Huggins

Miller Huggins

Unusual for a ballplayer in that day, Miller Huggins attended college -- at the University of Cincinnati -- where he eventually earned a degree in law in 1900 while playing shortstop for the Bearcats.

His father, a devout Methodist, certainly did not want his son to play ball on Sundays and probably did not want him to play at all. Strangely, though, one of his law professors -- you may have heard of him, William Howard Taft -- actually advised him to choose baseball for a career rather than law. Huggins took his esteemed professor's advice and, though he was admitted to the bar, he never did practice law.

It was a good choice, of course, though his early days as manager of the Yankees may have given him cause for second guessing. That cause went by the name of Babe Ruth. Ruth resisted Huggins' discipline, as he did all discipline, and did not respect the manager because of his small stature and soft-spoken ways. Everything Huggins tried by way of reigning in his superstar failed.

Until 1925. On Aug. 29 of that year, he suspended Ruth indefinitely, citing off-field misconduct, and fined him $5,000, a whopping sum at the time. Ruth wasn't worried; he assumed Yankees owner Jake Ruppert would side with him, as he had in the past. This time, however, Ruth was wrong. Ruppert backed his manager to the hilt, and the suspension and fine stood.

Ruth eventually gave him, apologizing to both Huggins and Ruppert, was reinstated on Sept. 5, and never challenged Huggins' authority again.