Alfonso Ramón López (August 20, 1908 – October 30, 2005) was a Spanish-American professional baseball catcher and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Brooklyn Robins / Dodgers, Boston Bees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cleveland Indians between 1928 and 1947, and was the manager for the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox from 1951 to 1965 and during portions of the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Due to his Spanish ancestry and "gentlemanly" nature, he was nicknamed "El Señor".
As a player, López was a two-time All-Star known for his defensive skills, leadership, and durability, as he established a major league record for career games played at catcher (1,918) that stood for decades. As a manager, his .584 career winning percentage ranks fourth best in major league history among managers of at least 2,000 games. His 1954 Cleveland Indians and 1959 Chicago White Sox teams were the only squads to interrupt the New York Yankees' string of American League pennants from to , inclusive. Over the course of 18 full seasons as a baseball manager (15 in the major leagues and 3 in the minor leagues), López's teams never finished with a losing record. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.
Al López's parents immigrated to the United States from Spain shortly before his birth, and he grew up in the immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida. He retired with his family to his hometown after his baseball career, and his accomplishments were commemorated in Tampa in the name of a baseball stadium (Al López Field) and a public park which bears his name and features his statue. His childhood home was moved next door to the Ybor City State Museum and is the site of the Tampa Baseball Museum.
Early life
Al López was the son of Modesto and Faustina (née Vásquez) López, who were married in Spain before immigrating to Havana, Cuba in the mid-1890s. They had several children in Cuba as Modesto worked as a tabaquero (cigar maker) in one of Havana's many cigar factories. In 1906, Modesto went to the Cuban-Spanish-Italian immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, to seek better wages and living conditions, temporarily leaving his family behind until he had established a home in their new country. Faustina and their six children joined him in Ybor City several months later, and the family made Tampa their permanent home. Alfonso Ramón López, the seventh of nine children, was born there on August 20, 1908.
Ybor City was a thriving immigrant neighborhood during Al López's childhood with a population of over 10,000. The cigar industry was the most important in town, and most residents were employed either by one of the dozens of large cigar factories or by businesses catering to the cigar industry and its employees. Modesto Lopez found work as a skilled selector in a cigar factory, which involved sorting raw tobacco leaves for use in different grades of cigars. Al often visited his father's workplace as a child and later said that he "hated" the smell of tobacco leaves that permeated the building and clung to his father's clothing when he came home from the factory. "I vowed never to work in one."
As a teenager, López took a job delivering Cuban bread door to door for La Joven Francesca Bakery, which was located in a building which later became the Ybor City State Museum.
Baseball player
López's professional career began in when, at the age of 16, he signed on as a catcher with the Class-D Tampa Smokers of the Florida State League, quitting his job at the bakery and dropping out of high school at Sacred Heart College (later known as Jesuit High School) to focus on baseball. His starting salary with the Smokers was $150 ($ today) per month, which was much needed by the large Lopez family since his father's health was deteriorating and he could not work regularly.)
Soon after signing with the Smokers, Al López impressed Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson with his catching skills during a winter barnstorming exhibition game. At Johnson's recommendation, Al was hired as a practice catcher for the Washington Senators during spring training in 1925, a valuable learning opportunity that he later credited with making him a better ballplayer. The Senators offered the Smokers $1000 for López's contract, but the minor league club demanded $10,000, which the major league club thought too exorbitant for a young player with only one year of professional baseball experience. Instead, López moved steadily up the minor leagues ranks in subsequent seasons and made his major league debut in with Brooklyn.
Lopez was also last player to hit a home run that bounced over the fence, which happened on September 12, 1930. The rule was changed the following year to make such a hit a ground-rule double.
Baseball manager
Minor leagues
López decided to seek a job as a baseball coach or manager upon retiring after the 1947 season, which he'd spent as the backup catcher for the Cleveland Indians. Bill Veeck, the new owner of the team, was unhappy with how Indians player-manager Lou Boudreau had handled the club, and he asked López if he would be interested in taking the position. López declined, explaining that he did not want to appear to have undermined Boudreau to steal his job and preferred to gain managerial experience with another club. The decision was a positive one for both parties, as the Indians won the 1948 World Series and Boudreau was named the American League MVP.
Meanwhile, López began his managing career in 1948 with the Indianapolis Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates's Class AAA minor league affiliate. He spent three years in Indianapolis, leading his squads to one first place and two second-place finishes in the American Association while also serving as the team's reserve catcher.
Major Leagues
Cleveland Indians
After having declined an opportunity to become the club's manager in 1947, López accepted an offer to become the Cleveland Indians's new manager in . Under López, the Indians won over 90 games each season from 1951 to 1953, but came in second to the New York Yankees each year. In , Lopez's squad won a then-American League record 111 games to capture the AL pennant, but were swept by Willie Mays and the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series in one of the biggest upsets in World Series history.
