Birdie Tebbets

Four-time All-Star "Birdie" Tebbets, the 1956 National League Manager of the Year for helming the Cincinnatti Reds, played for 14 seasons in The Show as a catcher, then managed for 11 seasons before winding up as a scout for 28 years. As a big league manager, Tebbets acquired a reputation as being one of the most abrasive characters in baseball history. George Robert Tebbets was born on November 10, 1912 in Burlington, Vermont, but raised in Nashua, New Hampshire. As a boy, young George was tagged with his distinctive moniker by an aunt who, commenting on his high-pitched voice, said "He chirps like a bird". Tebbets graduated from Providence College in 1934 with a degree in philosophy, the same year he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent. He made his major league debut on September 16, 1936, and played on the Tigers team that won the World's Championships in 1940. He was still in the military and missed the World Series of 1945, won by the Tigers, not appearing again in a Tigers uniform until 1946. After the '46 season, he was traded to Tom Yawkey's American League champion Boston Red Sox, which featured all-time great Ted Williams, who ranks with Babe Ruth as the greatest hitter baseball has ever produced. While with the Red Sox from 1947 through 1950, the team consistently failed to win another championship, perennially bedeviled by their hated rivals the New York Yankees and losing a one-game playoff to the Cleveland Indians in 1948. It was to the Indians Birdie was traded after the 1950 season, after calling some of his teammates "moronic malcontents" and "juvenile delinquents". This was part of his unabashed honesty and sharp tongue that tagged him as an abrasive personality. He finished out his career with Cleveland in 1952. Tebbetts became a manager with the Cincinnati Reds in 1954, winning Manager of the Year kudos in 1956 for bringing in the Reds 91-63 for a third place finish. He was fired after the 1958 season), after which he joined the Milwaukee Braves front office, serving as executive vice president from 1959 through September 1961, when he took over as the team's field manager. He moved to Cleveland to manage the Indians after the (1962 season, but in April 1964, he had to take a three month hiatus after suffering a heart attack. Three months later, he returned to mange the Indians for the rest of the season. After brining the Indians in at fifth place in a ten-team League in 1965, he resigned in August 1966 with the team in sixth place. In his 11 seasons as a manager, except for his third place finish in 1956, none of his teams finished higher than fourth place. From 1968 to 1994, he scouted for the Mets, Yankees, Orioles and Marlins. Birdie Tebbetts died in Bradenton, Florida on March 24, 1999. He was 86 years old.