John McNamara, Boston Red Sox 1986 World Series Manager, Dies At 88

John McNamara, the famed baseball manager who led the Boston Red Sox within one out of the 1986 World Series title, died Tuesday, June 28, 2020, at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee. He was 88.

McNamara started his professional baseball career in 1951 as a catcher with the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He signed for a $12,000 bonus out of Sacramento’s Christian Brothers High School.

Somewhat small for a catcher, the 5’10” McNamara spent 14 seasons in the minor leagues, reaching as high as the open-classified Pacific Coast League in 1956 with the Sacramento Solons. After he posted a .171 average over 71 games, it was clear he was overmatched by the veteran competition. He spent the next few years beating the bushes waiting for his fortunes to change.

Sensing McNamara had an excellent eye for the game from his position behind the plate, Kansas City A’s farm director Hank Peters asked McNamara to be a player-manager with the Lewiston Broncs in 1959. This spawned his eventual path to the major leagues, not as a catcher, but as a manager with the Oakland Athletics.

His road was far from linear, as he spent nine seasons crossing the minors to shape the future core of Oakland’s championship teams. One of the players McNamara took under his wing was Reggie Jackson. SABR author Mark Armour indicated how the Hall of Fame slugger acknowledged McNamara protecting him in the Jim Crow south while playing for Birmingham in 1967.

“When we’d be on a road trip and we’d stop at a diner for hamburgers or something to eat, McNamara wouldn’t compromise. It was simple for him: if they wouldn’t serve me they weren’t going to serve anybody. He’d just take the whole team out of the restaurant, we’d get into the bus and we’d keep driving.”

A few years later, McNamara was in the major leagues managing Jackson, when the A’s hired him to finish the final 13 games of the 1969 season. It sparked the first of 19 seasons that McNamara was at the helm of a big league club. His long-tenured managerial career spanned six organizations between 1969-1996 with the A’s, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, California Angels, Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians.

While McNamara amassed 1160 big league wins, he is unfortunately most widely remembered for his personnel choices during the Red Sox’s loss in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. From removing Roger Clemens in the 8th inning, to keeping Bill Buckner at first base during the late innings of the game, fans have spent the past 30-plus years questioning if Boston would have snapped their curse had McNamara acted otherwise.

Despite constant questioning for the rest of his life, he courageously stood by his decisions.

“John McNamara was a good man who went to his grave defending his decision to keep Bill Buckner at first base in Game 6 of ‘86 WS,” sportswriter Bill Madden tweeted. “As well as maintaining it was Roger Clemens who wanted out after 8 innings, not him. I believe Mac – a man of honor and integrity.”