Athletes - Billy Jurges

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	Athletes - Billy Jurges

William Frederick Jurges (May 9, 1908, Bronx, New York - March 3, 1997, Clearwater, Florida) was a shortstop, manager, coach and scout in American Major League Baseball. During the 1930s, he was central to three (1932, 1935 and 1938) National League championship Chicago Cubs teams. In July 1932, Jurges recovered from gunshot wounds - suffered when he tried to wrestle a weapon from a distraught former girlfriend bent on suicide - to help lead the Cubs to the NL flag.

Jurges was a light hitter – he batted only .258 in 1,816 games over 17 seasons – but he was a good defensive shortstop. During his eight seasons (1931-38) in Chicago, he anchored an infield of Stan Hack (third base), Billy Herman (second base), and Charlie Grimm or Phil Cavarretta (first base). He then played seven more seasons (1939-45) with the New York Giants before returning to the Cubs as a player-coach (1946-47). In 1940, he was hit in the head by a pitched ball and missed over 90 games, but he recovered to play regularly for the Giants from 1941-43.

After leaving the Cubs, Jurges managed briefly in the farm systems of the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Braves, before returning to the coaching ranks with the original Washington Senators in 1956. In 1959 he was plucked out of relative obscurity when, in July, he was named the surprise manager of the Boston Red Sox, who had fired Pinky Higgins. Jurges was able to rally Boston in '59: the Bosox won 44 of 80 games under him – improving from eighth to fifth place – and finally broke the color line with the promotion of Pumpsie Green from AAA.

But the Red Sox, facing the end of Ted Williams' great career in 1960, were a team in disarray. Composed of aging veterans and mostly unpromising youngsters, the 1960 Red Sox fell into the American League basement after losing 27 of their first 42 games. Jurges, an intense competitor, suffered in an alien organization composed largely of cronies of owner Tom Yawkey. The Red Sox front office was about to undergo a massive shakeup, with Jurges' patron, general manager Bucky Harris, on his way out the door. On June 8, Jurges left the team, citing illness. (Some Boston baseball writers believe he suffered from nervous exhaustion.) He was fired two days later, and, after coach Del Baker handled the team for a week, Higgins returned to the manager's post he had lost 11 months before.

Jurges never managed again in baseball (his final record was 59 wins, 63 losses - .484) but he scouted for the Houston Astros, the expansion Washington Senators club and the Texas Rangers.

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