This article researched and compiled
by Carrie Birdsong
Born: August 20th, 1908
Birthplace: Tampa Florida
Died: October 30th, 2005, in Tampa, Florida
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB Debut: September 27th, 1928 for the Brooklyn
Robins
Last MLB appearance: September 16th, 1947, for the
Last MLB appearance: September 16th, 1947, for the
Cleveland Indians
Batting Average: .261
Home Runs: 51
Runs Batted In: 652
Managerial Record: 1,410 – 1,004
Winning %: .584
Played for as a player:
1. Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers 1928, 1930 – 1935
2. Boston Bees 1936 – 1940
3. Pittsburgh Pirates 1940 – 1946
4. Cleveland Indians 1947
Teams Managed:
1. Cleveland Indians 1951 – 1956
2. Chicago White Sox 1957 – 1965, 1968 – 1969
Career Highlights and Awards:
1. 2x All–Star (1934, 1941)
2. Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame
3. Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Batting Average: .261
Home Runs: 51
Runs Batted In: 652
Managerial Record: 1,410 – 1,004
Winning %: .584
Played for as a player:
1. Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers 1928, 1930 – 1935
2. Boston Bees 1936 – 1940
3. Pittsburgh Pirates 1940 – 1946
4. Cleveland Indians 1947
Teams Managed:
1. Cleveland Indians 1951 – 1956
2. Chicago White Sox 1957 – 1965, 1968 – 1969
Career Highlights and Awards:
1. 2x All–Star (1934, 1941)
2. Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame
3. Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1977. Election Method via the
Veterans Committee
For more stats and his managerial record, click here:
As a player, Lopez was a two-time all-star known for his defensive skills, leadership, and durability, as he established a major league record for career games played at catcher (1,918) that stood for decades. As a manager, his .584 career winning percentage ranks fourth best in major league history among managers of at least 2,000 games. His 1954 Cleveland Indians and 1959 Chicago White Sox teams were the only squads to interrupt the New York Yankees’ string of American League pennants from 1949 to 1964. Throughout 18 full seasons as a baseball manager (15 in the major leagues and 3 in the minor leagues), Lopez’s teams never finished with a losing record. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.
Al Lopez’s parents immigrated to the United States from Spain shortly before his birth, and he grew up in the immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida. He retired with his family to his hometown after his baseball career, and his accomplishments were commemorated in Tampa in the name of a baseball stadium (Al Lopez Field) and a public park that bears his name and features his statue. His childhood home was moved next door to the Ybor City State Museum and is the site of the Tampa Baseball Museum.(2)
Early Life
Al Lopez was the son of Modesto and Faustina (nee Vazquez) Lopez, who were married in Spain before immigrating to Havana, Cuba, in the mid-1890s. They had several children in Cuba as Modesto worked as a tabaquero (cigar maker) in one of Havana’s many cigar factories(3). In 1906, Modesto went to the Cuban-Spanish-Italian immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, to seek better wages and living conditions, temporarily leaving his family behind until he had established a home in their new country(4). Faustina and their six children joined him in Ybor City several months later, and the family made Tampa their permanent home. Alfonson Ramon Lopez, the seventh of nine children, was born there on August 20th, `1908. (5)
Ybor City was a thriving immigrant neighborhood during Al Lopez’s childhood, with a population of over 10,000. The cigar industry was the most important in town, and most residents were employed by either one of the dozens of large cigar factories or by businesses catering to the cigar industry and its employees. Modesto Lopez found work as a skilled selector in a cigar factory, which involved sorting raw tobacco leaves for use in different grades of cigars. Al often visited his father’s workplace as a child and later said he “hated” the smell of tobacco leaves that permeated the building and clung to his father’s clothing when he came home from the factory. “I vowed to never work in one”(6)(7)
As a teenager, Lopez took a job delivering Cuban bread door to door for La Joven Francesca Bakery, which was located in a building that later became the Ybor City State Museum(7). He began to follow baseball when his older brother Emilio introduced him to the game during the 1920 World Series, which coincidentally involved two teams that Lopez would later play for – Cleveland and Brooklyn. According to Lopez, his brother Emilio also had excellent baseball talent, but he was more driven to excel at the game. (8)
Baseball player
Lopez’s professional career began in 1924 when, at the age of 16, he signed on as a catcher with the Class-D Tampa Smokers of the Florida State League, quitting his job at the bakery and dropping out of high school at Sacred Heart College (later known as Jesuit High School) to focus on baseball(9). His starting salary with the Smokers was 150 dollars ($2,752 today) per month, which was much needed by the large Lopez family since his father’s health was deteriorating, and he could not work regularly(10). (Modesto Lopez died of throat cancer in 1926(10))
