Johnny Keane

Major League Baseball Manager. A long-time coach who never broke into the Majors as a player, he was named to manage the St. Louis Cardinals in 1961. After two bottom-dwelling seasons with St. Louis, he was able to build a successful team with players such as Bob Gibson, Bill White, Lou Brock and Tim McCarver. The Cardinals finished in 2nd place in 1963 (their highest finish since 1957). In 1964 he was able to lead St. Louis to a National League Pennant victory, and their first post-season appearance since 1946. In a hard fought 7 Game series against the New York Yankees, the Cardinals triumphed 4 Games to 3 (the series marked the last post-season appearances of Yankee greats Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford). After the series ended the Yankees fired manager Yogi Berra, and Johnny Keane switched from St. Louis to the team he had just defeated for the Baseball Crown. The move proved to be unsuccessful, as the aging Yankees started to jettison many of their long time stars and started a long rebuilding process. In his only full season as the Yankees manager, Keane would guide New York to a 6th place finish (the first time they finished that low since 1925). Twenty games into the 1966 season he was fired, and retired from baseball. His career totals were 749 games managed, 398 wins and 350 losses.