Eddie Dyer

Edwin Hawley Dyer (October 11 1899 – April 20 1964) was an American left-handed pitcher, manager and farm system official in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1922-44 and 1946-50. In 1946, Dyer's first season at the helm of the Cardinals, the Redbirds defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in a thrilling National League season that featured the first postseason playoff in baseball history, then bested the favored Boston Red Sox in a seven-game World Series.

Pitcher, outfielder, minor league manager/executive

Born in Morgan City, Louisiana, Dyer grew up in Houston, Texas, where he attended what is now Rice University. He signed with the Cardinals as an outfielder, first baseman and pitcher in 1922. He appeared for the Cardinals in 129 games over all or parts of six seasons (1922-27) – although 1924 and 1925 were his only full seasons in the majors - splitting 30 pitching decisions with an earned run average of 4.78, and batting .223 in 157 at bats with two home runs. Sent to hone his mound skills with the Cards’ top farm team, the Syracuse Stars of the AA International League, in 1927, Dyer won his first six decisions, but in his seventh appearance he sustained an arm injury that ended his pitching career.

From 1928 on, Dyer would manage in the Cardinal farm system, continuing his playing career as an outfielder through 1933. In addition, Dyer served as business manager or club president of the teams he managed, and in 1938 he supervised all of the Cardinal farm teams in the Southern and Southwestern United States. The most important of these was Dyer’s hometown Houston Buffaloes, the Cardinals’ club in the A1 Texas League, and two stops below the majors. He took over as the Buffs’ manager from 1939-41 and led them to three straight league championships, averaging 102 victories. During much of the wartime period that followed, Dyer was director of the entire Cardinals farm system, although he left that post in 1944 to tend to his oil, real estate and insurance businesses in Houston.

kipper of postwar Cardinals

At the war’s end, and with the big league Cardinals in need of a manager upon Billy Southworth’s departure for the Boston Braves, Dyer returned to baseball and his first major-league managing assignment in 1946. The Cardinals were a powerhouse, having won NL pennants from 1942-44 and finished second in 1941 and 1945, but ’46 was an extremely challenging season for Dyer and his team. He had to blend returning war veterans and young players with Southworth's wartime club, and lost two key players – undefeated lefthanded pitcher Max Lanier and second baseman Lou Klein - to the marauding Mexican League. He also had to deal with the Cards' implacable foes, the Dodgers of Leo Durocher, back at full strength after the war. Led by pitchers Howie Pollet and Harry Brecheen, and the hitting and leadership of future Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, the Cardinals made up a five-game All-Star Break deficit and were tied with Brooklyn for the pennant on the season’s final day. The Cards then swept the Dodgers in a best-of-three playoff behind the pitching of Pollet and Murry Dickson.

In the 1946 World Series, the Redbirds faced what would be the only postseason team with the great Ted Williams on its roster. The Red Sox had breezed to the American League pennant by 12 games and featured 20-game winners Dave Ferriss and Tex Hughson. Idle during the NL playoffs, Boston played an exhibition game against an AL "all-star" team in an effort to tune up for the Fall Classic. Williams was struck on the elbow by a pitch, and when the Series began, he was ineffective. Brecheen won three games, the Cardinals played inspired baseball, and in the deciding seventh game, Slaughter hustled home from first on a double by Harry Walker to give St. Louis an upset victory.

From baseball to the business world

The 1946 world championship was Dyer’s high-water mark as Cardinal manager. The following season, Brooklyn upset the balance of power in the NL by boldly breaking the color line. In May, Dyer's Cardinals became embroiled in a (hotly denied) rumor that they planned to strike, rather than permit Jackie Robinson on a major league diamond (Dyer was never implicated in the rumor). More damaging, for the next decade, the Cardinals would lag behind most of the other NL clubs in signing African-American players. Overall, the Cardinals reverted to bridesmaid status, finishing second in the National League from 1947-49. With the team’s legendary farm system struggling without its founder – Branch Rickey, the very man who brought Robinson to Brooklyn – the Cardinals’ quarter-century of baseball dominance was coming to an end. In 1950, they fell to fifth and Dyer turned in his resignation.

During his five years as St. Louis manager, the Cardinals won 446 games and lost 325 for a stellar .578 winning percentage. But Dyer preferred to manage his thriving Houston-area businesses rather than stay in baseball. He died at age 64 in Houston, a year after suffering a stroke.

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/dyered01.shtml Baseball-Reference.com] - career managing record and playing statistics
* [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/D/Dyer_Eddie.stm BaseballLibrary.com] - biography and career highlights

References

*J.G. Taylor Spink, editor; "The Baseball Register," 1949 edition, C.C. Spink and Son, publishers.