MacPhail, Larry (Leland Stanford MacPhail, Sr.), 1890–1975, American baseball and business executive, b. Cass City, Mich., grad. George Washington Univ. (LL.B., 1910). After serving in World War I, he practiced law in Columbus, Ohio, and becoming president of a minor league baseball team there. He was hired as vice president and general manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1934 and president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938, and made both teams profitable. He served in World War II, attaining the rank of colonel, then returned (1945–47) to baseball as president, co-owner, and general manager of the New York Yankees. During his baseball career, MacPhail introduced nighttime baseball, regular radio broadcasts of games, and the practice of flying teams to games, and also helped devise the batting helmet and institute a pension plan for players. He subsequently raised Thoroughbred horses and served as president (1952–53) of Bowie Racetrack, Bowie, Md. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978.
See biography by D. Warfield (1987); G. R. McKelvey, The MacPhail's, Baseball's First Family of the Front Office (2000).
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