New Mexico natives in the majors: Kiner was hall-of-famer, while Haney won World Series

Ralph Kiner is the only Major League player born in New Mexico who has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, per baseballreference.com.

Fred Haney, a native of the Albuquerque area, is the only New Mexico-born person who managed in The Show — and in the Fall Classic to boot.

While both dabbled in the lifestyle of Hollywood in later years, their careers could not have been more different during October baseball. It was the well-traveled infielder Haney — who one year led third basemen in errors — who outdid the Cooperstown great who slammed 369 home runs and paced the National League in homers seven years in a row.

“Because I had a lot of experience with losing,” Kiner said, when asked why he was hired to join the New York Mets broadcasting crew before the 1962 season. Haney, meanwhile, managed in two straight World Series with Milwaukee in the 1950s.

Kiner broke in with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1946 and was with the club until the middle of the 1953 season. During that time, the Pirates averaged around 90 losses per season, including 112 in 1952. Kiner played with the Cubs for part of 1953 and all of 1954 — the club lost 179 games those two seasons — but ended his playing career with a Cleveland team in 1955 that went 93-61 a year after losing in the World Series to the Giants.

Kiner and Haney — who both moved to the Los Angeles area at a young age — combined to play 17 years in the majors.

During his career, Kiner mingled with Hollywood stars and once had a date with a 17-year-old actress named Elizabeth Taylor, according to the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR).

Both became general managers (Kiner in the minors, Haney in the majors), and broadcasting (Kiner in the majors, Haney in the minors with the Hollywood Stars) was also part of their baseball legacy.

Their careers overlapped for a few months in 1953, when Haney was managing the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kiner, a six-time All-Star, was traded by the club that June to the Cubs.

“We could have finished last without you,” Pirates general manager Branch Rickey told Kiner during salary negotiations one year. They did.

But it was Haney who won the only World Series ring between the two, when he managed the Milwaukee Braves in 1957. “This is the thrill of a lifetime,” Haney told reporters when the Braves clinched the National League pennant that year.

A versatile infielder, Haney was born before New Mexico was a state.

New Mexico in 1898

“Haney was born on April 25, 1898, in Bernalillo, New Mexico Territory, the fourth and youngest son of William J. and Frances Haney,” according to SABR. “Various accounts give his year of birth as 1896, 1897, and 1898, but the latter year is what is on his tombstone. After the family relocated to Los Angeles, he attended Polytechnic High School, where he was a four-year letterman in three sports. Named twice to the All-California Interscholastic football team, the holder of several swimming titles, a member of the water polo team, and the city’s junior handball champion, Haney was one of the first great high-school athletes of Los Angeles.”

Haney hit a career-best .352 in 81 games as a rookie with the Detroit Tigers in 1922. He also played for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs before ending his playing days with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1929.

Haney had a lifetime average of .275 with eight homers — or 361 fewer than Kiner.

But it was as a manager and front office staffer where Haney made his mark after a very rough start.

He went 43-111 in his first season as the skipper with the St. Louis Browns in 1939 and managed that club through 1941. Haney did not manage again in the majors until 1953, when he guided the Pirates to a mark of 50-104. Pittsburgh was 53-101 the next season and Haney was let go from the Pirates after managing the club in 1955.

He was a coach with Milwaukee to start 1956, but then took over as manager when Charlie Grimm was fired. The Braves went 68-40 under Haney — his first time guiding a club to a better than .435 winning percentage in the big leagues.

“There were reports that some Braves players spent too much time night-clubbing in 1956,” according to SABR. “In his farewell speech to the club after the last game, Haney said, ‘You had a good time, boys. Have a good time this winter. Because when we meet again next spring, you’re going to have the toughest so and so you’ve ever run into.’ True to his promise, Haney worked the Braves exceptionally hard during spring training in 1957 and prophetically told the team, ‘You may hate me in the spring, but you’ll love me in the fall when you pick up your World Series checks.”

Haney kept his promise.

“When the Braves clinched the pennant, Haney said, ‘I knew the boys would come through, and what a great way to do it.’ In his 40th year in baseball, Haney had made it to the World Series. The Braves and the Yankees fought to the seventh game. For that contest, Haney choose Lew Burdette over Warren Spahn to start. Burdette led the Braves to a 5-0 Series clincher and gave Haney and the Braves the world championship. Haney was now a hero in Milwaukee. He was named National League Manager of the Year by United Press International and was rehired for 1958 with a $40,000 salary, his highest in professional baseball,” according to SABR.

