Arlie Latham - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

Latham was major league baseball's first full-time coach. When he was a player, as at that time there were no coaches, he would stand on the third base line and yell insults at the other team's pitcher, attempting to distract him and give the Browns an advantage. One of his techniques was to scream while running up and down the third base line during the pitcher's delivery. The coach's box was introduced to prevent him from doing this.

While Cy Seymour coached third base during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Seymour tackled Moose McCormick as he rounded third base and headed for home plate. When Giants' manager John McGraw asked why, Seymour made an excuse about having the sun in his eyes. This led McGraw, now realizing the need for a full-time coach, to hire Latham for the role, the first full-time coach in MLB. Latham tried to do the same things in New York as he had done years earlier in St. Louis, but times had changed and screaming obscenities was not looked well upon, as baseball was being changed into more of a family-friendly game by then. In the opinion of Fred Snodgrass he was "probably the worst third base coach that ever lived". After the 1910 season, Latham was let go by the Giants.

In 1914, Latham coached Lynn of the New England League; in July 1914, he resigned from the team. Latham announced his retirement from professional baseball in 1915. He wrote for The Pittsburgh Press in 1915. Latham lived in England during World War I, where he organized baseball for the soldiers, and taught King George V about baseball. He returned to the United States in 1923, and opened a delicatessen on Saint Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan. He also served as a press box attendant for the Giants at the Polo Grounds and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.