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

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

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 at Engel Stadium. 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 u ...

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 eig ...

and

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 ...

(1920; 1923–26), batting .318 with no home runs and 81

RBI RBI most often refers to: *Reserve Bank of India *Run batted in RBI may also refer to: Organisations *Radio Berlin International *Raiffeisen Bank International *Reed Business Information *Restaurant Brands International *Ruđer Bošković In ...

in 180 games. In 1928, Prothro became a manager in the Southern Association (SA), then one of the higher-level minor leagues, leading the Memphis Chicks and Little Rock Travelers to four SA pennants through 1938. In 1939, Prothro replaced Jimmie Wilson as manager of the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

. 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 County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, 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 Uni ...

, Prothro attended the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. 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, compili ...

, became a successful coach in college football (at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degree ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

) and, during the 1970s, led the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

and

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

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 ma ...

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