Hank Bauer

Henry Albert Bauer (July 31, 1922 – February 9, 2007) was an American right fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who batted and threw right-handed. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, he was the youngest of nine children of an Austrian immigrant who had lost a leg in an aluminum mill and turned to bartending. With little money at home, Bauer wore clothes made from old feed sacks, an upbringing that shaped his hard-nosed approach to life; his care-worn face was later said to have "looked like a clenched fist." He played baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, where an errant elbow broke his nose, an injury that was never repaired. After graduating in 1941 he worked repairing furnaces.

As a player, Bauer spent the bulk of his career with the New York Yankees (1948–1959) before finishing with the Kansas City Athletics (1960–1961). He went on to manage, leading the Athletics in both Kansas City (1961–62) and Oakland (1969), as well as the Baltimore Orioles (1964–68). He guided the Orioles to the 1966 World Series title, a four-game sweep of the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers that delivered the first world championship in the franchise's history.