James Thompson "Doc" Prothro Sr. (July 16, 1893 – October 14, 1971) was an infielder and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). Prothro was so nicknamed because he was a practicing dentist before signing his first professional baseball contract at age 26. After playing five seasons in MLB, Prothro became a manager, compiling what remains the worst career

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

among major league managers.

Career

As a player, Prothro was discovered by baseball promoter Joe Engel, who managed the

Chattanooga Lookouts The Chattanooga Lookouts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League and the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and are named for nearby Lookout Mountain. The team plays its home g ...

Engel Stadium Engel Stadium is a stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The stadium was built in 1930 and holds 12,000 people. It was the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts until 1999 when they moved to their current stadium, AT&T Field. The former Tennessee Templ ...

. Prothro played in the major leagues as a right-handed hitting

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

and

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

for the Washington Senators,

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

and Cincinnati Reds (1920; 1923–26),

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

.318 with no home runs and 81 RBI in 180 games. In 1928, Prothro became a manager in the

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cla ...

(SA), then one of the higher-level minor leagues, leading the Memphis Chicks and

Little Rock Travelers The Little Rock Travelers were an American minor league baseball team located in Little Rock, Arkansas, and members (1902–1910, 1915–1958, 1960–1961) of the Southern Association, which as a Class A, A1 or Double-A circuit was typically two ...

to four SA pennants through 1938. In 1939, Prothro replaced Jimmie Wilson as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. In his three full seasons (1939-1941) at the helm of the Phillies, the club remained locked in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

cellar — losers of 106, 103 and 111 games. Prothro's career mark of 138–320 has the lowest managerial

, .301, in major league history. Prothro was fired after the 1941 season and replaced by

Hans Lobert John Bernard "Hans" Lobert (October 18, 1881 – September 14, 1968) was an American third baseman, shortstop, coach, manager and scout in Major League Baseball. Lobert was immortalized in the 1966 Lawrence Ritter book ''The Glory of Their Times'' ...

and thereafter returned to the Southern Association, where he piloted the Chicks from 1942 to 1947. After he retired as Memphis' manager, he remained active as a co-owner of the club.

Personal life

A native of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, Prothro attended the

University of Tennessee Health Science Center The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is a public medical school in Memphis, Tennessee. It includes the Colleges of Health Professions, University of Tennessee College of Dentistry, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Univer ...

. He died in Memphis in 1971 at the age of 78. His son,

Tommy Prothro James Thompson "Tommy" Prothro Jr. (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State University from 1955 to 1964 and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1965 to 1970, compil ...

, became a successful coach in college football (at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

) and, during the 1970s, led the Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prothro, Doc 1893 births 1971 deaths Baseball coaches from Tennessee Baseball players from Memphis, Tennessee Boston Red Sox players Cincinnati Reds players Major League Baseball infielders Memphis Chickasaws players Minor league baseball managers Philadelphia Phillies managers Portland Beavers players Sportspeople from Memphis, Tennessee Washington Senators (1901–1960) players American dentists 20th-century dentists