Mel McGaha--1962
With steel blue eyes and a stiff upper
lip, Mel McGaha gazes out at a
career that saw him meander from
minor league baseball and the NBA
to major league skipper.
A survivor of the 1948 Duluth Dukes
bus crash that killed several
teammates, McGaha hit for average
in the minors, but only received his
call to the bigs as a manager and
coach. The back of his ’62 card touts
that during the 1950s for Shreveport,
McGaha served “as a manager, a
pitcher, a catcher, and infielder and
an outfielder. Talk about a jack-of-all-
trades!”
Coming off his 1960 International
League Championship at the helm of
the Toronto Maple Leafs (they couldn’
t come up with another name?),
McGaha joined the Cleveland Indians
coaching staff the next season.
Within a year he was handed the
keys to a Cleveland club that went 78-
83 in 1961 and promptly improved
the club to an 80-82 mark in ’62.
Wow! Now that's managing.
Given a second chance with the
youthful Kansas City Athletics in
1964 and 1965, McGaha led them to
a .331 winning percentage much to
the chagrin of Owner Charles Finley.
Which leads us to wonder if maybe
McGaha should have taken his 3.5
ppg average for the second place
New York Knickerbockers of 1948-49
and just stuck with basketball?
lip, Mel McGaha gazes out at a
career that saw him meander from
minor league baseball and the NBA
to major league skipper.
A survivor of the 1948 Duluth Dukes
bus crash that killed several
teammates, McGaha hit for average
in the minors, but only received his
call to the bigs as a manager and
coach. The back of his ’62 card touts
that during the 1950s for Shreveport,
McGaha served “as a manager, a
pitcher, a catcher, and infielder and
an outfielder. Talk about a jack-of-all-
trades!”
Coming off his 1960 International
League Championship at the helm of
the Toronto Maple Leafs (they couldn’
t come up with another name?),
McGaha joined the Cleveland Indians
coaching staff the next season.
Within a year he was handed the
keys to a Cleveland club that went 78-
83 in 1961 and promptly improved
the club to an 80-82 mark in ’62.
Wow! Now that's managing.
Given a second chance with the
youthful Kansas City Athletics in
1964 and 1965, McGaha led them to
a .331 winning percentage much to
the chagrin of Owner Charles Finley.
Which leads us to wonder if maybe
McGaha should have taken his 3.5
ppg average for the second place
New York Knickerbockers of 1948-49
and just stuck with basketball?
