Maurice Charles "Mickey" Harris (January 30, 1917 – April 15, 1971) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player. He was a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for nine seasons with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

, Washington Senators, and

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

between 1940 and 1952. Born in New York City, he batted and threw left-handed. Though plagued by chronic arm problems, Harris helped the Red Sox win the 1946

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

pennant en route to the

1946 World Series The 1946 World Series was played in October 1946 between the St. Louis Cardinals (representing the National League) and the Boston Red Sox (representing the American League). This was the Red Sox's first appearance in a World Series since their c ...

against the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

Biography

Harris began his professional career in Minor League Baseball during the 1938–1940 seasons playing for

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

s of the

. He made his major-league debut with the Red Sox in 1940. He joined the starting rotation in 1941, along with Dick Newsome, Charlie Wagner,

Lefty Grove Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (March 6, 1900 – May 22, 1975) was an American professional baseball pitcher. After having success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball with the American League's P ...

and

Joe Dobson __NOTOC__ Joseph Gordon Dobson (January 20, 1917 – June 23, 1994) was an American professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher who appeared in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians (1939–40), Boston Red Sox (1941–43; 1946� ...

. Harris responded with a 3.25

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

and 111 strikeouts (8th and 5th in the AL, respectively), and his 8–14 record could have been even better with reasonable run support. After the season, he was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. After being out of professional baseball for four seasons, Harris compiled a 17–9 record in 1946, as the Red Sox ran away with the pennant. In May, Harris posted eight consecutive victories, including two in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

in two days. He was named to the AL All-Star team in the same season. After that, Harris increased arm troubles and was traded to the Washington Senators in the 1949 midseason. In 1950, Harris led the AL pitchers in saves (15), relief appearances (53) and

games finished In baseball statistics, a relief pitcher is credited with a game finished (denoted by GF) if he is the last pitcher to pitch for his team in a game. A starting pitcher is not credited with a GF for pitching a complete game. Mariano Rivera is th ...

(53). He played for the

in 1952, his final season in the major leagues. In a nine-season major-league career, Harris posted a 59–71 record with 534 strikeouts and a 4.18 ERA in 1050 innings pitched. Harris died in 1971 in

Farmington, Michigan Farmington is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 10,372. It is surrounded by Farmington ...

, at 54 years of age.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Mickey 1917 births 1971 deaths Baseball players from New York City Major League Baseball pitchers Boston Red Sox players Cleveland Indians players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players American League All-Stars Clarksdale Red Sox players Scranton Red Sox players United States Army personnel of World War II

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links