Mr. Mack moves on

Connie Mack in 1948 (Philippe Halsman photo)

Connie Mack decides a half-century of doing anything – especially something as a stressful as running a major league baseball team – is enough, so he steps down 74 years ago today as the Philadelphia Athletics’ manager.

Mack, who along with Ben Shibe, starts the franchise in 1901 and manages the A’s for 50 seasons.

Along the way, he wins nine American League pennants and five World Series titles for Philadelphia.

“I’m not quitting because I’m getting older,” Mack says in 1950. “I’m quitting because I think people want me to.”

As you might expect from someone with his longevity, Mack has been around, having been born less than seven months before the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.

Connie Mack in the early 1900s

He finishes his career with two records that likely will never be broken – most wins by a manager with 3,731 and the most losses at 3,948, totals that include Mack’s three seasons managing in the National League with Pittsburgh from 1894-96.

Those 50 years in the Athletics’ dugout is another record no one is going to surpass.

His career in Philadelphia starts more than four years before Ty Cobb’s 1905 debut with Detroit and ends only six months and a day before Mickey Mantle’s first game with the Yankees in 1951.

After Mack leaves, the A’s are managed by Jimmy Dykes from 1951-53 and Eddie Joost in 1954.

Two of Mack’s sons – Earle and Roy – then negotiate a deal to sell the team and watch the franchise relocate to Kansas City in time for the 1955 season.

Mack, who retires 65 days shy of his 88th birthday, lives long enough to see his beloved team play one season in Kansas City before passing away in February 1956 at the age of 93.