Leslie Mann (athlete)

Leslie Mann (November 18, 1892 – January 14, 1962) was an American college football player, professional baseball player; and football and basketball coach. He played outfield in the Major Leagues from 1913 to 1928. He played for the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, and Chicago Cubs. He was the head basketball coach at Rice Institute (1919–1920 season) Indiana University (1922–1923 through 1923–1924 seasons) and Springfield College (1924–1925 through 1925–1926 seasons). He compiled a career record of 43–30 in five seasons as a head basketball coach.

For the actress, see Leslie Mann.
Leslie Mann
Mann from The Arbutus, 1923
Biographical details
Born(1892-11-18)November 18, 1892
Lincoln, Nebraska
DiedJanuary 14, 1962(1962-01-14) (aged 69)
Pasadena, California
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1915–1918Amherst
1919–1920Rice
1923–1924Indiana
1924–1926Springfield (MA)
Head coaching record
Overall43–30
Outfielder
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 30, 1913, for the Boston Braves
Last MLB appearance
September 30, 1928, for the New York Giants
MLB statistics
Batting average.282
Hits1332
Runs batted in503
Teams

Early years

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Mann attended the Y.M.C.A. College in Springfield, Massachusetts.[1] He played both football and basketball at Springfield and was regarded as "one of the best football players the training school ever had."[2]

Major League Baseball player

Mann later became a professional baseball player. From 1913 to 1928, he played for the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, and Chicago Cubs. He was a member of the 1914 "Miracle" Braves team that went from last place to first place in two months, becoming the first team to win a pennant after being in last place on the Fourth of July.[3] The team then went on to defeat Connie Mack's heavily favored Philadelphia Athletics in the 1914 World Series. Mann also had an RBI single off Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1918 World Series.

Coaching career

Mann also worked for many years as a college football and basketball coach. From 1914 to 1916, he was a basketball coach at Amherst College.[1][2][4][5] In 1919, he became a coach at Rice Institute in Houston.[1] In February 1922, Mann was hired as an assistant football coach at Indiana.[1][6] He also coached the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team during the 1922–23 and 1923–24 seasons.[7] Starting in 1924, Mann was hired as the head basketball coach and assistant football coach at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.[8]

Later years

After retiring as a player and coach, Mann became an advocate for baseball as an international sport. He founded the U.S.A. Baseball Congress, and organized a 20-game tour of Japan in 1935.

Through his efforts, baseball was selected as a demonstration sport in the 1936 Summer Olympics played in Berlin. Originally, the United States team was scheduled to play a Japanese team, but the Japanese withdrew. The American team was separated into two squads who competed against each other in a single game. The "World Champions" lineup beat the "U. S. Olympics" lineup by a score of 6–5 before a crowd of 90,000 people on August 12, 1936.[9]

Mann went on to found the International Baseball Federation, which organized an international championship in England in 1938. The English team, composed mainly of Canadian college players, won 4 out of 5 games against an amateur American team. He also organized subsequent championships in Cuba in 1939 and Puerto Rico in 1941. World War II brought Mann's efforts to an end.[10]

Mann also arranged a 33-game tour of South Africa and Rhodesia between November 1955 and February 1956.

He died in Pasadena, California.

Hitting stats
  • 1,498 Games
  • 1,332 Hits
  • 677 Runs
  • 203 Doubles
  • 106 Triples
  • 44 Home runs
  • 503 RBIs
  • 129 Stolen bases
  • 324 Bases on balls
  • .282 Batting average
  • .332 On-base percentage
  • .398 Slugging percentage

See also

References
  1. "Mann New Hoosier Coach: St. Louis Outfielder and Kenneth Brewer to Aid Stiehm" (PDF). The New York Times. February 10, 1922.
  2. "Amherst Asks Leslie Mann to Become Coach". The Pittsburgh Press. November 18, 1916.
  3. The 1914 Boston Braves at www.thisgreatgame.com Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Mann to Coach Amherst Five" (PDF). The New York Times. December 26, 1914.
  5. "Amherst May Lose Mann". The Christian Science Monitor. November 20, 1916.
  6. "Leslie Mann Now Grid Coach at Indiana". The Milwaukee Journal. October 4, 1922.
  7. "Indiana Secures Mann: Cardinal Outfielder to Sere on Athletic Staff". The New York Times. July 13, 1923.
  8. "Leslie Mann Helping to Coach Springfield". Boston Daily Globe. October 1, 1925.
  9. 1936 Olympics, Baseball Reference.com
  10. Seymour, Harold (1991). Baseball: The People's Game, Volume 3. Oxford University Press US. p. 289. ISBN 0-19-506907-2.
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