Vic Harris

Elander Victor Harris (June 10, 1905 – February 23, 1978) Harris has been described by Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum as one who should be a household name. In eleven seasons as manager, he never had a losing season. One teammate described Harris as such: “He just undressed the opposing infielder — cut the uniform right off his back.” Despite this, he has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Career A native of Pensacola, Florida, Harris was the brother of fellow Negro leaguer Neal Harris. He moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1914 and played baseball at the local YMCA. Harris started his professional career shortly after his 18th birthday, playing two games for the Pittsburgh Keystones in 1922 before moving to the Cleveland Tate Stars in 1923 and the Cleveland Browns in 1924, before start a long association with the Homestead Grays in 1925 which lasted 23 years. At this time, Homestead were not a member of any established league as the team rarely played other top black squads in those years and so statistics are limited, but when the Grays did, they often showed themselves to be a superior team.

When Homestead joined the Eastern Colored League in 1928, Harris hit an anemic .204 average before the league folded, but he improved significantly in 1929, batting .350 in the high-offense American Negro League. In 1933 he hit .321 with Homestead, and .384 for the 1934 Pittsburgh Crawfords. The 1935 season brought Harris back to Homestead. He hit .342, as his eight home runs tied for fifth in the league and were even with Hall of Fame slugger Turkey Stearnes. A year later, he hit .315. In 1938, when Homestead dominated the league and won the first half with an .813 winning percentage, Harris led his team with a .380 batting average.

Harris managed the Grays during their years in league play, between 1935 and 1948, and piloted Homestead to eight pennants. He guided his team to six consecutive first-place finishes from 1937 through 1942 (with five pennants). He took a job with a defense plant after the 1942 season, for which he would play for the Grays when he could do so while Candy Jim Taylor stepped in to manage the team for the next two seasons (each resulted in Negro World Series championships); Harris went 4-for-28 in the 1943 Negro World Series while not playing in the latter.

He awas on the roster for seven East-West All-Star games between 1933 and 1947 (one of just 29 players to make the roster five times) and managed the East team eight times, four more than Oscar Charleston, the next-most-frequent manager. He won the last held Negro World Series in 1948 as the Grays left the league not long after.

In the waning days of the Negro leagues, Harris coached for the 1949 Baltimore Elite Giants and managed the 1950 Birmingham Black Barons. Additionally, he played winter baseball in the Cuban League and managed Santurce in the Puerto Rican League from 1947 to 1950.

Available statistics indicate that Harris hit .305 (733 for 2,406), and his teams posted a 547–278–2 mark in organized league play (with undoubtedly a higher total if one takes independent play into account) and a 10–15 mark during post-season play. An excellent motivator, he was well liked and respected by his players.

Post-career and death After post-integration, he served as coach of the 1949 Baltimore Elite Giants, he took one last managerial job with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1950 before he retired. He became the head custodian for the Castaic Union Schools in Castaic, California. He died at the age of 72 in San Fernando, California, from the after-effects of surgery for treatment of cancer.

Despite the above-noted accomplishments, he has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was considered in balloting, but he was not selected. On November 5, 2021, he was selected to the final ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame's Early Days Committee for consideration in the balloting. He received ten of the necessary twelve votes. He appeared on the Classic Baseball Era Committee's ballot, but only received less than five votes.

Managerial record Team Year Regular season PostseasonGamesWonLostWin %Finish Won Lost Win % ResultWAS 1936593127 3rd in NNL2 – – – –WAS 1937806019 1st in NNL2 – – – –WAS 1938705614 1st in NNL2 – – – –WAS 1939603821 1st in NNL2 4 5 .444 Lost Championship Series (BAL)WAS 1940624220 1st in NNL2 – – – –WAS 1941775124 1st in NNL2 3 1 .750 Won Championship Series (NYC) WAS 1942906423 1st in NNL2 0 4 .000 Lost Negro World Series (KC)WAS 1945764726 1st in NNL2 0 4 .000 Lost Negro World Series (CLE)WAS 1946864538 3rd in NNL2 – – – –WAS 19471035742 4th in NNL2 – – – –WAS 1948825624 1st in NNL2 6 2 .750 Won Negro World Series (BIR)Total 845 547 278 13 16