1955 Yankee of the Past: Bucky Harris

"After Washington lost a game by a score of 18-1, a cub reporter interviewed Bucky Harris and asked:
'To what do you attribute today's defeat?' "

-H.G. Salsinger in the Detroit News (Baseball Digest, November 1954)

SPIKE FINALLY LANDS PAL
"Bucky Harris' return to Detroit as manager of the Tigers as Freddie Hutchinson's successor was written in the club's 'future book' many years ago, when Walter O. (Spike) Briggs, Jr., was a wide-eyed youngster, thrilled by his association with the big men of his father's baseball team.
Spike was still in high school when Harris started his first term as Tiger manager in 1929. Presumably, the young heir had the run of the clubhouse and the field while the amiable, soft-spoken Bucky was in charge.
But in 1934 high-strung Mickey Cochrane succeeded Harris and the grapevine reported that the new chief took less kindly to the constant presence of the owner's son. According to a rumor current at the time, Cochrane finally quit his job at the height of an argument with Briggs, Sr., on this subject.
In any case, Spike never lost his boyhood admiration of Harris. As he grew older and was given a hand in the operation of the club, he kept watching for an opportunity to bring back Bucky.
He thought he saw it in 1945, when Jack Zeller retired as general manager.
'If I have anything to say about it,' spoke Spike, 'Bucky Harris will be our next general manager.'
The ink on the newsprint carrying this statement scarcely hardly had time to dry before Spike's father gave the front office job to George Trautman, now the head of all the minor leagues.
Spike was deeply wounded. But he didn't forget Harris. As soon as it was learned that Hutchinson had refused to accept a one-year contract with Detroit, insiders everywhere predicted that Bucky, freshly fired in Washington, would get the job."

-Ed McAuley, the Cleveland News (Baseball Digest, November 1954)

BUCKY HARRIS: "It's good to be back in Detroit with the Briggs family. Yes, the Tigers will have a hustling ball club this year. I wonder if I ever said that before."

-Baseball Digest, March 1955