Harry Malmberg

Harry William Malmberg (July 31, 1925 — October 29, 1976) was an American second baseman and coach in Major League Baseball, and a longtime player and manager in minor league baseball. Born in Fairfield, Alabama, Malmberg batted and threw right-handed, stood 6'1" (185 cm) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg) during his active career.

Malmberg spent only three seasons at the Major League level during a 28-year career in professional baseball. Originally a member of the Cleveland Indians farm system, he reached Triple-A with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in 1951, and spent the next 11 of the next 12 years at that level, toiling also for the Indianapolis Indians, Charleston Senators and Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, and the PCL's San Francisco Seals and Seattle Rainiers. The exception was the 1955 season, when Malmberg, nearing age 30, spent a full season for the Detroit Tigers, appearing in 67 games, and compiling a batting average of .216 with five doubles, two triples, no home runs and 19 runs batted in.

Malmberg played in the Boston Red Sox farm system in 1957-58, and rejoined it when the Red Sox took over as the Seattle Rainiers' parent club in 1961. Malmberg served as a playing coach for Rainiers manager Johnny Pesky, and followed Pesky to Boston as his first-base coach for the 1963 and 1964 seasons. After Pesky's firing at the end of the '64 campaign, Malmberg embarked on a ten-year minor league managerial career in the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals organizations. He managed teams in the Class A California League, Florida State League and Carolina League, the Double-A Eastern League, and the Triple-A American Association. He won two league championships (in 1965 and 1971) and retired after the 1974 campaign, his second consecutive season with the AAA Omaha Royals, with a career managerial mark of 680 wins and 715 defeats (.487).

He died in San Francisco, California, of pancreatic cancer at the age of 51.

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Harry_Malmberg BR Bullpen]

References

* Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., "The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball," 2nd edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 2007.