Louis Wilber “Louie” Heilbroner was one of the most unlikely managers in history; no one knew that better than he did.
Louie Heilbroner
In August of 1900, the St. Louis Cardinals—with five future Hall of Famers on the roster—were 42-50 and in seventh place when Manager Oliver “Patsy” Tebeau resigned. He told The St. Louis Republic:
“My reason? Simply that I could not make the team play the ball it seemed capable of playing. I tried every trick I knew and found myself unable to get proper results.”
The Cardinals spent more time fighting—one another, umpires, other teams—than winning.
A cartoon in The Philadelphia North American about the fighting reputation of the 1900 Cardinals
It appeared to be a foregone conclusion that Captain John McGraw would be the new manager. McGraw had other ideas.
He told The Republic he had “refused the position.” But the paper noted:
“Yet, he admits that, at Mr. (Frank DeHass) Robison’s request, he assumed full duties of the office laid down by Mr. Tebeau…according to his own admission then, McGraw is manager of the St. Louis team.”
While McGraw accepted Tebeau’s duties, the title of manager went to Heilbroner, the 4’ 9” business manager of the club. The Republic called him a “straw man,” and “scapegoat.”
“(Heilbroner is) all dressed up for use in case (McGraw) fails to make the team win…McGraw is evidently a bit leery of his job of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s leg…Though the team is strong enough to win, it is badly disorganized and full of cliques.”
The paper said Heilbroner “makes no pretensions of baseball knowledge. He does not know a base hit from a foul flag.”
With Heilbroner as “manager,” the team limped to a 23-25-2 finish.
Later, while he was serving as president of the Central League, Heilbroner told Billy Murphy of The St. Louis Star about the moment he claimed he realized he wanted nothing to do with managing a big league club—it involved the then 22-year-old “Turkey Mike” Donlin.
Mike Donlin
“(Donlin) was known as a bad actor. So much so that his frequent clashes with umpires caused Mike to adorn the bench most of the time.”
Murphy said McGraw had gone to Heilbroner and asked him to help stop Donlin from fighting with umpires. Heilbroner said:
“I’ll stop him. I’ll fine him the next time he is put out by an umpire.”
Heilbroner said the next time Donlin was ejected, he told him:
“’That will cost you $100, Donlin.’
“With that (Donlin) reached over and. Grabbing Heilbroner with one hand lifted him off the ground.
“’Take the cover off the water bucket, Mac,’ he said to McGraw. ‘I am going to drown this insect of a manager.’
“’And I think he would have done it, said Heilbroner, ‘if I had not remitted the fine and resigned my job as manager.”
Heilbroner made his greatest contribution to the game in 1908 when he founded the Heilbroner Baseball Bureau, and the following year when he began publishing the Baseball Blue Book.
Baseball History Daily 
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