Manush, "Heinie" (Henry E.)
Baseball
b. July 20, 1901, Tuscumbia, AL
d. May 12, 1971
Manush joined the Detroit Tigers in 1923 as the team's starting left fielder. A left-hander, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Manush hit .334 in his rookie year. After batting .289 and .302 in the next two seasons, he won the 1926 batting title with a .378 average. Manush got 6 hits in 9 at-bats during a doubleheader on the last day of the season to edge Babe Ruth.
The Tigers traded him to the St. Louis Browns in 1928, when he batted .378, led the league in hits with 241, and tied Lou Gehrig for the doubles lead with 47. Manush hit .355 in 1929 and was traded to the Washington Senators during the 1930 season, when he batted .350.
The Senators won the AL pennant 1933, aided by Manush's .336 average with a league-leading 221 hits and 17 triples. The World Series was embarrassing to him, however. After being called out on a close play at first base, he grabbed umpire Charlie Moran's bow tie, which was on an elastic band, pulled it out, and let it snap back against Moran's adam's apple. He was thrown out of the game and fined $50. Manush batted only .111 for the series.
He hit .349 in 1934 but dropped to .273 the following season and was traded to the Boston Red Sox. They released him in September of 1936 and he went to the Brooklyn Dodgers the following season, batting .333. He played only 32 games with Brooklyn and Pittsburgh in 1938 and left the major leagues after appearing in only 10 games, most of them as a pinch-hitter, in 1939.
Manush later managed several minor league teams and served as a scout and coach in the major leagues. He batted .330 in 2,008 games, with 2,524 hits, including 491 doubles, 160 triples, and 110 home runs. He had 1,183 RBI and 1,287 runs scored.