Lee MacPhail Dies, Former Yankees President And Oldest Hall Of Famer In MLB Dead At 95
Lee MacPhail, a former Major League Baseball executive and baseball hall of famer, has died at the age of 95.
MacPhail, who was the oldest Hall of Famer, died Thursday night at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., the Hall of Fame said Friday.
"There's not much I haven't done off the field other than commissioner," he said during a 1985 interview, cited by ESPN, when he retired after 4 1-2 decades in the sport.
As he wore many hats throughout his career with MLB, Macphail served as the director of player personnel for the New York Yankees, the president and general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, chief aide to Commissioner of Baseball William Eckert, executive vice president and general manager of the Yankees, and president of the American League.
Perhaps one of his most well-known moments came in 1983 when he upheld Kansas City's protest in the Pine Tar Game against the New York Yankees, restoring a ninth-inning home run to Royals slugger George Brett -- also a future Hall of Famer.
"Baseball history has lost a great figure in Lee MacPhail, whose significant impact on the game spanned five decades," Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark told ESPN. "He will always be remembered in Cooperstown as a man of exemplary kindness and a man who always looked after the best interests of the game."
Lee MacPhail was the son of Larry MacPhail, a top executive with the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees.
MacPhail was instrumental in building the Yankees teams that dominated baseball in the two decades after World War II.
He acted as general manager of the Kansas City Blues, the Yankees’ top farm team, in the late 1940s, joining the organization while his father was a one-third owner of the Yankees.
He then served as arm director and later director of player personnel and assistant general manager of the Yankees from 1949 to 1958, when their minor league system produced stars like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson and Bill Skowron.
With his death, Bobby Doerr at 94 becomes the oldest living Hall of Famer.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.