Dictionary of american biography vol ix

Huggins

baseball and was captain of the team in high
school and college. Though he became one of the
famous ball players of his time, Miller Huggins
was very small in comparison with his rivals on
the diamond. He was a scant five feet four inches
tall and never weighed more than 140 pounds.
Through his active playing career he was a sec-
ond baseman. His first professional engagement
was with the Mansfield, Ohio, club in 1899.
Later he played with St. Paul, American Asso-
ciation (1900-03), Cincinnati Reds, National
League (1904-08), and St. Louis Cardinals, Na-
tional League (1909-17). Early in his big-league
career he took rank with the leading players,
excelling in fielding and ingenuity on the attack
and defense. What he lacked in size he more
than made up by his alertness, physical and men-
tal. He was appointed manager of the St. Louis
team in 1913 but, handicapped in various ways,
made little progress with the team. It was as
manager of the New York Yankees from 1918 to
the time of his death that Huggins rose to nation-
wide prominence in the field of sport. The Yan-
kees, organized in 1903, had never won a pen-
nant. Most of the time the team had been well
down in the race. In the twelve years of Hug-
gins's leadership, the Yankees won three world's
championships and six American League pen-
nants, a record that no other manager or team
equaled. Because of his unimpressive appear-
ance and modest retiring disposition, the general
followers of baseball did not at first realize just
how much the directing genius of the "mite man-
ager" had to do with the success of his teams.
The earlier championships were generally attrib-
uted to the liberality of the Yankee owners in
spending money for the purchase of good ball
players, and to the skill of these ball players
rather than to the shrewdness of the manager;
but when his first championship team fell to
pieces and in two years Huggins built up an-
other, using young players he developed himself,
credit could be withheld no longer. At the time
of his death he was regarded as one of the ablest
managers in baseball history.

Though his life work lay among crowds, he
kept himself in the background as much as pos-
sible, He was studious, on and off the ball field.
He completed his education and law course in
the fall and winter seasons when he was playing
professional ball through the spring and summer.
He was also a keen student of financial affairs
Stud, through profitable investments, was a
waWrr man at the time of his death- He never
married His sister kept house for him and was
fine principle legatee of his estate. Never physi-
strong, the bttrdea and worry of directing,

Hughes

handling, building, and rebuilding championship
teams wore down "the little fellow." He took
up golf a few years before his death but he was
far from strong when, late in the baseball season
of 1929, blood poisoning resulted from the in-
fection of a cut under his eye, and he died in a
short time. He is buried in his native city of
Cincinnati.

[Spaulding's Official Base Ball Guide, 1914-30; G.
L, Moreland, Balldom: the Britannica of Baseball (2nd
ed., 1927); Collier's, May 24, 1930; Literary Digest,
Oct. 12, 1929; N. Y. Times, N. Y. herald Tribune,
Cincinnati Enquirer, and St. Louis Globe Democrat,
Sept. 25, 1929; personal acquaintance.] j^

HUGHES, CHRISTOPHER (i^6-Scpt. 18,
1849), diplomat and wit, was born at Baltimore,
Md., the son of Christopher Hughes of County
Wexford, Ireland, who had settled in Baltimore,
and of Margaret (Sanderson) Hughes. He was
educated for the bar, and in 1811 married Laura
Sophia, daughter of Gen. Samuel Smith, United
States senator from Maryland. In 1814 he en-
tered the diplomatic service and was appointed
secretary to the American Peace Commission at
Ghent, where, by his wit and ability, he made a
favorable impression upon the commissioners
and formed life-long friendships with John
Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. He was given
the honor of conveying one of the copies of the
treaty to Washington but, owing to a stormy
crossing, he did not reach the United States un-
til after the arrival of Henry Carroll who bore
a duplicate. In 1815-16 Hughes was a member
of the Maryland House of Delegates, where, ac-
cording to Adams, he made "laws and speeches
and puns" (Writings, V, 533).

In 1816 he was sent on a special mission to
Cartagena (New Granada), where he obtained
the release of a number of American citizens im-
prisoned by the Spanish authorities and brought
them back to the United States. His next ap-
pointment, in the same year, was as secretary of
legation at Stockholm (Sweden and Norway)
where he served for nine years, for the greater
part of that period being in charge of the lega-
tion with the rank of charge d'affaires. In 1825
President John Quincy Adams appointed him
charge d'affaires at the court of the Netherlands
and also charged him with a temporary special
mission to Denmark. In 1828 Adams endeavored
to raise him to the rank of minister, but the
nomination was not confirmed by the Senate and
Hughes remained in the Netherlands as charge.
Two years later (1830) he was transferred to
Stockholm as charge d'affaires and retained that
position until 1843 when he returned to the
Netherlands in the same capacity. In 1845 he

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