Roy Hamey

Henry Roy Hamey (June 9, 1902 – December 14, 1983) was an American front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB).

He entered minor league baseball in 1925 as business manager of Class B Springfield of the Three–I League.

In 1934 he joined the Yankees as front office boss of their Class A Binghamton Triplets club in the New York–Pennsylvania League.

He arrived as Weiss, then director of the Yankees' farm system, was building a minor league organization that would rival, and perhaps surpass, the St. Louis Cardinals' pioneering system.

After Hamey's success at Binghamton, Weiss transferred him to business manager of one of New York's two highest-tier farm clubs, the Kansas City Blues of the top-level (then called Double-A) American Association.

Stocked with Yankee prospects, the Blues were almost annually competitive in the prewar years and during World War II.

In 1945, Larry MacPhail, former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers, returned from United States Army service in World War II and shocked baseball when he formed an ownership syndicate that purchased the Yankees from the estate of Jacob Ruppert.

MacPhail simultaneously installed himself as president and general manager, blocking the career paths of both Weiss and Hamey.

While Weiss bided his time and remained as New York's farm director and vice president, Hamey departed to become president of the American Association.

At the close of the 1946 season, Hamey was rewarded with his first major league GM portfolio as front-office chief of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hired by the Pirates' new ownership group led by Frank E. McKinney.

Hamey recruited Billy Meyer out of the Yankee minor league system as the Bucs' manager and acquired several players, such as pitchers Tiny Bonham and Bob Chesnes and future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, to surround slugging outfielder Ralph Kiner, who led (or co-led) the National League in home runs every year between 1946 and 1952.

Hamey then returned to the Yankees, where Weiss had finally been promoted to general manager in October 1947 after MacPhail's partners, Dan Topping and Del Webb, bought him out.

But the Pirates did not build a successful farm system and, apart from a first-division finish in 1948, the team was an also-ran.

In December 1950, the Pirates replaced Hamey with ousted Brooklyn president Branch Rickey.

The team could not repeat its 1950 "Whiz Kid" success, as key players aged.

Philadelphia did introduce talented young pitchers like National League Rookie of the Year Jack Sanford and All-Star Turk Farrell.

(Thus, Hamey's career was materially affected by three Hall of Fame executives: Weiss, MacPhail and Rickey.) Hamey served as Weiss's top assistant from 1951 through mid-April 1954.

On April 16 of that year, he joined the Philadelphia Phillies as general manager, effectively succeeding owner Robert R. M. Carpenter Jr., who was functioning as the team's GM-without-portfolio.

For the next five years, Hamey guided the destiny of the Phillies with decidedly mixed results.

While the Phils hovered around the .500 level, Hamey did bring to the club its first African-American player, infielder John Irvin Kennedy, who played five games in 1957.

In a National League increasingly dominated by black players, the Phillies were the last club to integrate and only two American League teams—the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox—were more steadfast in hewing to the baseball color line.

However, Hamey traded away Sanford, a future 24-game winner, after the 1958 season; meanwhile, the fire-balling Farrell became more noted for his after-hours, off-field exploits than his pitching.

In 1958, however, the Phillies' fortunes began to decline precipitously.

The club finished last in the National League, and Hamey paid with his job.

He was replaced, in January 1959, by John Quinn, recruited from the Milwaukee Braves.

Hamey then rejoined Weiss and the Yankees as assistant general manager for the full seasons of 1959 and 1960.

A longtime employee of the New York Yankees, he was appointed the club's general manager in November 1960.

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 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 the 58-year-old 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.

Inheriting a pennant-winner from his predecessor, George Weiss, he maintained the Yankees' dominant position in MLB by producing three additional American League champions and two World Series champions in three full seasons before retiring in the autumn of 1963.

Hamey also spent nine years as the general manager of two National League franchises, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies, during the period between and.

A native of Havana, Illinois, Hamey's early employment included working in an office job with Standard Oil of Indiana and managing vaudeville theaters.

In 1963, Hamey added more youth in left-handed pitcher Al Downing and first baseman Joe Pepitone.