Robert Abial "Red" Rolfe (October 17, 1908 – July 8, 1969) was an American baseball third baseman, manager and front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1942 and managed the Detroit Tigers from 1949 to 1952.
Rolfe was a native of Penacook, New Hampshire. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College and signed with the Yankees. Rolfe played in four MLB All-Star Games and won five World Series championships before he retired after the 1942 season. He coached in college baseball for Yale University from 1943 to 1946 and served as athletic director for Dartmouth from 1954 to 1967, while coaching baseball during the 1954 and 1955 seasons.
Early life and amateur career
Rolfe was born on October 17, 1908, in Penacook, New Hampshire. His father, Herbert, earned a living in the lumber business. Rolfe was the fifth of seven children; he had four older sisters and one younger sister. A younger brother died in infancy in 1910. At Phillips Exeter, he began to be known as "Red" due to the color of his hair. He also played for the football and basketball teams. Rolfe graduated from Dartmouth in 1931. Rather than sign with the Athletics, scout Gene McCann signed Rolfe to the New York Yankees days after his graduation from Dartmouth for $600 per month and a $5,000 signing bonus.
Rolfe reported directly to the Yankees and made his professional debut with the Yankees on June 29 as a defensive replacement. It was customary at the time for the Yankees to introduce a prospect to the major leagues briefly before sending him to the minor leagues. He batted .333 in 58 games for Albany. Rolfe batted .330 in 147 games for Newark in 1932, as Newark won the International League pennant. Returning to Newark for the 1933 season, Rolfe batted .326 and won the International League Most Valuable Player Award as Newark again won the pennant.
thumb|left|180px|Rolfe's 1934 [[Goudey baseball card]]
Rolfe became the Yankees starting shortstop in 1934, with Don Heffner, who played second base alongside Rolfe with Newark, becoming the Yankees' starting second baseman, and second baseman Tony Lazzeri and shortstop Frankie Crosetti playing as third basemen. However, Heffner struggled and manager Joe McCarthy decided that Rolfe's throwing arm made him a better third baseman, as Lazzeri moved back to second base and Crosetti returned to shortstop.
During the 1940-1941 offseason, Rolfe developed colitis. He batted .300 in the 1941 World Series, as Rolfe won his fifth World Series title. His weight dropped from to . He batted .219 in 69 games and retired at the end of the season.
College and MLB coach
During Rolfe's final season with the Yankees, on September 10, 1942, Rolfe accepted the positions of head baseball and basketball coach for Yale University, beginning after the season, on November 1. With Rolfe as their coach, the Yale Bulldogs baseball team had a record and the Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team had a record.
thumb|Rolfe (left) and [[Ray Meyer in 1942]]
After his four-year coaching stint at Yale, Rolfe accepted a position as a coach on McCarthy's staff for the Yankees for the 1946 season. In December 1946, the Toronto Huskies of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) hired Rolfe to replace Ed Sadowski as their coach in the midst of the 1946–47 BAA season. Rolfe led the Huskies to a record as their coach as the Huskies finished the season tied for last place with a .367 winning percentage. Due to poor attendance and an estimated loss of $40,000 to $50,000, the Huskies folded after the season.
The Detroit Tigers hired Rolfe in August 1947 as the director of their scouting department. In November, the Tigers named Rolfe the director of their farm system. Under Rolfe's direction, the Seattle Indians of the Pacific Coast League joined the Tigers' farm system in December.
Detroit Tigers manager (1949-1952)
After the 1948 season, the Tigers hired Rolfe as manager, succeededing Steve O'Neill. Rolfe instituted rules that his players did not agree with, such as no shaving or beer in the clubhouse and no meals between doubleheaders.
In , Rolfe's first season as manager, the Tigers improved by nine games and returned to the first division. Then, in , the Tigers maintained a close race with the Yankees, winning 95 games and finishing in second place, three games behind. while he finished in third place in balloting for the Associated Press' Manager of the Year Award, behind Eddie Sawyer of the Philadelphia Phillies and Casey Stengel of the Yankees.
Beset by an aging starting rotation, the Tigers slipped in , finishing in fifth place with a mark, 25 games behind the first-place Yankees. During the season, Tigers owner Walter Briggs replaced Billy Evans as general manager with Charlie Gehringer, and after the season, he replaced Ray Kennedy as the director of the farm system with Muddy Ruel. The Tigers retained Rolfe as their manager, however.
The Tigers began the 1952 season by losing their first eight games. Sportswriter Gordon Cobbledick reported in April that the players' antipathy towards Rolfe was the cause of their struggles. Though Gehringer and the players, led by pitcher Fred Hutchinson, publicly refuted Cobbledick's story. Hal Newhouser later acknowledged that Rolfe's strict policies had alienated the players, but also said that the trade of George Kell, Dizzy Trout, Johnny Lipon, and Hoot Evers to the Boston Red Sox also hurt team morale. The Tigers won only 23 of 72 games () before the Tigers fired Rolfe on July 5 and replaced him as manager with Hutchinson. The 1952 club won only 50 games, losing 104 – the first time ever that the Tigers lost 100 or more games.
Dartmouth athletic director
upright|thumb|[[Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park in 2017]]
Rolfe then returned to Dartmouth on July 1, 1954, as the new athletic director, succeeding William H. McCarter. Dartmouth's football team won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy in 1965.
The Boston Baseball Writers Association gave Rolfe their Old-Timers Award in 1966. In 1969, Dartmouth renamed their college baseball diamond, previously known as Memorial Field, naming it Red Rolfe Field in his honor.
Personal life
Rolfe married Isabel (née Africa) on October 12, 1934. His older sister, Florence, introduced the two to each other in 1928.
Rolfe had a colostomy in February 1967, He was buried in his birthplace of Penacook after a private ceremony.
With the dissolution of the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League in 1992, the Ivy League reformed into two divisions for baseball in 1993: the Red Rolfe Division and the Lou Gehrig Division.
Head coaching record
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| style="text-align:left;"|Toronto
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 44||17||27|||| style="text-align:center;"|6th in Eastern||—||—||—||—
| style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs
Source
See also
- List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise