Wednesday, November 5, 2014

no. 346 - lum harris


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.

3 comments:

  1. When I was a kid I wondered, "What kind of name is Lum?"

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  2. Yeah 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!

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  3. Believe 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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