Roy Hamey - Three Pennants in Three Seasons For The Yankees

Three Pennants in Three Seasons For The Yankees

After a heart-breaking, seven-game loss of the 1960 World Series to the Pirates, the Yankees faced difficult decisions. Manager Casey Stengel was 70 years of age and blocking the path of the promising, 41-year-old Ralph Houk, one of his coaches and considered a top managing prospect. When Stengel would not retire, Topping and Webb fired him — or "discharged" him, as Stengel would say. Concurrently, the team also needed a succession plan for Weiss, then 66. In a decision that was roundly debated, the Yankees forced Weiss into (temporary) retirement, and promoted Hamey to general manager on November 3, 1960. (Both Stengel and Weiss would resurface a year later as the first manager and president of the expansion New York Mets.)

Hamey faced numerous challenges in keeping the Yankees at the top of the American League. He presided over the team's participation in the first expansion draft in December 1960, brought up pitcher Roland Sheldon, a rookie standout, from the minors, and swung a number of deals during 1961 that added supporting players to a team that would win 109 games and easily defeat Cincinnati in the 1961 World Series. He tweaked the Yankee roster again during the offseason, and promoted eventual Rookie of the Year Tom Tresh and freshman pitcher Jim Bouton to the 1962 club, which took the AL pennant by five games and outlasted the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

In 1963, Hamey added more youth in left-handed pitcher Al Downing and first baseman Joe Pepitone. He made room for Pepitone through a controversial trade, sending longtime Yankee first baseman Bill Skowron to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Stan Williams. Skowron struggled mightily in the NL during 1963, while the Yankees won 104 games and gained their fourth straight AL title. But in the 1963 World Series, the Dodgers humbled the Yanks in four straight games — the first time the Yanks had ever been swept in a Fall Classic — with Skowron the batting star.

In the weeks following the '63 season, Topping and Webb, perhaps paving the way for the Yankees' sale to CBS in 1964, decided to shake up the front office. Hamey, 61, retired from the general manager job and became a scout. Houk was promoted to succeed Hamey, and Yogi Berra, a player-coach in 1963, became the team's manager.

The Yankees averaged 103 regular season victories during Hamey's three-year GM tenure and brought up a number of serviceable mid-level players. But neither Hamey nor Houk could adequately replace the team's aging corps of superstars — Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Berra and Whitey Ford — or other standout players such as Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek. After one last pennant in 1964, the Yankees would wander in the wilderness for 12 years, until they entered the first dynasty of the George Steinbrenner era.

Hamey's last high-profile job in baseball occurred during the winter of 1969-70, when AL president Joe Cronin appointed him caretaker chief executive of the Seattle Pilots as the team struggled to find new ownership. He relinquished that responsibility when the Pilots were purchased by Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee for the 1970 season.

Roy Hamey lived in retirement in Tucson, Arizona. He died there of a heart attack at age 81 on December 14, 1983.