Haney led the Braves to another pennant in 1958 and he managed the club through the next season. He became the general manager of the Angels in 1961, was the Major League executive of the year in 1962 and stayed in that role through the 1968 campaign.

“Haney touched all the bases in a 65-year baseball career that led him from athletic stardom in high school to the general manager’s office of the Los Angeles Angels. Along the way, he was a player, coach, scout, World Series-winning manager, broadcaster, and general manager. On the field, Fred was a fierce competitor, disputing calls and plays with opponents, umpires, and fans. Off the field he was a devoted family man, with many lifelong friends and a heart for charitable works, particularly those involving youth, veterans, and baseball,” SABR says.

Kiner’s Korner and quotes

Kiner, who made more news off the field than Haney, was born in a mining town in southwest New Mexico.

“Ralph McPherran Kiner was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, on October 27, 1922. His mother, Beatrice Grayson, came from Oregon and had served as a nurse in France during World War I. His father, Ralph Macklin Kiner, was a baker. He died when Ralph was 4,” according to SABR. “The widowed Mrs. Kiner took a job in Alhambra, California, near Los Angeles. Ralph said he developed his baseball skills by playing year-round in the sunny climate and was encouraged by a neighbor who befriended the fatherless boy. He played shortstop for a youth team sponsored by the Yankees, but Pittsburgh scout Hollis Thurston convinced Kiner that the Pirates offered him a better opportunity than the talent-rich Yanks. He signed with Pittsburgh as soon as he graduated from Alhambra High.”

Kiner, who never appeared in a postseason game, got to know famous singer and minority Pirates owner Bing Crosby during his playing days. Kiner was married four times, including to tennis star Nancy Chafee.

The slugger was part of the Mets’ broadcast crew through 2013 and was the host of “Kiner’s Korner,” a postgame show. Some of his notable lines, per SABR:

• “On Father’s Day, we again wish you all Happy Birthday.”

• “Solo homers usually come with no one on base.”

• “All of his saves have come in relief appearances.”

• If Casey Stengel were alive today, he’d be spinning in his grave.”

• “We’ll be back after this word from Manufacturers Hangover.”

He did come up with some good ones. “Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water. The other third is covered by Garry Maddox,” Kiner said of the center fielder who won eight Gold Gloves with the Phillies and Giants.

Haney, while still working for the Angels, died at his Beverly Hills home in 1977 and is buried in nearby Culver City. Two years later, the Angels had his widow Florence throw out the first pitch before two American League Championship Series games against the Baltimore Orioles, who advanced to the World Series against the Pirates — the team both Kiner and Haney were part of two decades earlier.

Kiner, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 by just one vote, passed away in 2014 in Rancho Mirage, California. He is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Farmington, in the state where his journey to Cooperstown began 103 Octobers ago.

New Mexico notes: According to baseballreference.com, there were no natives of New Mexico who played in the majors in 1957 when the Braves won the World Series … The first native of the state to play in the majors was Al Clancy, who was born in Santa Fe in 1888 and played in three games with the St. Louis Browns in 1911, per baseballreference.com … The only players born this century in New Mexico who have made the big leagues are pitchers Spencer Arrighetti (Albuquerque) and Chase Silseth (Farmington). Both were born in 2000; Arrighetti pitched in seven games for the Astros this season while Silseth appeared in 10 games with the Angels … Albuquerque native Alec Bregman was 3-for-11 for the Red Sox in the series loss to the Yankees. In his career, the infielder is hitting .239 with 19 homers in 380 postseason at-bats … Former MLB pitcher Mike Dunn was also born in Farmington. He pitched in the postseason for Atlanta in 2010 … Seattle catcher Mitch Garver (La Cueva High, UNM), a native of Albuquerque, also appeared in the playoffs with the Minnesota Twins in 2019 and 2020 and won a World Series ring with the Texas Rangers in 2023. He was 1-for-3 on Oct. 5 against the Tigers ... current Blue Jays infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a distant relative of Ralph Kiner.

David Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and Harrisonburg and Arlington in Virginia and the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” available on Amazon and at daytondavid.com