Herman Louis Franks (January 4, 1914 – March 30, 2009) was a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

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 activitie ...

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

and

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, secti ...

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 (A ...

. He was born in

Price, Utah Price is a city in the U.S. state of Utah and the county seat of Carbon County. The city is home to Utah State University Eastern, as well as the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum. Price is located within short distances of both Nine Mile Canyon and ...

, to

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

immigrant parents and attended the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

Playing career

A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Franks was listed at tall and . He broke into

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

with the

Hollywood Stars The Hollywood Stars were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League during the early- and mid-20th century. They were the arch-rivals of the other Los Angeles-based PCL team, the Los Angeles Angels. Hollywood Stars (192 ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

in 1932, but he was soon acquired by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

and joined their vast

farm system In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

. He made the Cardinals for just 17 games and 17 at-bats in 1939, before being drafted by the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

, where he served as a second-string catcher in 1940–41 and began his long association with

Leo Durocher Leo Ernest Durocher (French spelling Léo Ernest Durocher) (; July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an infie ...

, then Brooklyn's manager. As a Dodger, Franks caught

Tex Carleton James Otto "Tex" Carleton (August 19, 1906 – January 11, 1977) was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1932 to 1940 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Carleton threw a no-hitter on April 30, 1940, against the Reds ...

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

on April 30, 1940. Franks missed seasons during World War II, when he served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the Pacific Theater of Operations and attained the rank of

lieutenant (junior grade) Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies. United States Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), ...

. He resumed his playing career in 1946 with the Triple-A

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; ...

, then became the playing manager of the Dodgers'

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They prev ...

affiliate in the Triple-A

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

in 1947. In August of that season, however, he resigned his post to return to the Major Leagues as a backup catcher with the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

, where he appeared in 48 games in 1947–48 and batted .221.

Coaching career

In 1949, Franks received his first coaching assignment, as an aide to Durocher with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

, and was activated for one final MLB game on August 28, 1949—going 2-for- 3 against the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in a 4–2 New York triumph. As a coach with the Giants from 1949 to 1955, he was a member of two

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 s ...

championship clubs (, ) and was the third-base coach of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

(

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

) title team. However, he performed multiple tasks for Durocher during those seven seasons. According to author Joshua Prager in his 2006 book ''The Echoing Green'', Franks played a critical role in the Giants'

Bobby Thomson Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed the "Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), M ...

's famous pennant-winning

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in the 1951 NL tiebreaker playoffs— Baseball's Shot Heard Round The World. According to Prager, Franks was stationed in the Giants' center-field clubhouse at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

, their home field, stealing the opposing catcher's signs through a telescope and relaying them through second-string

Sal Yvars Salvador Anthony Yvars (February 20, 1924 – December 10, 2008) was a professional baseball catcher. He played all or part of eight seasons in Major League Baseball, with the New York Giants from 1947 to 1953 and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1953 ...

(positioned in the

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if t ...

) to the Giants' coaches and hitters. When asked where he was when Thomson hit his home run, Franks said, in 1996, that he was "doing something for Durocher" at the time. Whatever his role may have been on that day, Franks was known as a devotee of Durocher-style, win-at-any-cost baseball, including intimidation through flying

spikes The SPIKES protocol is a method used in clinical medicine to break bad news to patients and families. As receiving bad news can cause distress and anxiety, clinicians need to deliver the news carefully. By using the SPIKES method for introducing a ...

and

brushback pitch In baseball, a brushback pitch is a pitch–usually a fastball–thrown high and inside the strike zone to intimidate the batter away from the plate on subsequent pitches. It differs from the beanball in that the intent is not to hit the batte ...

ing. Dodger outfielder

Carl Furillo Carl Anthony Furillo (March 8, 1922 – January 21, 1989), nicknamed "The Reading Rifle" and "Skoonj", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB), spending his entire career with the Brooklyn / ...

told author

Roger Kahn Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 – February 6, 2020) was an American author, best known for his 1972 baseball book '' The Boys of Summer''. Biography Roger Kahn was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 31, 1927, to Olga (''née'' Rockow) and ...

that Franks was known to poke his head into the Brooklyn clubhouse before games, to taunt Furillo that Giant pitchers were planning to throw at his head in the upcoming contest. Furillo, whose hatred for Durocher was so intense that he would engage Durocher in a fistfight in a Giant dugout filled with enemy players, said of the Giants, in

Peter Golenbock Peter Golenbock (born July 19, 1946) is an American author. He is noted for his many books about baseball and other sports. Many of his books have been bestsellers. Career Golenbock initially worked as a lawyer for Prentice Hall, a publishing hou ...

's book '' Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers'', "They were dirty ballplayers ... They all wanted to be like Durocher, to copy Durocher. That Herman Franks, he was another one."