Soon after signing with the Smokers, Al Lopez impressed Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson with his catching skills during a winter barnstorming exhibition game. At Johnson’s recommendation, Al was hired as a practice catcher for the Washington Senators during spring training in 1925, a valuable learning opportunity that he later credited with making him a better ballplayer(7)(11). The Senators offered the Smokers $1,000 for Lopez’s contract, but the minor league club demanded $10,000, which the major league club thought was too exorbitant for a young player with only one year of professional baseball experience(12). Instead, Lopez moved steadily up the minor league ranks in subsequent seasons and made his major league debut in 1928 with Brooklyn.(6)
After splitting time between the major and minor leagues for two seasons, Lopez became the Dodgers’ primary catcher in 1930 at the age of 21, and he remained a regular starter in the major leagues over the next 17 seasons. His best offensive campaign came in 1933, when he hit .301, stole 10 bases, and finished 10th in National League MVP voting. Overall, he compiled modest career batting numbers, including 613 runs, 51 home runs, 652 RBIs, and a .261 batting average. He was better known for his defense, leadership, and his ability to work with various pitchers, who earned him two trips to the All-Star game and respect around the league.(6)(7)
Over a major league career that ran from 1928 until 1947, Lopez played for the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers (1928, 1930 – 1935), Boston Bees (1936 – 1940), Pittsburgh Pirates 1940 – 1946), and Cleveland Indians (1947). In 1945, Lopez surpassed Gabby Hartnett’s major league record for career games as a catcher, and when he retired after the 1947 season, his major league record for games caught stood at 1,918(10). This record was not broken until 1987 by Bob Boone, and the National League record was broken by Gary Carter in 1990. He caught 117 shutouts during his career, ranking him 13th all-time among major league catchers.(13)
Lopez was also the last player to hit a home run that bounced over the fence, which happened on September 12th, 1930. The rule was changed the following year to make such a hit a ground-rule double. (14)
Baseball Manager
Lopez decided to seek a job as a baseball coach or manager upon retiring after the 1947 season, which he’d spent as the backup catcher for the Cleveland Indians. Bill Veeck, the new owner of the team, was unhappy with how Indians player-manager Lou Boudreau had handled the club, and he asked Lopez if he would be interested in taking the position. Lopez declined, explaining that he did not want to appear to have undermined Boudreau to steal his job and preferred to gain managerial experience with another club(15). The decision was a positive one for both parties, as the Indians won the 1948 World Series, and Boudreau was named the American League MVP.
Meanwhile, Lopez began his managing career in 1948 with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Class AAA minor league affiliate. He spent three years in Indianapolis, leading his squads to one first-place and two second-place finishes in the American Association while also serving as the team’s reserve catcher(7). Before the 1950 season, Lopez re-signed with the Indianapolis Indians for the largest salary of any manager in American Association history, with a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave if offered a managerial position with a major league club. (16).
Major Leagues
After having declined an opportunity to become the club’s manager in 1947, Lopez accepted an offer to become the Cleveland Indians' new manager in 1951. Under Lopez, the Indians won over 90 games each season from 1951 to 1953 but came in second to the New York Yankees each year. In 1954, Lopez’s squad won a then-American League record 111 games to capture the AL pennant but were swept by Willie Mays and the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series in one of the biggest upsets in World Series history(17). Lopez’s Indians again finished in second place behind the Yankees in 1955 and 1956. During the latter season, Lopez became “incensed” at Cleveland fans and management as the season progressed. Star third baseman Al Rosen slumped late in the year while playing injured, and Lopez felt that the Indians’ team management had not supported or defended his injured player from the fans’ booing and criticism. Lopez was so disheartened over the situation that he resigned from the club on the last day of the season(18). Lopez finished his Indians career with a record of 570 wins and 354 losses, and his .617 winning percentage is still the best in franchise history. (19).
Chicago White Sox
Lopez agreed to become the new manager of the Chicago White Sox about a month after resigning in Cleveland(18). The White Sox did have the power hitters of Lopez’s Cleveland teams, but they had more speed with players such as Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso, and Luis Aparicio. Consequently, Lopez changed his offensive strategy to fit the roster. The White Sox stole over 100 bases every season from 1957 to 1961, consistently leading the American League in that category and often almost doubling the total of the next highest team, earning them the nickname “Go-Go Sox.”
