GM in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
At the close of the 1946 season, Hamey was rewarded with his first major league GM portfolio as front-office chief of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He hired Billy Meyer out of the Yankee farm system as the Bucs' manager and acquired several players, such as pitchers Tiny Bonham and Bob Chesnes and future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, to surround slugging outfielder Ralph Kiner, who led (or tied for the lead) in home runs in the National League every year between 1946 and 1952. But the Pirates did not build a successful farm system and, apart from a first-division finish in 1948, the team was an also-ran. In October 1950, the Pirates replaced Hamey with ousted Brooklyn president Branch Rickey.
Hamey then returned to the Yankees, where Weiss had finally been promoted to general manager in October 1947 after MacPhail's partners, Dan Topping and Del Webb, bought him out. (Thus, Hamey's career was materially affected by three Hall of Fame executives: Weiss, MacPhail and Rickey.) Hamey served as Weiss's top assistant from 1951 through mid-April 1954.
On April 16 of that year, he joined the Philadelphia Phillies as general manager, effectively succeeding owner Robert R. M. Carpenter, Jr., who was functioning as the team's GM-without-portfolio. For the next five years, Hamey guided the destiny of the Phillies with decidedly mixed results. The team could not repeat its 1950 "Whiz Kid" success, as key players aged. While the Phils hovered around the .500 level, Hamey did bring to the club its first African-American player, infielder John Irvin Kennedy, who played five games in 1957. In a National League increasingly dominated by black players, the Phillies were the last club to integrate and only two teams — the AL's Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox — were more steadfast in hewing to the baseball color line.
In 1958, however, the Phillies' fortunes began to decline precipitously. The club finished last in the National League, and Hamey paid with his job. He was replaced, in January 1959, by John Quinn, recruited from the Milwaukee Braves. Hamey then rejoined Weiss and the Yankees as assistant general manager for the full seasons of 1959 and 1960.
Read more about this topic: Roy Hamey
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