Ralph Houk
Ralph Houk ( born August 9, 1919 in Lawrence, Kansas; † July 21, 2010 in Winter Haven, Florida ) was a former American professional baseball player and manager of Major League Baseball. His nickname was Major.
Biography
Back in 1939 was Ralph Houk of the New York Yankees committed in the Amateur Draft, began his career in the Major Leagues in 1947 after the end of his military service. At the beginning of the season he played 41 games with a respectable batting average, but by the obligation of Yogi Berra on the position of catcher Houk spent most of his career in the minor leagues. For the Yankees, he played in the following seven years, only 50 more games as a replacement of Yogi Berra.
Then he began his career as a manager, first in the minor leagues, then as a coach with the Yankees. In 1961 he took over the post of manager Casey Stengel. 1961 and 1962 he won the World Series with the Yankees, the 1963 American League title. After an ill-fated stint as vice president and general manager of the Yankees in 1966, he took over again the manager post of the team until 1973. More stations in the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox followed. On September 25, 1984, he foreshadowed his resignation at the end of season 1984. A curiosity is that Houk was never fired from his manager stations.
In November 1986, it appointed the Minnesota Twins as Vice President of their organization, with the help of his good advice could the Twins win the World Series in 1987.