New York Giants (1916) and Cincinnati Reds (1916–17). His best offensive season came in 1914 with the Hoosiers, when he scored 107 runs, batted .304 and stole 47 bases.

In 846 games over 11 major league seasons, McKechnie posted a .251 batting average (713-for-2843) with 319 runs, 8 home runs, 240 RBI, 127 stolen bases and 190 bases on balls. Defensively, he recorded an overall .954 fielding percentage playing at third, second, first base and shortstop.

Managing career Newark Peppers In 1913, McKechnie had his worst season as a full-time player, batting only .134. However, Yankees manager Frank Chance thought McKechnie had a keen baseball mind, and had him sit next to him on the bench during games. Two years later, McKechnie got his first taste of managerial duties, when he served as player-manager of the Newark Peppers of the Federal League, leading the team to a 54–45 record.

Post–playing career After he retired as a player, he managed for a year in the minors before assuming the helm of the Pirates in 1922. He managed the Pirates from 1922 to 1926, St. Louis Cardinals in 1928, St. Louis Cardinals again after they rehired him in 1929, Boston Braves from 1930 to 1937, and Cincinnati Reds from 1938 to 1946. He compiled 1,896 wins and 1,723 losses for a .524 winning percentage over his managerial career. The Cardinals finished the 1928 season in first place with a record 95 wins and 59 losses. McKechnie left the club after the World Series. Billy Southworth started the 1929 season with 43 wins and 45 losses. Gabby Street managed for a game before McKechnie returned as manager. In eight years, he had a winning record four times while finishing in the first division (top four) twice.

In 1933, they finished 83–71 to have their first winning season in twelve years, doing so while finishing fourth, nine games behind New York. They finished 78–73 the next year and finished 16 games behind St. Louis for another fourth-place finish. The bottom fell out in 1935, a season in which Babe Ruth returned to play in the city of Boston for the first time in 16 years, with Fuchs also giving him duties of vice president and assistant manager, although these were more ceremonial than anything. According to Allen, McKechnie claimed that Ruth's presence made it nearly impossible to enforce discipline. Ruth drew a huge salary, and lived apart from the team on the road. Despite fielding essentially the same team that finished fourth a year earlier, the Braves crumbled to a record of 38–115, the worst record in modern National League history and the second worst in modern major league history. The team improved in the next two years, going 71–83 (with three ties) and 79–73 before McKechnie was hired to manage the Cincinnati Reds in 1938.

Cincinnati Reds and later career According to one baseball reference work, McKechnie had a poor sense of direction, which did not improve when, as the Reds' manager, he began traveling by plane. He arrived in an airport when the Reds were to play the Pirates at Forbes Field. He hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the Schenley Hotel. "I never heard of it", said the driver. McKechnie gave him the names of the nearby streets. "Never heard of them either", the cabbie said. "How long have you been driving a cab here? the manager asked. "Twenty-five years and then some", said the driver, "But so help me I never heard of the Schenley Hotel! You must be in the wrong town! Where do you think you are?" "Pittsburgh", McKechnie said. "Pittsburgh, hell!" retorted the driver. "You're really lost. This is Detroit!"

McKechnie was an unusual kind of manager for his era. A very religious man, he did not smoke, drink alcohol or use profanity. When he had a problem player who was likely to go out carousing, McKechnie's simple solution was to room with him.

McKechnie (right) standing next to Cincinnati Reds owner Powel Crosley Jr. (center), circa 1940. In his first season with the Reds, he led them to an 82–68–1 record, finishing 4th in the NL behind the Chicago Cubs. In his second year, he led them to a 97–57–2 record, finishing 1st by games over the St. Louis Cardinals. This was McKechnie's third pennant, with each occurring with a different team. In the World Series that year, they were swept by the New York Yankees. In the following year, the Reds managed to improve, winning 100 games (a team first) while winning the NL once again, this time by 12 games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the World Series that year, they beat the Detroit Tigers in seven games. The Reds didn't win more than 90 games in the rest of McKechnie's tenure, but they did manage to finish with a winning record in four of his six final years, including a 2nd place in 1943. 1946 was his final year with the team, managing them to a 64–86 record (with 2 ties), with Hank Gowdy managing the final four games. His last game managed was on September 25 at St. Louis, winning 6–0.

He was hired as a coach to be the right-hand man of young Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau the following year. Once, when Larry Doby (the first African American player in the American League was playing for the Indians, McKechnie prevented him from going up a barrier to confront a racist heckler, saying that it would "ruin you, not him".

The Boudreau–McKechnie Indians won a World Series in 1948. McKechnie coached with Boudreau for five seasons, with the Indians (1947–49) and Boston Red Sox (1952–53).

McKechnie was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1967.

Managerial record

Team Year Regular season PostseasonGamesWonLostWin %Finish Won Lost Win % ResultNewark 19151025445 5th in Federal – – – –Newark total 102 54 45 0 0 .000 PIT 905336 3rd in NL – – – –PIT 1548767 3rd in NL – – – –PIT 1539063 3rd in NL – – – –PIT 1539558 1st in NL Won World Series (WAS)PIT 1578469 3rd in NL – – – –PIT total 707 409 293 4 3 STL 1549559 1st in NL Lost World Series (NYY)STL 633429 4th in NL – – – –STL total 217 129 88 BOB 1547084 6th in NL – – – –BOB 1566490 7th in NL – – – –BOB 1557777 5th in NL – – – –BOB 1568371 4th in NL – – – –BOB 1527873 4th in NL – – – – BOB 15338115 8th in NL – – – –BOB 15771836th in NL – – – –BOB 15279735th in NL – – – –BOB total 1,235 560 666 0 0 – CIN 1518268 4th in NL – – – –CIN 1569757 1st in NL Lost World Series (NYY)CIN 15510053 1st in NL Won World Series (DET)CIN 1548866 3rd in NL – – – –CIN 1547676 4th in NL – – – –CIN 1558767 2nd in NL – – – –CIN 1558965 3rd in NL – – – –CIN 1546193 7th in NL – – – –CIN 1526486 (resigned) – – – –CIN total 1,386 744 631 FL/MLB Total 3,647 1,896 1,723 8 14

Personal life

McKechnie died at age 79 in Bradenton, Florida.

The Pirates' spring training home, McKechnie Field in Bradenton, was named after him until the name changed to LECOM Park in 2017.

McKechnie's son Bill Jr. was the farm system director of the Cincinnati Redlegs in the mid-1950s and later served as president of the Florida State League (1961–1962) and Pacific Coast League (1969–1973). He was also the father of former Syracuse radio station WNDR sportscaster Jim McKechnie. Bill McKechnie Jr.'s son Bill III was born April 20, 1940, and died of cancer in Florida on June 17, 2006.