Who is the man: Lum Harris was entering the 1971 season after a disappointing 1970 with the Braves. He had enjoyed his best year as a manager in 1969 for N.L. West champion Atlanta only to see his team fall to 76-86 the following year.
Can ya dig it: Harris looks both mesmerized and terrified. A very odd expression.
Right on: Possibly the bluest eyes I've ever seen on a baseball card.
You see that cat Harris is a bad mother: Harris managed the Braves to their first title while in Atlanta. The Braves clinched the 1969 N.L. West crown on the second-to-last day of the season.
Shut your mouth: Harris was a good friend of Paul Richards since the 1930s when they played together. Through the following decades, as Richards rose through the ranks as a manager and then general manager, he added Harris to his staff, getting him jobs as a manager with the Orioles, Astros and Braves. But in 1972, Richards was reassigned and Harris fired. They never spoke to each other again.
No one understands him but his woman: Harris was the first manager to lead a team that played an entire season under a dome. The 1965 Astros finished in ninth place while playing on dead grass during the first year of the Astrodome.
(A word about the back): Topps goes way back to Harris' minor league pitching days in the bio.
When I was a kid I wondered, "What kind of name is Lum?"
ReplyDeleteYeah he's only Lum i've ever seen, at least for a first name. Ironically he managed Mike Lum on those very same Braves teams. Win it for Lum!
ReplyDeleteBelieve it's short for Luman, so maybe it's pronounced Loom? Remember seeing his cards in '70 and '71 and also thinking Lum was an odd name.
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