Athletes - John McHale

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	Athletes - John McHale

John Joseph McHale (born September 21, 1921 in Detroit, Michigan) is a former player and executive in Major League Baseball. McHale served as the general manager of three teams: the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Braves, and Montreal Expos. He also was president of the Expos during their maiden years in the National League. He is the father of current MLB executive vice president (administration) John McHale Jr., and attended the University of Notre Dame.

McHale, a first baseman in his playing days, batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He compiled a batting average of .193 in 64 games with the Tigers (1943-45, 1947-48) and was hitless in three at-bats in the 1945 World Series, in which Detroit defeated the Chicago Cubs.

He eventually became Director of Minor League Operations for the Tigers and was named general manager in 1957 at the young age of 36. But he soon was recruited by the defending NL champion Braves, where he succeeded John Quinn as general manager in the spring of 1959. Unfortunately, McHale presided over the slow decline of the Braves on the field - and their rapid decline at the turnstiles. By 1964, the Braves were rumored (correctly) to be headed for Atlanta. In 1965, during their lame-duck season in Milwaukee, McHale was the figure-head for a supremely unpopular ownership.

In 1966, the Atlanta Braves' first year, the club started slowly. McHale was replaced as general manager in mid-season by Paul Richards, a legend in Atlanta since his days as playing manager of the Southern Association Atlanta Crackers from 1938-42. McHale then became the chief aide to Baseball Commissioner William Eckert.

In 1968, when the NL expanded to 12 teams, McHale was named president of the Montreal Expos by their owner, Seagrams heir Charles Bronfman. While McHale concentrated on upper management responsibilities during his first decade with the Expos, he eventually assumed their general manager portfolio as well, and it was during his watch that the Expos achieved their only playoff appearance, in 1981. McHale stepped down from the club presidency in 1986 and was succeeded by Claude Brochu.

McHale is also the last non-Hall of Fame member of the Hall's Veterans Committee, having been grandfathered in when the structure of the committee was updated in 2001.

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