Herman Franks
Encyclopedia
Herman Louis Franks was a catcher
, coach
, manager
, general manager
and scout in American
Major League Baseball
. He was born in Price, Utah
.
. He broke into baseball with the Hollywood Stars
of the Pacific Coast League
in 1932, but he was soon acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals
and joined their vast farm system. He made the Cardinals for just 17 games and 17 at-bats in 1939, before being drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers
, where he served as a second-string catcher in 1940-41 and began his long association with the Dodgers' manager at the time, Leo Durocher
. After 3½ years of military service during World War II
, Franks became the playing manager of the Dodgers' St. Paul Saints
affiliate in the AAA American Association
in 1947. In August of that season, however, he resigned to resume his major league playing career with the Philadelphia Athletics
, where he appeared in 48 games in 1947 and 1948 and batted
.221.
. He was a member of two National League
championship clubs and one World Series
(1954
) title team through 1955. According to author Joshua Prager
in his 2006 book The Echoing Green, Franks played a critical role in the Giants' Bobby Thomson
's famous pennant-winning home run
in the 1951 NL playoffs -- Baseball's Shot Heard Round The World
. According to Prager, Franks was stationed in the Giants' center-field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds
, their home field, stealing the opposing catcher's signs through a telescope and relaying them through second-string catcher
Sal Yvars
(who was stationed in the bullpen
) to the Giants' coaches and hitters. When asked where he was when Thomson hit his home run, Franks said, in 1996, that he was "doing something for Durocher" at the time.
Whatever his role may have been on that day, Franks was known as a devotee of Durocher-style, win-at-any-cost baseball, including intimidation through flying spikes and brushback pitching. Author Roger Kahn quoted Dodger outfielder Carl Furillo
that Franks would poke his head into the Brooklyn clubhouse to taunt Furillo that Giant pitchers would throw at his head during that day's game. Furillo, whose hatred for Durocher was so intense that he would engage Durocher in a fistfight in the Giant dugout filled with enemy players, said of the Giants, in Peter Golenbock's book Bums, "They were dirty ballplayers ... They all wanted to be like Durocher, to copy Durocher. That Herman Franks, he was another one."
as the club's manager after the 1964 season.
Even though the team featured future Hall of Famers
Willie Mays
, Willie McCovey
, Juan Marichal
and Gaylord Perry
, Franks' four seasons (1965–68) managing the Giants, by then based in San Francisco, each produced frustrating second-place finishes in the National League. The club lost close pennant races to the Los Angeles Dodgers by two games in and 1½ games in . It finished farther behind the Cardinals the next two years, 10½ lengths out in and nine back in . After he stepped down as skipper following the conclusion of the 1968 season
, he was quoted as saying, " Is finishing second so evil?" He was replaced by Clyde King
.
A successful businessman off the field, Franks spent the next eight years out of the major league spotlight, apart from a partial season (1970) as a coach under Durocher with the Chicago Cubs
. After the 1976 campaign, Franks returned to the major leagues when he replaced Jim Marshall
as manager of the Cubs. In 1977, he led the Cubs back to the .500 level, but the team lost ground in 1978 and was just one game above the break-even mark in September 1979 when Franks resigned (issuing a number of complaints about certain players http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-05-16/sports/9905160128_1_cubs-history-wrigley-field-herman-franks). He was the interim general manager of the Cubs from May through November 1981. However, most of his tenure was taken up by the 1981 players' strike. He lost his chance to be named full-time general manager when the Tribune Company
bought the Cubs and replaced him with Dallas Green
.
Although Franks compiled a poor record as a player (a batting average of .199 with three home runs in 188 games over parts of six seasons), he notched a winning record as a manager - 605-521, .537.
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
, coach
Coach (baseball)
In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, or head coach, who determines the lineup and decides how to substitute players during the game...
, manager
Manager (baseball)
In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
, general manager
General manager (baseball)
In Major League Baseball, the general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the ballclub during contract discussions with players....
and scout in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. He was born in Price, Utah
Price, Utah
Price is a city in Carbon County, Utah, United States. The city is home to the USU-College of Eastern Utah, as well as the large USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum affiliated with the college. Price is located within short distances from both Nine Mile Canyon and the Manti-La Sal National Forest...
