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Arthur Henry Howe Jr. (born December 15, 1946) is an American former professional baseball infielder, coach, scout, and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates (–), Houston Astros (–), and St. Louis Cardinals (–). Howe managed the Astros (–), Oakland Athletics (–), and New York Mets (–), compiling a career managerial record of 1,129 wins and 1,137 losses.
In May 1981 he won the Player of the Month Award, the only Astros third baseman to win it until Alex Bregman in June 2018. After missing the entire 1983 season with an injury, he finished his playing career with the St. Louis Cardinals (1984–85). The right-handed hitter appeared in 891 games over all or parts of 11 seasons, compiling a lifetime batting average of .260 with 43 .
After a year as a major league scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and spending 1995 as bench coach for the Colorado Rockies, Howe was chosen to replace future Hall of Famer Tony La Russa as manager of the Athletics for 1996. The A's suffered through three losing seasons under Howe before, in 1999, they returned to contention. In 2000, 2001 and 2002, the A's won 91, 102 and 103 games respectively and made the American League playoffs in each season. But they did not win a playoff series, losing each time in the Division Series in five games. This included losing Game 5 at home in 2000 and 2002 and blowing a two game lead in the 2001 series. Gradually, Howe and general manager Billy Beane grew estranged. At the end of 2002, despite a seven-year record of 600–533 (.530), Howe was released from the final year of his Oakland contract to become the manager of the New York Mets, signing a four-year contract worth $9.4 million.
Philip Seymour Hoffman portrayed Howe in the 2011 film Moneyball, which dramatized Beane's tactics of using sabermetrics to select players. Howe said he was unhappy with his portrayal in both the film and the 2003 Michael Lewis book it was based on, as a stubborn traditionalist who refused to follow Beane's plans and a figurehead who submitted while Beane ran the A's from the clubhouse. Howe described himself as a team player despite his lingering doubts about Beane's methods. Howe was described in the press as a "good company man."
Howe's two years in New York were unsuccessful. The Mets won only 42 percent of their games, the front office went through three general managers, and attendance at Shea Stadium fell. Howe won his 1,000th game as manager on April 20, 2003, in a 7–4 victory against the Florida Marlins. In September 2004, word of Howe's impending firing was leaked to the media two weeks before the season ended, but he was allowed to finish the season. Ultimately, general manager Omar Minaya replaced Howe with Willie Randolph, bench coach for the New York Yankees.
On October 16, 2006, the Philadelphia Phillies hired Howe as the third base coach and an infield instructor. After the Texas Rangers hired Ron Washington, a former coach under Howe in Oakland, as their manager, the Phillies gave Howe permission to speak with the Rangers about any openings in the organization. On November 7, 2006, Howe was hired by the Rangers as Washington's bench coach. He served two years in that role (2007–08) but his contract was not renewed at the end of the Rangers' disappointing 2008 season.
On May 14, 2020, Howe confirmed that he was in an ICU suffering from COVID-19. On May 17, he was released from the hospital, and sent home, reportedly "weak, but on the mend".
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