The Case for Dan Howley

He led two Toronto minor league teams to championships, managed a pair of clubs in the big leagues, was a character in two Ring Lardner stories, once roomed with Babe Ruth, and was highly regarded throughout the game as a brilliant teacher and strategist. Dan Howley got his start as a field boss in Canada, and was one of Toronto’s most popular sporting figures.

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Born in West Beymouth, MA, Howley broke into pro ball with New Bedford in the low level New England League in 1905; he caught the eye of Indianapolis of the American Association the following year, and was a step away from the big leagues. But Howley was destined to become a career minor leaguer; he reached the bigs in 1913 with the Phillies, but after only 34 At Bats, he was sold to Portland of the Pacific Coast League. A few weeks later, Howley was sold to Montreal of the International League.

Howley was not pleased with the demotion (the IL was a cut below the PCL at that time), and vowed not to return to Canada for the 1914 season. He was lured back by the promise of a player-coach position; shortly before mid-season, he was the Royals’ player-manager. Howley led Montreal for four seasons, but with manpower scarce as the U.S. entered World War I, the International League re-organized after the 1917 season, and Howley was out of a job.

But he wasn’t unemployed for long. Red Sox manager Ed Barrow, looking for a veteran who could double as a coach, hired Howley just before the start of spring training the following year. Barrow was becoming increasingly frustrated with the extra curricular activities of his star, one Babe Ruth. Barrow wanted Ruth’s bat in the lineup in between days that he pitched; Ruth was reportedly lukewarm to the idea. Nonetheless, his nighttime exploits meant that he often wasn’t available when Barrow wanted to pencil him into rightfield. “Why manager, I’ll take care of him. I’ll put an iron ring through his nose if I have to,” Howley told Barrow as the team prepared to depart for spring training. Barrow took Howley up on his offer to room with Ruth, in an attempt to have him keep more regular hours. It turned out that Howley loved the night life just as much as the Babe did, and his time as his roommate was an utter failure - Barrow released Howley on the eve of the Red Sox’ home opener.

Howley managed to land on his feet just a week later, however. Toronto, 1917 International League champs, was looking for a field boss when Nap Lajoie, who led the team as as player-manager, had his contract bought by Brooklyn. Despite inheriting only two players from the previous season’s champs, Howley used his connections to patch together a roster that won the pennant on the last day of the season. But Howley was not destined to return to Hogtown to defend the Leafs’ title. He had feuded all season long with club president McCaffery, and shortly after Toronto topped Buffalo in 12 innings to win the 1918 title, Howley gave notice he wouldn’t be back. He did make an impression with at least one umpire in his first tour with the Leafs:

From there, Howley’s baseball travels took him to Detroit, where he coached with the Tigers. While in Detroit, Howley developed what was to be a lifelong friendship with Ty Cobb. Howley moved on to manage Hartford of the Eastern League the following year, but when Cobb was named the Tigers’ player-manager prior to the 1921 season, he summoned Howley back to Michigan. Howley decided that year that the Tigers hitters, who finished near the bottom of the American League with a .270 team average in 1920, would face live batting practice to sharpen their hitting eyes. Under Howley’s tutelage, the team improved dramatically at the plate in 1921, hitting .316.

Howley’s success in working with young players was quickly gaining him notice around the league. In 1923, Cobb and the Tigers had formed a player development agreement with the Leafs (Toronto was not exactly a farm club of Detroit; it was more a promise by the latter to provide a handful of players), and it was felt that the best man to develop those players was none other than former Leafs manager Howley. Toronto improved every season under Howley in his second run, culminating in a 109-57 record in 1926, the season the Leafs ended Baltimore’s run of six consecutive IL pennants. Howley’s club then polished off American Association Louisville in five straight games in the Junior World Series.

Howley was rumoured for just about every MLB managerial opening that off-season. He reportedly had been asked to replace Cobb in Detroit, but refused to take over his friend’s job. Howley eventually landed in St Louis, where he took over the Browns from future Hall of Famer George Sisler. The Browns finished 50 games back of the 1927 Yankees Murder’s Row club, but what he did the next season was the talk of baseball. Howley engineered a 23-win turnaround for the Browns, leading them to a 3rd place finish. But while Howley finished above .500 the following season, he had feuded with meddling owner Phil Ball all season long, and when the 1929 campaign ended, his three year contract was not renewed. Howley had told reporters in the last week of the season he wouldn’t return.

Yet again, Howley wasn’t on the unemployment lines for long. A week after the season ended, new Cincinnati owner Sidney Weil hired him to run the Reds. Unfortunately, the stock market crash three weeks later cost Weil much of his personal fortune. During Howley’s three seasons as the Reds’ skipper, the club was run on a shoestring. Howley told reporters after his final season in 1932 that when the club was home, he peeked through the curtains when he woke up each morning, fearful of rain which would cancel the day’s game, and threaten Weil’s ability to meet his payroll that week.