In 1957, his first year in Chicago, Lopez’s White Sox won 90 games and finished in second place behind the Yankees while the Indians suffered through a losing season. Chicago again finished second in 1958 but finally broke through and won the American League pennant in 1959, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. By this time, Lopez was very well respected and in demand as a manager, and in the middle of the 1960 season, a friend of New York Yankees president Dan Topping told an Associated Press reporter that Lopez would replace Yankees manager Casey Stengel(20). (Stengel had managed Lopez years earlier when Lopez was a catcher for Brooklyn and Boston.) Despite rumored and confirmed inquiries from other teams, Lopez stayed with Chicago until 1965, finishing in second place five times and never posting fewer than 82 wins. (19)
Lopez retired to the White Sox front office after the 1965 season due to a chronic stomach condition and assumed the title of team vice president(21)(22). He returned to managing in July 1968, when White Sox manager Eddie Stanky was fired. Lopez was able to get most of his former coaches to return to the team. However, he had to undergo an appendectomy shortly after taking over as manager and missed most of the rest of the season. He agreed to manage the White Sox again in 1969, but continuing health issues forced him to resign in early May, less than a month into the season. (23).
Managing style
Lopez was known for never scolding or shouting at his players and for avoiding pep talks instead of constructive criticism(24). Indians’ manager Bill Veeck commented that Lopez’s only fault as a manager was that he was “too decent”, a description that Lopez took as a compliment(25). Veeck also said that Lopez’s “completely relaxed” leadership “squeezed every drop of talent out of his teams”(26)
Describing Lopez and his managerial style, a 1957 Sports Illustrated piece said, “For Lopez, managing is a constant worry, a nervous strain, a jittery agony. Some manager thus beset relieve the harrowing pressure by exploding in sudden rages at players and sportswriters, or else by maintaining an almost sphinxlike silence to remain calm. But Lopez is a gentleman – a decent, thoughtful, exceptionally courteous man. He seldom permits himself the luxury of a temper tantrum, and he talks to anyone who talks to him.”(27) Later, his son shared that, while he did not demonstratively show it, his father hated to lose and suffered from chronic insomnia and stomach issues during the baseball season. (24)
Tommy John, who spent 26 years in the MLB, said, “Lopez had a better handle on all the facets of the game than any manager I ever played for. He knew about hitting, offense, defense, pitching, catching, and strategy. The Senior, as he was dubbed, also understood player psychology and knew how to communicate with his players. He was tough to play for in that he demanded so much out of you, but that just made you a better performer. Al was the type of manager who was smart enough and secure enough not to overmanage. He threw the bats and balls out on the field and simply let you play.”(28).
Because of his Spanish ancestry and his “gentlemanly” nature, Lopez was given the nickname “El Señor”.
Managerial record
Lopez’s .584 winning percentage is 9th all-time in Major League Baseball history. At the time of his retirement, his 1,410 MLB managerial wins ranked 11th all-time and were the 26th most wins as of the end of the 2016 season. In 18 full seasons as a minor league and major league manager, he never had a losing record. His 1954 Indians and 1959 White Sox teams were the only non-Yankee clubs to win the AL pennant between 1949 and 1964, and his 840 wins with the White Sox still rank second in franchise history, behind Jimmy Dykes (899). (19).
Read more about Al Lopez by clicking this link:
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/al-lopez/
References:
1. Singletary, Wes (1999). Al López : The life
References:
1. Singletary, Wes (1999). Al López : The life
of baseball's El Señor. Jefferson, N.C:
McFarland & Co. ISBN 0786406569.
2. "Al López Statistics and History". "baseball-
reference.com. Retrieved on 2017-05-12.
Machine WTSP
Archived 2011-05-24 at the Wayback Machine.
Tampa Bay Times. November 1, 2005. Accessed
Manager, is Dead at 97. The New York Times.
for American Baseball Research". sabr.org.
Retrieved July 1, 2017.
9. Singletary, p.14.
10. Singletary, p. 19.
11. Jump up to:a b c Al López, A Legend Archived
9. Singletary, p.14.
10. Singletary, p. 19.
11. Jump up to:a b c Al López, A Legend Archived
2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Tampa
The Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers.
Big League History". baseballhall.org.
Beach Post. September 22, 1950. Retrieved
manage White Sox". St. Petersburg Times.
October 30, 1957. Retrieved December 29,
Reference. Sports Reference. Retrieved
October 24, 2015.
