Roy Hamey

Henry Roy Hamey (June 9, 1902 – December 14, 1983) was an American front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). A longtime employee of the New York Yankees, he was appointed the club's general manager in November 1960. Inheriting a pennant-winner from his predecessor, George Weiss, he maintained the club's dynasty by producing three additional American League champions and two World Series champions in three full seasons before retiring in the autumn of 1963. Hamey also spent nine years as the general manager of two National League franchises, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies, during the period between and .

Minor league career A native of Havana, Illinois, Hamey's early employment included working in an office job with Standard Oil of Indiana and managing vaudeville theaters.

He entered minor league baseball in 1925 as business manager of Class B Springfield of the Three–I League. In 1934, Hamey joined the Yankees as front office boss of their Class A Binghamton Triplets club in the New York–Pennsylvania League. He arrived as George Weiss, then director of the Yankees' farm system, was building the team’s first minor league organization, modeled off the St. Louis Cardinals' minor league. After Hamey's success at Binghamton, Weiss transferred him to business manager of one of New York's two highest-tier farm clubs, the Kansas City Blues of the top-level (then called Double-A) American Association.

In 1945, Larry MacPhail, former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers, returned from United States Army service in World War II and formed an ownership syndicate that purchased the Yankees from the estate of Jacob Ruppert. MacPhail simultaneously installed himself as president and general manager, effectively blocking the career paths of both Weiss and Hamey. While Weiss chose to remain as New York's farm director and vice president, Hamey departed to become president of the American Association.

General Manager in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia At the close of the 1946 season, Hamey was rewarded with his first major league general manager portfolio as front-office chief of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hired by the Pirates' new ownership group led by Frank E. McKinney. Hamey recruited Billy Meyer out of the Yankee minor league system as the Bucs' manager and acquired several players, such as pitchers Tiny Bonham and Bob Chesnes and future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, to surround slugging outfielder Ralph Kiner, who led (or co-led) the National League in home runs every year between 1946 and 1952. But the Pirates did not build a successful farm system and, apart from a first-division finish in 1948, the team was an also-ran. In December 1950, the Pirates replaced Hamey with ousted Brooklyn president Branch Rickey.

Hamey then returned to the Yankees, While the Phils hovered around the .500 level, Hamey did bring to the club its first African-American player, infielder John Irvin Kennedy, who played five games in 1957. In a National League increasingly dominated by black players, the Phillies were the last club to integrate and only two American League teams—the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox—were more steadfast in hewing to the baseball color line.

In 1958, however, the Phillies' fortunes began to decline precipitously. The club finished last in the National League, and Hamey lost his job. He was replaced in January 1959, by John Quinn, recruited from the Milwaukee Braves. Hamey then rejoined Weiss and the Yankees as assistant general manager for the full seasons of 1959 and 1960.

Yankees General Manager After a seven-game loss of the 1960 World Series to the Pirates, the Yankees faced difficult decisions. Manager Casey Stengel was 70 years of age and blocking the path of 41-year-old Ralph Houk, one of his coaches and considered a top managing prospect. When Stengel would not retire, Topping and Webb fired him—or "discharged" him, as Stengel would say. Concurrently, the team also needed a succession plan for Weiss, then 66. In a somewhat controversial decision, the Yankees forced Weiss into a temporary retirement, and promoted the 58-year-old Hamey to general manager on November 3, 1960.

The Yankees averaged 103 regular season victories during Hamey's three-year GM tenure and brought up many mid-level players. But they were unable to adequately replace the team's aging superstars - Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Berra, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek. After one last pennant in 1964, the Yankees were a mediocre team for eleven years until they entered the George Steinbrenner era.

Later Life and Death Hamey's last high-profile job in baseball occurred during the winter of 1969–70, when AL president Joe Cronin appointed him caretaker chief executive of the Seattle Pilots as the team struggled to find new ownership. He relinquished that responsibility and returned to his scouting job with the Yankees when the Pilots were purchased by Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee for the 1970 season.

Roy Hamey lived in retirement in Tucson, Arizona. He died there of a heart attack at age 81 on December 14, 1983, and is buried in Mattoon, Illinois, at Dodge Grove Cemetery.