Connie Mack

Did You Know?

• The Philadelphia stadium originally called Shibe Park was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953.
• Mack is mentioned in the 1949 poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash.
• Mack was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus.

Early life and education

Mack was born Cornelius McGillicuddy on December 22, 1862, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, in what is now East Brookfield. His parents, Michael McGillicuddy and Mary McKillop, were immigrants from Ireland: Michael from Killarney in County Kerry, and Mary from the Catholic section of Belfast. Michael, a wheelwright, served with the 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War and afterward worked only infrequently due to ailments from his service, drawing a disability pension.

The McGillicuddys were often called "Mack" except in official documents. Following family tradition, Cornelius was called "Connie Mack" from an early age. He had no middle name, though many accounts erroneously give him "Alexander." Mack was educated in East Brookfield and began working summers in local cotton mills at age 9.

He quit school after completing the eighth grade at 14, working as a clerk, on farms, and in shoe factories. He played baseball with local players and in 1879 joined East Brookfield's town team as catcher and de facto captain, though younger than his teammates.

Professional career

Mack played 11 major league seasons from 1886, mostly as a catcher, including ten in the National League and one in the Players' League. He began on minor league teams in Meriden and Hartford, Connecticut, in 1884. In 1886 he was sold to the Washington Nationals of the National League. During the winter of 1889, he jumped to the Buffalo Bisons of the new Players' League, investing his entire life savings of $500 in shares, but the league folded after one year, costing him his job and investment.

In December 1890 he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and remained with them as a full-time player for the rest of his playing career. Mack was a light-hitting catcher with a reputation as a smart player but did not excel in any particular skill. He was one of the first catchers to position himself directly behind home plate. He developed techniques such as blocking the plate, faking the sound of a foul tip, and tipping bats to disrupt batters, and he never denied using such tricks.

Managerial career

Mack served as player-manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1894 to 1896, compiling a 149–134 record before being fired on September 21, 1896, and retiring as a full-time player. He then accepted a deal from Henry Killilea to manage and occasionally play backup catcher for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers, with a salary of $3,000 and 25% of the club. He managed the Brewers from 1897 to 1900, their best year being 1900 when they finished second.

In Milwaukee he first signed pitcher Rube Waddell. On November 8, 1900, Mack became manager of the new American League's Philadelphia ballclub, later known as the Athletics, and soon became treasurer and part owner. He managed the Athletics through the 1950 season, retiring at age 87 with a record of 3,582–3,814. He won nine pennants and five World Series titles.

His 50-year tenure as Athletics manager is the longest for a coach or manager with the same team in North American professional sports, though several college coaches had longer overall tenures.

Personality

Connie Mack was known for his calm, polite demeanor and never swore. People called him "Mr. Mack," and he always used his players' first names—Chief Bender was "Albert" to him. Though he seemed saintly after so many years in baseball, his close friends disliked that image. Sportswriter Red Smith described him as "tough and warm and wonderful, kind and stubborn and courtly and unreasonable and generous and calculating and naive and gentle and proud and humorous and demanding and unpredictable."

From his earliest managing days, newspapers accused him of being cheap, claiming he traded star players just to keep money for himself. His biographer Norman Macht argued that Mack's tight spending was forced by his finances and that most of his earnings went back into the team. Mack was hurt by these charges. When writers said he purposely lost the second game of the 1913 World Series to earn more from ticket sales, he wrote an angry letter to the Saturday Evening Post denying it, calling such play "nothing short of dishonest."

He supported a large extended family and helped players in need. He kept Bender on the payroll as a scout or coach from 1926 until Mack retired in 1950, and Simmons coached for years after his playing days ended.