| SIGNER: Earle Mack APPROXIMATE SIZE: 3-5/8"x5/8" cut affixed to 4-3/8"x7/8" cut album page MARKS / STAMPING: Hand-signed by Earle Mack ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Original COMMENTS / CONDITION: As with all of my signed items, the signature is guaranteed to pass further inspection by any major authenticator, or your money back. See scans for conition and signature quality. BIO: Earle Thaddeus Mack (born Earle Thaddeus Mc Gillicuddy) was born in 1967 in Spencer, MA and died in 1967 in Upper Darby Township, PA. He went to college at Niagara University and the University of Notre Dame. He played major league baseball from 1910 to 1914 in a total of 5 games as catcher, 3rd baseman and 1st baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics. As a minor league player in 1910, Mack batted .135 in 26 games. From 1913 until 1915, Mack served as player-manager of the Raleigh team in the Class D North Carolina State League. He returned in the same capacity for the Charlotte franchise in 1917 until the league folded (no doubt a war casualty) on May 30. Mack then became player-manager of the Hanover (Pennsylvania) Raiders of the Blue Ridge League, another Class D circuit. Mack achieved some success as the player/manager of the Moline (Illinois) Plowboys of the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League (often called the Three-I, or Three-Eye League). In 1921, his team, with almost no legitimate major league prospects, won the Three-I pennant. Mack's final season as a minor league manager was 1923, returning to the Blue Ridge League and managing the Martinsburg (WV) Blue Sox to a 67-30 record and the pennant. His father, the manager and part owner of the Athletics, hired him as a coach and assistant manager in 1924. During the 1937 and 1939 season, Mack managed the Athletics when his father (by then in his mid-70s) was ill. It was widely expected that when his father retired, Earle would manage the team and Connie Jr. (Earle's younger half-brother) would run the front office. This was not to be. In May 1950, he was moved to the position of chief scout and replaced as coach and assistant manager by Jimmy Dykes - a disappointment, as he had hoped to succeed his father as permanent manager of the Athletics. In spite of this, he was able in August, with his brother Roy, to gain control over the franchise, purchasing shares from Connie Jr. While Roy and Earle Mack announced that their father was free to manage as as long as he wanted to, Connie Mack announced his retirement only seven weeks later at age 88. The team was heavily mortgaged, though, and continued to perform poorly both on the field and at the box office. Eventually, the Mack brothers were forced to sell, and the team relocated to Kansas City in 1954. SKU: L14684
Item: L14684
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