Athletes - Hank Bauer

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	Athletes - Hank Bauer

Henry Albert "Hank" Bauer (born July 31, 1922 in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a former right fielder and manager in Major League Baseball. He played with the New York Yankees (1948-1959) and Kansas City Athletics (1960-61); he batted and threw right-handed. He served as manager for the Athletics (KC in 1961-62 and Oakland in 1969) and Baltimore Orioles (1964-68).

Early years

The youngest of nine children, Bauer's Austrian immigrant father was a bartender who had earlier lost his leg in an aluminum mill. With little money coming into the home, Bauer was forced to wear clothes made out of old feed sacks, helping shape his hard-nosed approach to life.

Playing baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, Bauer's nose was permanently damaged after an errant elbow from an opponent. Upon graduation in 1941, he was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox system, was able to get him a tryout that resulted in a contract with Oshkosh of the Class D Wisconsin State League.

One month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While in the South Pacific, Bauer contracted malaria, but recovered enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars and a pair of Purple Hearts in 32 months of combat. His second injury had come at Okinawa, when he commanded a platoon of 64 men. Only six survived the brutal siege, with shrapnel hitting Bauer in the thigh and sending him home.

Returning to East St. Louis, he joined the local pipe fitter's union and stopped by a local bar where his brother Joe worked. Danny Menendez, a New York Yankees scout, signed him for a tryout with the team's farm club in Quincy, IL. The terms: $175 a month (a $25 increase if he made the team) and a $250 bonus.

Batting .300 at both Quincy and with the team's top minor league unit, the Kansas City Blues, Bauer eventually made his debut with the Bronx Bombers in September 1948.

Career

In a 14-season career, Bauer had a .277 batting average with 164 home runs and 703 RBI in 1544 games.

As a manager, he helped guide the Orioles to the 1966 World Championship. During the regular season he posted a 594-544 record, including two second-place finishes for the 1967 Orioles and 1969 Athletics.

Highlights

3-time All-Star (1952-54)
From 1956-58 set a World Series hitting streak record of 17 games, which was later matched as a postseason record by Derek Jeter
and Manny Ramírez
.

Quote

Hank (Bauer) crawled on top of the Yankee dugout and searched the stands, looking for a fan who was shouting racial slurs at Elston Howard
. When asked about the incident, Bauer explained simply, "Ellie's my friend". -- Excerpt of the book "Clubhouse Lawyer", by Art Ditmar
, former major league pitcher .

Hank (Bauer) lost four prime years from his playing career due to his Marine service. This is heavy duty when you figure such a career is usually over when a player reaches his mid-thirties. This is something that does not bother Hank. "I guess I knew too many great young guys who lost everything out there to worry about my losing part of a baseball career," he says. -- From the book "Semper FI, MAC", by Henry Berry, .

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Athletes - Hank Bauer

Early years

Career

Highlights

Quote

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