.
Catcher with Cardinals, Dodgers and A's
A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Franks attended the University of UtahUniversity of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
. He broke into baseball with the Hollywood Stars
Hollywood Stars
The Hollywood Stars were a minor league baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League during the early and mid 20th century. They were the arch-rivals of the other Los Angeles based PCL team, the Los Angeles Angels.-Hollywood Stars :...
of the Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
in 1932, but he was soon acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
and joined their vast farm system. He made the Cardinals for just 17 games and 17 at-bats in 1939, before being drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
, where he served as a second-string catcher in 1940-41 and began his long association with the Dodgers' manager at the time, Leo Durocher
Leo Durocher
Leo Ernest Durocher , nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,009 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history. Durocher still ranks tenth in career wins by...
. After 3½ years of military service during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Franks became the playing manager of the Dodgers' St. Paul Saints
St. Paul Saints
The St. Paul Saints are a professional baseball team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The Saints are a member of the North Division of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
affiliate in the AAA American Association
American Association (20th century)
The American Association was a minor league baseball league at the Triple-A level of baseball in the United States from to and to . Together with the International League, it contested the Junior World Series which determined the championship team in minor league baseball, at least for the...
in 1947. In August of that season, however, he resigned to resume his major league playing career with the Philadelphia Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
, where he appeared in 48 games in 1947 and 1948 and batted
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
.221.
As a coach: Durocher's right-hand man
In 1949, he received his first coaching assignment, as an aide to Durocher with the New York GiantsSan Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
. He was a member of two National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
championship clubs and one World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
(1954
1954 World Series
The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants swept the Series in four games to win their first championship since , defeating the heavily favored Indians, who had won an AL-record 111 games in the...
) title team through 1955. According to author Joshua Prager
Joshua Prager (writer)
Joshua Harris Prager is an American journalist and author. His book The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, is about the Shot Heard 'Round the World, a famous 1951 baseball playoff game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York...
in his 2006 book The Echoing Green, Franks played a critical role in the Giants' Bobby Thomson
Bobby Thomson
Robert Brown "Bobby" Thomson was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "The Staten Island Scot", he was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants , Milwaukee Braves , Chicago Cubs , Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles .His season-ending three-run...
's famous pennant-winning home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
in the 1951 NL playoffs -- Baseball's Shot Heard Round The World
Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)
In baseball, the "Shot Heard 'round the World" is the term given to the walk-off home run hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant at 3:58 p.m...
. According to Prager, Franks was stationed in the Giants' center-field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
, their home field, stealing the opposing catcher's signs through a telescope and relaying them through second-string catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
Sal Yvars
Sal Yvars
Salvador Anthony Yvars was a Major League Baseball catcher who played with the New York Giants from to and the St. Louis Cardinals from to . Born in Manhattan's Little Italy to a Spanish gravedigger and an Italian laundress, he was a three-sport star at White Plains High School, playing...
(who was stationed in the bullpen
Bullpen
In baseball, the bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, a team's roster of relief pitchers is metonymically referred to as "the bullpen"...
) to the Giants' coaches and hitters. When asked where he was when Thomson hit his home run, Franks said, in 1996, that he was "doing something for Durocher" at the time.
Whatever his role may have been on that day, Franks was known as a devotee of Durocher-style, win-at-any-cost baseball, including intimidation through flying spikes and brushback pitching. Author Roger Kahn quoted Dodger outfielder Carl Furillo
Carl Furillo
Carl Anthony Furillo , nicknamed "The Reading Rifle" and "Skoonj," was a right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers...
that Franks would poke his head into the Brooklyn clubhouse to taunt Furillo that Giant pitchers would throw at his head during that day's game. Furillo, whose hatred for Durocher was so intense that he would engage Durocher in a fistfight in the Giant dugout filled with enemy players, said of the Giants, in Peter Golenbock's book Bums, "They were dirty ballplayers ... They all wanted to be like Durocher, to copy Durocher. That Herman Franks, he was another one."
