Eddie Kasko

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Eddie Kasko bigraphy, stories - American baseball player

Eddie Kasko : biography

June 27, 1932 –

Edward Michael Kasko (born June 27, 1932, at Linden, New Jersey) is a former infielder, manager, scout and front office executive in American Major League Baseball.

Managing career

After the season, his only campaign with Boston, Kasko retired as an active player and managed the Red Sox’ Triple-A clubs, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Louisville Colonels, from 1967–1969. He succeeded the popular Dick Williams as Red Sox manager in , and guided the club through four seasons, with mixed results. The Red Sox finished above the .500 mark each season, but only contended in when they finished a half-game out of first place, behind the Detroit Tigers, in the American League East Division. The half-game differential was partly due to the brief players’ strike that spring: between six and eight games were lopped off each club’s schedule and it was agreed that lost games would not be "made up" to resolve pennant races.

During Kasko’s four-year managerial term, he incorporated young players such as Carlton Fisk and Dwight Evans into the Red Sox lineup, converted relief pitcher Bill Lee into a successful starter, and showed patience with sore-armed veteran Luis Tiant as he returned to form as a dominant pitcher. But when the Red Sox again could not measure up to the powerful Baltimore Orioles of the era, Kasko was relieved of his managerial duties. His final record with Boston, over four seasons, was 345–295 (.539).

Scouting director

Kasko remained with the Red Sox for another two decades, however, as a scout (1974–1977) and then, after 1977, as the team’s director of scouting and vice president, baseball development. He retired in 1994 and was elected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2010.

Standout defensive player and contact hitter

A standout defensive player as a shortstop and third baseman, Kasko played for ten MLB seasons (1957–1966) with the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox. He led National League third basemen in fielding percentage in and NL shortstops in that category four years later.

A right-handed batter who stood tall and weighed , Kasko lacked home run power but was a good "contact hitter." His career batting average was .264 in 1,077 games and 3,546 at bats. Kasko appeared in one World Series — 1961, with Cincinnati. He led the Reds with seven hits and batted .319, but Cincinnati lost the series in five games to the New York Yankees.