Managing career

Durocher quit the Giants after the season, and the team relocated to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

after . From 1956 to 1964, Franks was briefly a Giants' scout, then the general manager of the PCL

Salt Lake City Bees The Salt Lake City Bees was a primary moniker of the minor league baseball teams, based in Salt Lake City, Utah between 1911 and 1970 under various names. After minor league baseball first began in Salt Lake City in 1900, the Bees were long-time ...

. He also spent two additional one-year terms (in 1958 and 1964) as a San Francisco Giants coach before succeeding

Alvin Dark Alvin Ralph Dark (January 7, 1922 – November 13, 2014), nicknamed "Blackie" and "The Swamp Fox", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played fourteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston/Milwaukee Bra ...

as the club's manager a half‐hour after the conclusion of the 1964 season on October 4. Even though the team featured future

Hall of Famers A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

Orlando Cepeda Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes (; born September 17, 1937), nicknamed "the Baby Bull" and "Peruchin", is a Puerto Rican former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played for six teams from 1958 to 1974, primarily the San Francisco Giants. ...

Willie McCovey Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch", "Mac" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a mem ...

Juan Marichal Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (born October 20, 1937), nicknamed "the Dominican Dandy", is a Dominican former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams from 1960 to 1975, almost entirely the San Francisco Giant ...

and

Gaylord Perry Gaylord Jackson Perry (September 15, 1938 – December 1, 2022) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher for eight different teams from 1962 to 1983. During a 22-year baseb ...

, Franks's four seasons (1965–68) managing the Giants each produced frustrating second-place finishes in the National League. The club lost close pennant races to the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

by two games in and games in . It finished farther behind the Cardinals the next two years, lengths out in and nine back in . After he stepped down as skipper following the conclusion of the 1968 season, he was quoted as saying, "Is finishing second so evil?" He was replaced by

Clyde King Clyde Edward King (May 23, 1924 – November 2, 2010) was an American pitcher, coach, manager, general manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. King's career in baseball spanned 67 years, including 35 full years with the New ...

. A highly successful businessman off the field, Franks spent the next eight years out of the Major League spotlight, apart from a partial season (August and September 1970) as a pitching coach under Durocher with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

. Franks returned to the major leagues as newly appointed Cubs general manager

Bob Kennedy Robert Daniel Kennedy (August 18, 1920 – April 7, 2005) was a right fielder/third baseman, manager and executive in Major League Baseball. From 1939 to 1957, Kennedy played for the Chicago White Sox (1939–42, 1946–48, 1955–56, 1957), Cl ...

's first and only choice to replace Jim Marshall as manager on November 24, 1976. In 1977, he led the Cubs back to the .500 level, but the team lost ground in 1978 and was just one game above the break-even mark in September 1979 when Franks resigned (issuing a number of complaints about certain players). He succeeded Kennedy as the Cubs' interim general manager on May 22, 1981. However, most of his tenure was taken up by the 1981 players' strike. He was replaced by Dallas Green just under five months later on October 15 as part of the franchise ownership transition from

William Wrigley III William A. Wrigley III (January 21, 1933 – March 8, 1999), known as William Wrigley, was president of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, founded by his grandfather William Wrigley Jr., from 1961 until his death from pneumonia in March 1999. His fa ...

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

."Sports People: Green May Join Cubs," ''The New York Times'', Thursday, October 15, 1981.
Retrieved June 9, 2020 Although Franks compiled a poor record as a player (a batting average of .199 with three home runs and 43 RBI in 188 games over parts of six seasons), he notched a winning record as a manager: 605–521, .537.

References

External links

Baseball-Reference.com
– career managing record and playing statistics
McGrath, Dan. "Former Chicago Cubs manager Herman Franks dies at 95," ''Chicago Tribune'', Wednesday, April 1, 2009.
*
Drew, Jay. "SLC baseball legend Herman Franks dies at 95," ''The Salt Lake Tribune'', Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

Herman Louis Franks Sr. – ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' Obituary Notices.

Bibliography

* Baseball-library.com * ''Official Baseball Register'' (1968 edition). St. Louis: The Sporting News. * Golenbock, Peter. ''Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1984. {{DEFAULTSORT:Franks, Herman 1914 births 2009 deaths American sportspeople of Italian descent Baseball coaches from Utah Baseball players from Salt Lake City Brooklyn Dodgers players Caribbean Series managers Chicago Cubs coaches Chicago Cubs executives Chicago Cubs managers Columbus Red Birds players Hollywood Stars players Houston Buffaloes players Jacksonville Jax players Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball executives Major League Baseball general managers Major League Baseball pitching coaches Major League Baseball third base coaches Minor league baseball executives Montreal Royals players New York Giants (NL) coaches New York Giants (NL) players New York Giants (NL) scouts Omaha Packers players People from Price, Utah Philadelphia Athletics players Sacramento Solons players St. Louis Cardinals players St. Paul Saints (AA) managers St. Paul Saints (AA) players San Francisco Giants coaches San Francisco Giants managers San Francisco Giants scouts Sportspeople from Salt Lake City United States Navy personnel of World War II