Harry Walker

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American baseball player and manager (1918–1999)

title: "Harry Walker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1918-births", "1999-deaths", "united-states-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "atlanta-crackers-managers", "baseball-managers", "baseball-players-from-mississippi", "chicago-cubs-players", "cincinnati-reds-players", "columbus-red-birds-players", "greenville-spinners-players", "houston-astros-managers", "houston-buffaloes-managers", "houston-buffaloes-players", "major-league-baseball-center-fielders", "major-league-baseball-first-base-coaches", "major-league-baseball-hitting-coaches", "major-league-baseball-player-managers", "montgomery-bombers-players", "montgomery-rebels-players", "national-league-all-stars", "national-league-batting-champions", "pensacola-pilots-players", "sportspeople-from-pascagoula,-mississippi", "philadelphia-phillies-players", "pittsburgh-pirates-managers", "rochester-red-wings-managers", "rochester-red-wings-players", "st.-louis-cardinals-coaches", "st.-louis-cardinals-managers", "st.-louis-cardinals-players", "st.-louis-cardinals-scouts", "tiffin-mud-hens-players", "tyler-trojans-players", "uab-blazers-baseball-coaches", "united-states-army-soldiers", "20th-century-american-sportsmen"] description: "American baseball player and manager (1918–1999)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Walker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American baseball player and manager (1918–1999) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox baseball biography"]

Field	Value
name	Harry Walker
image	Harry Walker (manager) - Pittsburgh Pirates - 1966.jpg
caption	Walker in 1966
position	Center fielder / Manager
birth_date
birth_place	Pascagoula, Mississippi, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
bats	Left
throws	Right
debutleague	MLB
debutdate	September 25
debutyear	1940
debutteam	St. Louis Cardinals
finalleague	MLB
finaldate	August 19
finalyear	1955
finalteam	St. Louis Cardinals
statleague	MLB
stat1label	Batting average
stat1value	.296
stat2label	Home runs
stat2value	10
stat3label	Runs batted in
stat3value	214
stat4label	Managerial record
stat4value	630–604
stat5label	Winning %
stat5value
::

St. Louis Cardinals (–, –)
Philadelphia Phillies (–)
Chicago Cubs ()
Cincinnati Reds ()
St. Louis Cardinals (–, ) As manager
St. Louis Cardinals ()
Pittsburgh Pirates (–)
Houston Astros (–) |highlights=
2× All-Star (1943, 1947)
2× World Series champion (, )
NL batting champion (1947) Harry William Walker (October 22, 1918 – August 8, 1999) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. Known by the nickname "Harry the Hat", he played as a center fielder in Major League Baseball between 1940 and 1955, most notably as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals with whom he won two world championships and was the 1947 National League batting champion.

A two-time All-Star player, Walker also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. After his playing career, he served as manager for three major league teams between 1955 and 1972.

Walker served in the 65th Infantry Division in 1944 and 1945, earning a Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart.

Early life and family

Born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Walker was a member of a baseball family. He was the son of former Washington Senators pitcher Ewart "Dixie" Walker and the brother of Fred "Dixie" Walker, also an outfielder and National League batting champion. He was also the nephew of fellow major league outfielder Ernie Walker.

World Series star, NL batting champ

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Harry_Walker.jpg" caption="A [[baseball card]] of Walker from 1950."] ::

"Harry the Hat" got his nickname from his habit during at-bats of continually adjusting his cap between pitches Walker knocked in six runs during that Series, and batted .412.

Walker lacked his brother Dixie's power—he hit only 10 home runs in 807 games played over all or parts of 11 seasons in the National League—but he compiled a .296 lifetime batting average and 786 hits with the Cardinals, Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

After prepping as a skipper in the Cardinals’ minor league system beginning in 1951, Walker was called up from Rochester in the Triple-A International League on May 28, 1955, to replace Eddie Stanky as Cardinals’ manager. Walker, then 36, was still a playing manager; he hit .357 (5-for-14) in 11 games—10 of which were as a pinch hitter—during July and August. However, the change backfired: the Cardinals fell two places in the standings under Walker, losing 67 of 118 games for a .432 winning percentage. Walker was replaced by Fred Hutchinson at the end of the 1955 season, and it would be another decade before he would again manage in the majors.

Manager in Pittsburgh and Houston

During that exile, he returned to the Cardinal farm system to manage (1956–58; 1963–64), and served four years (1959–62) as a St. Louis coach. After piloting the Jacksonville Suns to the 1964 International League pennant, Walker was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates as manager, replacing Danny Murtaugh, who stepped down for health reasons. The Pirates battled for the pennant until the closing days of the and seasons—each year finishing third behind the champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the runner-up San Francisco Giants. But when the Pirates—further strengthened by an off-season trade for standout shortstop Maury Wills—stumbled to a disappointing .500 mark in mid-season, Walker was let go on July 18 in favor of his predecessor, Murtaugh. Less than a week later, Walker was hired to be the organizational batting coach for the Houston Astros.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Harry_Walker_1965.jpg" caption="Walker in 1965"] ::

Eleven months later, on June 18, , the Astros replaced skipper Grady Hatton with "Harry the Hat". The last-place Astros were only 23–38 under Hatton, but, featuring players like Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn, and Don Wilson, their record under Walker improved to 49–52. In , they contended for the National League West Division title before fading to finish 12 games behind the Atlanta Braves. After back-to-back 79–83 marks in and , Walker was sacked August 26, , in favor of Leo Durocher; with the Astros at 67–54 and in third place at the time of the firing, it was Walker's best season in Houston. Over his managing career, he won 630 games, losing 604 (.511). After his firing, Walker returned to the Cardinals as a hitting instructor.

College head baseball coach

Walker served as the head coach for the UAB Blazers baseball team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1979 to 1986, as the program's first coach.

Legacy and death

Walker was profiled in Jim Bouton's memoir of the 1969 season, Ball Four. Bouton mentioned that other players warned him about Walker as a guy who was going to scream at him and that he could adjust to him just like they had. Upon meeting him, Bouton felt that he would get along with Walker, and he credited him as the reason the team was doing as well as it was, one who managed to "keep everybody agitated and playing better baseball."

Walker's uniform number 32 has been retired by the UAB baseball program, and he was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.

Walker died in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1999 at the age of 80. His interment was at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Leeds, Alabama.

References

(2010). "Harry Walker".
"Harry Walker".
https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/pesky-the-man-the-myth-the-truth-d3c24bd5f81c
"Baseball Brothers".
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19550528&id=xzEsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=W8sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6119,4124301 Cards fire Stanky; hire Harry Walker]
"Harry Walker 1955 Batting Game Logs".
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19641014&id=WOorAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZWcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4053,1635492 Harry Walker named Manager at Pittsburgh]
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=799&dat=19670719&id=TpYuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IUgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7114,780916 Murtaugh back as Pirates Manager- Harry Walker axed]
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19670722&id=0UVjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VXQNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4477,3578422 Walker Astro Batting Coach]
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19680618&id=xQIyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BkQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5188,6096821 Astros fire Hatton, hire Harry Walker]
(July 2024)
"2020 UAB Baseball Media Guide". UAB Baseball.
Bouton, Jim. (2000). "Ball Four: The Final Pitch". Sports Publishing.
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19990809&id=fBMeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6VIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5377,3435946 Harry Walker dies]

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