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Greatest manager in Texas League history born
On this day in 1879, John Jacob (Jake) Atz, baseball player and manager,
was born in Washington, D.C. He is generally considered the greatest
baseball manager in Texas League history. He began his major-league
playing career in 1902 with Washington of the American League and played
for the Chicago White Sox in 1907-09. His major-league career ended when
he was hit by a pitch thrown by Walter Johnson. Atz signed as a playing
manager of the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League in 1914. He quit in
1916 but returned in 1917. He led Fort Worth to seven consecutive
championships between 1919 and 1925 and remained there until 1929.
Thereafter he managed clubs in Dallas, Shreveport, New Orleans, Tulsa,
and Galveston. He held the following Texas League records: twenty-two
years as a player and manager; eighteen years as manager of one club
(Fort Worth); longest continuous service at one club (fourteen seasons
with Fort Worth); and seven successive first-place finishes. Atz's real
name was Zimmerman, but, according to legend, he changed it because he
had played on a succession of clubs that went bankrupt; paying their
players alphabetically, the clubs frequently would run out of money
before reaching the end of the alphabet. The name change was typical of
his flamboyant personality, which has caused many people to call him
"the grandest Texas League figure of all time." Atz died on May 22,
1945, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- ATZ, JOHN JACOB
- TEXAS LEAGUE
- SPORTS
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