Al Lopez

Alfonso Ramon " Al " Lopez ( born August 20, 1908 in Tampa, Florida, † October 30, 2005 ) was an American baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball.

Biography

Al Lopez began his career as a catcher in professional baseball in the minor leagues in 1924 in his hometown of Tampa. His first game in the National League, he played on 27 September in 1928 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, whose master catcher, he was from 1930. In 1936 he moved to the Boston Braves, for whom he played until 1940. His third station in the National League were the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1940 to 1946. His last position as a player was the Cleveland Indians in the American League, for Lopez played his last game on September 16, 1947.

As a player, Al Lopez was not outstanding, as a hitter, he reached in only three of his total of 19 seasons, a better batting average than 27.5 %. Overall, he came up with a batting average of 26.1 %, 51 homers, 613 runs and 651 Rbi. But his stamina was outstanding. Without major injuries, he played in his career in 1918 as a catcher games, a record that would be broken for this field position only in 1987 by Bob Boone. His record alone for the National League with 1861 games was only three years later broken by Gary Carter.

Far more successful was his career as a manager. In 1951 he took over the team of the Cleveland Indians. In 1954, he presented with 111 victories set a new record for wins in a season for the American League, which was outbid by the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners in 1998 and 2001. However, he had in the World Series against the New York Giants a significant defeat in four games accept. Except in the championship season occupied the Indians under Lopez each second.

1957 Al Lopez moved then to the Chicago White Sox. Even with them he was able to celebrate a championship in the AL. 1959 succeeded in winning the title, but again he could not lead to the triumph, the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games kept the upper hand his team in the World Series. Lopez was thus the only manager in the American League, the Yankees could the 1949-1964 decline a title. Until 1965 he worked for the White Sox in the Jahrenm 1968 and 1969, he returned again for a short time on the manager post back.

His record as a manager is on 1422 victories in 1046 defeats. This makes it the fourth most successful manager who was responsible at least at 2000 games.

1977 Al Lopez was picked up by the Veterans Committee in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2005 he died at the age of 97 years, two days after the White Sox first after 1917 could again win the World Series and had won the championship in the American League for the first time since 1959 again. Al Lopez was the last surviving player of Major League Baseball in the 1920s.

His positions as a player

His positions as Manager

54597
de