HELP: General Managers Hire-Fire Dates?

[HDH]

I'm tracking all the Tigers significant trades throughout heir history. Now, I want to see who was responsible for the trades. I'm looking for exact dates the GMs took over for their team. I found several sites that give the seasons but, not the exact dates.

[Biggtone23]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/execdb/showteam.php?team=DET

That has some of them but for the most part you can usually assume the change over happens in october or november

[HDH]

Thanks for responding. I already saw this one and it doesn't have actual dates. Besides, its wrong. Its missing Bill DeWitt who was a GM from 1959 - 1960.

Incidently, former umpire, Billy Evens was the first executive called GM for the Cleveland Indians in 1927.

[2Chance]

I got a couple for you. Check your PM box, and update this thread as needed.

If I find any more, they will go here.

[2Chance]

Still missing some, but here's a few of the recent ones that I've run across.


Sept. 1991:
Jerry Walker becomes Senior Director and General Manager

1/11/1995
John McHale Jr. becomes the Tigers' 14th President and CEO

10/30/1995:
Randy Smith, age 32, becomes Tigers GM and Vice President of Baseball Operations

4/02/2002:
Dave Dombrowski, Tigers new team President (hired 11/05/2001), assumes the duties of General Manager following the dismissal of Randy Smith.

[Brian McKenna]

HDH,

Semantics aside, there were general managers prior to Billy Evans. What is your definition of a gm? Handling of operations?

It's clear to me that whatever the title was the gm role had to be filled by someone throughout history.

Many managers performed this role depending on the organizational makeup. Take Clark Griffith for one:
-in Chicago, Comiskey was there ultimately calling the shots
-in New York, he ran all operations answering only for expeniditures
-in Cincinnati, Herrmann was there ultimately calling the shots
-in Washington, Griffith a small % of the club - like Herrmann - but he essentially oversaw operations though there were other administrators there

Men like Harry Wright, Ned Hanlon, Herrmann, Ed Barrow, Mack, McGraw, Griffith and Jim Hart may have held the title of president, business manager, field manager or such but essentially they oversaw operations for a management group. Wouldn't this make them the de facto gm whether they held the title or not?

Many clubs for decades never had an administrative office. In the above example, Griffith would establish a manager's office in New York and D.C. and run things from there - at times trekking to the owner's day job to solidify and discuss matters.

[2Chance]

Its missing Bill DeWitt who was a GM from 1959 - 1960.

I've got DeWitt as team president at that time....I think Ferrell was still GM, but wouldn't swear to it.

[2Chance]

11/13/1935:
Frank Navin has a fatal heart attack at the Detroit Riding and Hunt Club.

Auto body magnate Walter O. Briggs purchases Navin's half of the team from his widow and appoints son Walter O. Jr. ("Spike") as treasurer and assistant secretary, and expanded manager Mickey Cochrane's duties, naming him vice president.

(I thought I saw Cochrane named as a GM somewhere at this time, but discounted it for some reason. But Mickey's input was encouraged regarding talent, for sure. He talked them into bringing his friend Al Simmons over from the A's.)



Other GM spots on my list are spotty at best. I've got Jack Zeller resigning as GM "prior to Opening Day 1946 to take care of more important duties."

From The Tigers and their Den:
Filling his shoes was George Trautman of Columbus, Ohio. Trautman was quick to initiate changes. He trimmed the Tiger roster by trading the popular Rudy York to Boston for shortstop Eddie Lake who led the league the previous year by participating in 459 double plays. With the return of all the players who had served in the war -- Greenberg, Wakefield, McCosky, Tebbetts, Hutchinson Evers, Bloodworth, et. al. --the Tigers were at full strength. Other fill-ins who had been added to the 1945 squad were moved out to make way for proven regulars. At the 1946 Spring Training camp in Lakeland, Florida, only 13 players on Detroit's roster just a year ago were wearing the Tiger uninform.
.....After 26 games in 1946, outfielder Barney McCosky was sent to the Athletics for a 23-year-old third baseman from Swifton, Arkansas named George Kell.

That's what you call a "rebuilding year!" By May only 12 of those guys had ever played together. "More important duties." I don't know what those were, but Zeller had to see this coming.

Additionally, Kell had been given up on by two teams, and at 23 nobody really had any expectations of him. He was known to have weak knees, so his acquisition was no masterstroke, more of a stroke of luck. Kell's hard work and winning personality helped him make the team. And suddenly he was a .300 hitter.


1/17/1952:
Walter O. Briggs Sr. died at his winter home in Miami. Spike takes over the team.

Legal ownership of the team was tied up with Briggs' "estate" the actual owner until the summer of 1956, when two teams of investors began competing for ownership of the Tigers. One was headed by Bill Veeck, the other by a syndicate of 11 radio and television executives led by Kenyon Brown, Fred Knorr and John Fetzer. The conservative Detroit fans could not stand the idea of Veeck, the "P.T. Barnum of baseball," owning their team.

That summer the group of 11 claimed ownership, to become effective October 1, 1956. They kept Spike on, making him General Manager.

Spike's tenure as GM did not last long. He was used to having his own way with things, and with Bucky Harris resigning after 29 seasons effective at the end of 1956, the Tigers needed a new manager. (This was a period not unlike the 1990s: the Tigers needed a LOT of things, not just a manager. But let's stick with that for now.)

There was no line around the block to get the vacant managerial job in Detroit. It may have been because of the small market, it may have been because they hadn't shown an ability to win games forever. But John Fetzer wanted to bring in a veteran "name" manager, specifically Al "Senor" Lopez. Briggs ignored his suggestion and brought in a totally unproven no-name manager, Jack Tighe. Tighe had not one day as a major league player or manager. An irate Fetzer had Briggs cleaning out his desk less than three weeks into the season.

Fetzer eventually owned the team, and sold it on October 11, 1983 to Tom Monaghan (the Dominos Pizza guy.) Monaghan sold to fellow pizza guy Mike Ilitch, 8/26/1992. Pizza Mike owned Little Caesar's, and owned Detroit's Red Wings since 6/22/1982. Oh yeah, and now he owns about half of downtown Detroit.