Still, there were high hopes for the 1932 Reds. Stretching himself to the financial limit, Weil agreed to bring in help for the club. He allowed Howley to deal for Babe Herman and Ernie Lombardi from Brooklyn, and Weil agreed to take on defending NL batting champ Chick Hafey of St Louis, when Branch Rickey and the Cards were unwilling to meet Hafey’s contract demands.

Hafey came out of the gate like a man with something to prove, hitting .360 over the first two months of the season, and by the end of May, the Reds were at .500, but only 5.5 games out of first. But his sinus issues, which had plagued him early in the season throughout his time with the Cards, flared up again, and Hafey was out of the lineup for a month. Having lost over 20 lbs, Howley sent Hafey to Port McNicoll, Ontario, to escape a midwest heat wave in July. Hafey stayed at the home of Jim Shaw, a good friend and fishing buddy of Howley’s from his time in Toronto. When Hafey returned to the Reds lineup, the club was all but out of it, and would finish in last place. While they had a brutal June road schedule, with the Reds playing 22 of 23 games away from home at one stretch, Howley firmly believed that if not for the Reds’ 19-34 record in one-run games, his team would have been in the pennant race. Having his slugger missing for all of June and most of July didn’t help, he told reporters when asked what happened to the Reds:

 “What happened to ‘em? Don’t you know? Hafey, gentlemen, Hafey. When Chick went out of there with the flu, our chances of a pennant crawled right under the bed with him and went to sleep. While he was out, we must have lost 15 or 16 games by one run - games his bat would’ve taken care of. Had he been in the lineup, we’d be right in the middle of things right now. He’s the best ball player in the business, National or American, and if you don’t agree with me, name me a man who can outhit, out-throw, or outfield him. Yep, he’s a marvel, and the fact that if he took off his glasses he couldn’t tell Daniel Boone from President Hoover at ten paces makes him all the more remarkable.

Following the 1932 season, Howley returned once more to Toronto, where the Leafs had fallen on hard times. Club president Lol Solway, who had built the club into a champion, passed away the previous year, no doubt from health issues caused by the team’s steep decline on the field and at the box office. Howley got the turnstiles going once again, but a promise of entrance into the Leafs ownership group did not materialize. Howley left the Leafs before the 1934 season, but stayed in Toronto. He found some time to head up to Port McNicoll to fish with Shaw, and helped Shaw mentor a promising but raw young pitcher from nearby Penetanguishene named Phil Marchildon, a move a rival newspaper looked down upon:

Howley returned to the Leafs in time for the 1937 season. The club had come a hair away from having been sold and moved across Lake Ontario to Albany, NY. Again, he hoped be part of an ownership scenario, but it was not to be. Howley managed the team for two seasons, then was moved upstairs for former Yankees slugger Tony Lazzeri in his third season. The Leafs, stung in the past by player call ups by big league affiliates, decided to go it alone as an independent International League entity, but at this point they were swimming very much against the player development tide. Using his trusted scout, former big leaguer Clyde Engle, Howley held tryout camps across Ontario to find local talent. Future MLBers Dick Fowler, Frank Colman, and Marchildon, among others, were signed out of these camps. Players would come and go, but it seemed like there was always Dan Howley. It’s not a stretch to say that he kept baseball in Toronto during the difficult Depression years.

Howley became disillusioned with the Toronto situation, and left after the ‘39 season. He caught on with the Red Sox as a scout, and resurrected his tryout camps across New England, before succumbing to a heart attack just before the 1944 season.

A forgotten figure now, it’s hard to relate just how popular Dan Howley was. A search through newspaper databases (the Sporting News, in particular) brings a wealth of Howley references. The Toronto Star nicknamed him “Howling Dan,” calling him “a big upstanding Irishman with a booming voice and an inexhaustible fund of anecdote.” Howley was highly respected throughout the game for his integrity, knowledge of the game, and ability to handle players - he was a “player’s manager” long before the term came into use. And newspaper reporters loved him - Dan did not parse his words, and always could be counted on for a colourful quote. Howley was not one to lapse into cliches in post-game scrums with the beat guys.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s entry qualifications include a proviso that if a candidate is not Canadian, “he/she must have done something significant with respect to baseball in Canada.”. Two championships, the development of a number of Canadian players, and widespread popularity among fans, players, and the press in this country is Dan Howley’s legacy. When the St Mary’s Hall makes their Class of 2023 announcement on February 1st, I’m very hopeful Dan’s name will be included.

If you’d like to read more about Howley, Jim Shaw, and Hafey’s time in a small Ontario town in the summer of 1932, look for my next book, “Severn Sound,” coming out this spring.