Playing, Coaching and Managing Career
McNamara attended Christian Brothers High School and Sacramento City College, where he led the team to the 1951 California state championship (and later was inducted to the SCC Athletic Hall of Fame). A right-handed batter and thrower, he was a peripatetic minor league catcher during his playing career, originally signing with the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He began his managing career with the Lewis-Clark Broncs in Lewiston, Idaho, of the Northwest League in 1959, and when the club became an affiliate of the Kansas City Athletics in 1960, McNamara joined the A's system. He won Southern League pennants in 1966 and 1967 and groomed many future members of the Oakland dynasty during his tenure at the Double-A level.
McNamara managed the Oakland Athletics (1969–70), San Diego Padres (1974 through the midseason of 1977), Cincinnati Reds (1979 through the midseason of 1982), California Angels (1983–84 and part of 1996), Red Sox (1985 through the midseason of 1988), and Cleveland Indians (1990 through the midseason of 1991).
Over all or parts of 19 seasons, he had a managing record of 1,167 — 1,242 (.484). His 1979 Cincinnati team, defeated by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS, was his only other postseason entry. Although McNamara's 1981 Reds compiled the best overall record in the National League West, the split-season format adopted because of the 1981 Major League Baseball strike denied Cincinnati a place in the playoffs because the Reds finished second in each half-season.
McNamara served as a major league coach for Oakland (1968–69), the San Francisco Giants (1971–73), and the Angels (1978). He also has worked as a catching instructor with the Angels.
Read more about this topic: John Mc Namara (baseball)
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