Ralph Garr's career has come full circle

Part 2 of 2

When Bill Veeck began his second stint as White Sox owner in 1975, one of his first acts was to sit in the lobby of the Hollywood, Fla., hotel where the winter meetings were taking place, ready to make deals.

He had a sign by his chair that said "Open for Business Anytime" and a telephone on a coffee table desk.

On Dec. 12, 1975, his wheeling and dealing brought Ralph Garr - the Road Runner - the 1974 National League batting champ, to the South Side.

Garr arrived from the Braves for outfielder Ken Henderson and pitchers Dan Osborn and Dick Ruthven.

Ruthven, who never pitched for the Sox but later helped the North Siders capture the 1984 NL East title, was acquired just two days earlier from Philadelphia for Jim Kaat.

Garr was reunited with his old Atlanta GM, Paul Richards, who had been hired by Veeck to manage the Sox. As with Veeck, it was Richards' second time around with the Sox - he had managed the team in the 1950s.

"Basically, I played my whole career with Mr. Paul Richards," Garr said in a recent phone conversation.

As it turned out, the reunion would last only a year, as the Sox finished 64-97.

Garr, however, rebounded from a 1975 season that saw his batting average drop from a league-leading .353 to .278.

Garr hit .300 in 1976 and 1977.

Garr's 1976 season with the Sox was more memorable for Veeck's stunts than for on-field success. Go online and find video of Garr catching a fly ball while donning the infamous shorts briefly worn by the club.

"I wasn't a guy that complained," Garr said, something he attributes to lessons he and close pal Dusty Baker learned from teammate Hank Aaron in Atlanta. "We didn't own a team. We just played baseball. And that was our job. We were taught to respect the game and give the game 100 percent every day."

On the whole, he said Veeck "was good for baseball, and I take my hat off to him. He was a good promoter and he put a lot of people in the ballpark."

In 1977 it was the year of the South Side Hit Men. Even though Garr couldn't match the longball heroics of Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble, in one stretch he hit safely in 31 out of 32 games and was the hero of the first game of a memorable doubleheader. Before a crowd of 50,412 July 31 at Comiskey Park, he drove in the winning run with a single in the 10th to give the Sox - who were down 4-2 - a 5-4 victory over the Royals.

In Game 2, Garr had to be restrained after he said he was called a name by Royals third base coach Chuck Hiller. During that loss, the Royals' Hal McRae also taunted the crowd after hitting a home run by rounding the bases at a snail's pace and repeatedly doffing his cap.

It was another subpar year in 1978 for the Sox, but coach Larry Doby made history by becoming the second Black manager in major league baseball.

Garr, although grateful to what the Atlanta Braves did for him and his family, is upfront about the lack of Black managers and the treatment of current Black skippers.

"I ain't got nothing against Mr. (Buck) Showalter," who signed a three-year deal with the Mets. "I think he's a wonderful manager." But he asked, "Why didn't (Astros manager) Dusty Baker get three or four years (or) two or three years?"

And given the job Baker did with Houston, "He wasn't even hardly mentioned for manager of the year. What is that about?"

The Sox sold Garr to the Angels in September 1979, and Garr ended his career in 1980. He returned to baseball in 1985, the same year he was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, when Aaron, the director of the Braves minor league system, brought him back as first-base coach with Triple-A Richmond, where he had won two International League batting titles.

And in 2021, Garr had the best of both worlds, being part of a world champion organization as a scout with the Braves and getting to see his team face off with his former Braves mate's Astros team in the Fall Classic.

"Dusty Baker and I are like brothers. We started off together and we are winding down together," he said. "For me, to be able to wind down with Dusty Baker the manager of the Houston Astros, and to wind down with the type of World Series that the Braves and Astros put on for the public, I'm so glad to be a part of that. And that's a part of history that I'll always look back over and be proud of."