Al Lopez, 97, Hall of Fame Manager of White Sox
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
It was strange justice that Al Lopez, who died yesterday at 97, managed to live long enough to see his White Sox finally win the World Series.
Despite lacking the storyline of a metaphysical curse, the White Sox’ slough of despond was nearly as profound as those of the crosstown Cubs or Boston Red Sox – nearly half a century since their last World Series appearance, closer to a whole century since their last championship. Happily for Lopez, the White Sox’ manager from 1957 until his retirement in 1969, he was fully conscious of his old team’s triumph last week.
Lopez was a hall-of-fame manager, who was also a first-rate catcher for the Dodgers, Braves, and Pirates. At one time, he held the record for most games caught with 1,918.
As an American League manager, starting in 1951 with the Cleveland Indians, Lopez found himself “always chasing the Yankees.” He finally caught them in 1954, the year the Indians won 111 games, setting a league record. The team was then swept in four games for the World Series crown by the New York Giants. “They say anything can happen in a short series. I just didn’t expect it to be that short,” Lopez said.
Managing the White Sox, he returned to the World Series in 1959, only to fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 6.
Lopez grew up in Ybor City, the Cuban section of Tampa, in the shadow of the cigar factory where his Spanish-born father labored to support a family of nine. He once told the Associated Press that his interest in baseball was piqued at age 12 in the days before games were broadcast, standing outside a Tampa newspaper office to watch games across the nation displayed on a large board with diamond diagrams and lightbulbs to depict the unfolding action.
A teenage standout at catcher, Lopez was signed by the Tampa Smokers at age 16. He liked to tell the story of catching for Walter Johnson on a barn storming tour, and he played with most of the legendary figures from the 1920s on, including Bob Feller, Dizzy Dean, and Dazzy Vance. He gave Lou Gehrig advice on his swing the year before disease sidelined the Iron Horse, but most of his memories of Babe Ruth, to judge from press reports, were from the golf course.
One that wasn’t concerned Pea Ridge Day, an obscure pitcher for the Brooklyn Robins (as they were then styled), who was noted for his clarion hog call. In the eighth inning of a 1931 exhibition game, as Lopez told the story, Day struck out the first two batters he faced and paused after each to deliver a loud “Yip yip yeeee!”
“Then he has Ruth with two strikes. It gets real quiet. The fans are hoping he’ll strike out Ruth so he can yell again. On the third pitch, Ruth hits one a mile over the right-center-field fence.
“Pea Ridge never did his hog call again.”
Lopez had his best season behind the plate for the Dodgers in 1933, when he hit .301. In 1936, he moved to the Boston Bees (soon renamed Braves), where he played under Casey Stengel. In 1940, with the Bees hovering near bankruptcy, Lopez was sold to Pittsburgh. Lopez remembered that he lost a bet – a $100 suit – with Bees’ shortstop Eddie Miller over which one would be sold.
Lopez retired with a career .261 batting average; among his career highlights was hitting the last recorded bounce home run, in 1930. The next year, the rule was changed to make such hits ground-rule doubles.
Lopez started managing in 1948 with Indianapolis, where he piloted the Indians to the American Association pennant his first season. In 1951, he joined the Indians in the big leagues. A photo of him from the 1954 World Series shows Lopez in a full Indian headdress, but in general he maintained a formal relationship with his players. They called him Mr. Lopez, or “Senor.”
“I could not socialize with them so I spent a lot of time alone in my hotel room,” he once said. “Those four walls kind of close in on you.”
In 1969, in the middle of his second straight losing season with the White Sox (and only his second losing season as a manager), Lopez abruptly retired.
“I finally quit when I was having problems going to sleep,” he told USA Today.
Lopez returned to Tampa, where they named the local Spring Training field for him. Lopez loved to tell the story of getting ejected there one year by umpire John Stevens.
“I hollered, ‘John, are you going to start out the year like that? First play we have and you miss it. Are we going to have to put up with you all spring?’
“He threw me out of my own ballpark.”
Alfonso Ramon Lopez
Born August 20, 1908, in Tampa, Fla.; died October 30 at a Tampa hospital after suffering a heart attack; survived by his son, Al Jr., three grandchildren.