Lopez's Indians again finished in second place behind the Yankees in 1955 and 1956. During the latter season, López became "incensed" at Cleveland fans and management as the season progressed. Star third baseman Al Rosen slumped late in the year while playing injured, and López felt that the Indians' team management had not supported or defended his injured player from fans' booing and criticism. López was so disheartened over the situation that he resigned from the club on the last day of the season. Lopez finished his Indians career with a record of 570 wins and 354 losses, and his .617 winning percentage is still the best in franchise history.
Chicago White Sox
thumb|López in 1965
Lopez agreed to become the new manager of the Chicago White Sox about a month after resigning in Cleveland. (Stengel had managed López years earlier when López was a catcher for Brooklyn and Boston.) Despite rumored and confirmed inquiries from other teams, López stayed with Chicago until 1965, finishing in second place five times and never posting fewer than 82 wins. He returned to managing in July 1968, when White Sox manager Eddie Stanky was fired. Lopez was able to get most of his former coaches to return to the team. However, he had to undergo an appendectomy shortly after taking over as manager and missed most of the rest of the season. He agreed to manage the White Sox again in , but continuing health issues forced him to resign in early May, less than a month into the season.
Managing style
thumb|right|150px|López, circa 1966
López was known for never scolding or shouting at his players and avoiding pep talks in lieu of constructive criticism. Indians owner Bill Veeck commented that López's only fault as a manager was that he was "too decent", a description that López took as a compliment. Veeck also said that López's "completely relaxed" leadership "squeezed every drop of talent out of his teams".
Describing López and his managerial style, a 1957 Sports Illustrated piece said, "For Lopez, managing is a constant worry, a nervous strain, a jittery agony. Some managers thus beset relieve the harrowing pressure by exploding in sudden rages at players and sportswriters, or else by maintaining an almost sphinx-like silence in an effort to remain calm. But Lopez is a gentleman — a decent, thoughtful, exceptionally courteous man. He seldom permits himself the luxury of a temper tantrum, and he talks to anyone who talks to him." Later, his son shared that, while he did not demonstratively show it, his father hated to lose, and suffered from chronic insomnia and stomach issues during the baseball season.
Because of his Spanish ancestry and his "gentlemanly" nature, López was given the nickname "El Señor".
Managerial record
López's .584 winning percentage is 9th all time in Major League Baseball history. At the time of his retirement, his 1,410 MLB managerial wins ranked 11th all-time, and were the 26th most wins as of the end of the 2016 season. In 18 full seasons as a minor league and major league manager, he never had a losing record. His 1954 Indians and 1959 White Sox teams were the only non-Yankee clubs to win the AL pennant between and inclusive, and his 840 wins with the White Sox still rank second in franchise history, behind Jimmy Dykes (899). The Chicago White Sox were the ballpark's first spring training tenants, and when Lopez became the new White Sox manager in 1957, he had the unusual honor for several seasons of managing home games in his hometown in a ballpark named after himself. Later in life, López would recall a spring training incident in which an umpire with whom he was arguing threatened to throw him out of a game there. "You can't throw me out of this ballpark", protested Lopez, "This is my ballpark – Al López Field!" The umpire ejected him anyway, causing Lopez to exclaim, "He threw me out of my own ballpark!"
López was selected for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee as part of the Class of 1977. He served as the AL's honorary team captain in the 1990 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
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Al López Field was demolished in to make room for a potential major league facility that was never built. López lived a few miles from the ballpark that bore his name. In a 1992 interview, he said that the razing of the stadium "wasn't very disappointing. I saw a diagram of the new stadium, and I didn't feel bad because I thought they were going to build a bigger one and a better one. After that, something happened, and they never built the ballpark. Then it was a disappointment." Soon thereafter, the city of Tampa changed the name of Horizon Park, a large city park near the site of the razed stadium, to Al López Park, and installed a large statue of López in his catching gear. The statue was dedicated on October 3, 1992, a date which was officially proclaimed as a second "Al López Day" in the city. Soon thereafter, his high school, Jesuit High School, which is located across the street from Al López Park, named its new athletic center in Lopez's honor.
When the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play in in nearby St. Petersburg, Lopez threw one of several ceremonial first pitches along with fellow Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Monte Irvin.
Death
Al López died on October 30, 2005, at the age of 97 after suffering a heart attack at his son's home. His death came four days after the White Sox won the 2005 World Series, their first world championship in 88 years and their first AL pennant since Lopez had led them to the World Series in 1959. Lopez was the last living person who had played major league baseball during the 1920s, and was the longest-lived member of the Baseball Hall of Fame until Bobby Doerr passed him in 2015.
Connie López had died in September 1983. Al López was survived by his son, three grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.