Manager of Giants and Cubs
But when Durocher quit the Giants after the 1955 season, Franks left, too. From 1956 to 1964, Franks was a Giants' scout, general manager of the PCL Salt Lake City Bees, then again a Giants' coach before succeeding Alvin DarkAlvin Dark
Alvin Ralph Dark , nicknamed "Blackie" and "The Swamp Fox", is a former shortstop and manager in Major League Baseball who played for five National League teams from 1946 to 1960. Named the major leagues' Rookie of the Year with the Boston Braves when he batted .322...
as the club's manager after the 1964 season.
Even though the team featured future Hall of Famers
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
Willie Mays
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays, Jr. is a retired American professional baseball player who played the majority of his major league career with the New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets. Nicknamed The Say Hey Kid, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his...
, Willie McCovey
Willie McCovey
Willie Lee McCovey , nicknamed "Mac", "Big Mac", and "Stretch", is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played nineteen seasons for the San Francisco Giants, and three more for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics, between and...
, Juan Marichal
Juan Marichal
Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Playing for the San Francisco Giants most of his career, Marichal was known for his high leg kick, pinpoint control and intimidation tactics, which included aiming pitches directly at the opposing batters'...
and Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Jackson Perry is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He pitched from 1962-1983 for eight different teams in his career. During a 22-year baseball career, Perry compiled 314 wins, 3,534 strikeouts, and a 3.11 earned run average...
, Franks' four seasons (1965–68) managing the Giants, by then based in San Francisco, each produced frustrating second-place finishes in the National League. The club lost close pennant races to the Los Angeles Dodgers by two games in and 1½ games in . It finished farther behind the Cardinals the next two years, 10½ lengths out in and nine back in . After he stepped down as skipper following the conclusion of the 1968 season
1968 Major League Baseball season
The Athletics played their first season in Oakland this year, following the team's relocation from Kansas City. It was also the last season of play before each of the two leagues were split into divisions for the following season.-The Year of the Pitcher:...
, he was quoted as saying, " Is finishing second so evil?" He was replaced by Clyde King
Clyde King
Clyde Edward King was an American pitcher, coach, manager, general manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. King, whose career in baseball spanned over 60 years, was perhaps best known for his longtime role as a special baseball advisor to George Steinbrenner, late owner of the...
.
A successful businessman off the field, Franks spent the next eight years out of the major league spotlight, apart from a partial season (1970) as a coach under Durocher with the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
. After the 1976 campaign, Franks returned to the major leagues when he replaced Jim Marshall
Jim Marshall (baseball)
Rufus James Marshall is a former first baseman and manager in American Major League Baseball. Marshall managed the Chicago Cubs and the Oakland Athletics but never enjoyed a winning season in either post...
as manager of the Cubs. In 1977, he led the Cubs back to the .500 level, but the team lost ground in 1978 and was just one game above the break-even mark in September 1979 when Franks resigned (issuing a number of complaints about certain players http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-05-16/sports/9905160128_1_cubs-history-wrigley-field-herman-franks). He was the interim general manager of the Cubs from May through November 1981. However, most of his tenure was taken up by the 1981 players' strike. He lost his chance to be named full-time general manager when the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
bought the Cubs and replaced him with Dallas Green
Dallas Green
George Dallas Green is a former pitcher, manager, and executive in Major League Baseball. After playing for the Philadelphia Phillies and two other teams, he went on to manage the Phillies, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets, and managed the Phillies when they won their first World Series...
.
Although Franks compiled a poor record as a player (a batting average of .199 with three home runs in 188 games over parts of six seasons), he notched a winning record as a manager - 605-521, .537.
External links
- Baseball-Reference.com - career managing record and playing statistics
- McGrath, Dan. "Former Chicago Cubs manager Herman Franks dies at 95," Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, April 1, 2009.
- Herman Franks at Find a GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...
- Drew, Jay. "SLC baseball legend Herman Franks dies at 95," The Salt Lake Tribune, Wednesday, April 1, 2009.
- Herman Louis Franks Sr. – The Salt Lake Tribune Obituary Notices.