Product Code Database
William James Fanning (September 14, 1927 – April 25, 2015) was an American-Canadian catcher, manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. Often called "Gentleman Jim", Fanning was the first general manager of the Montreal Expos of the National League (appointed in August 1968), and served the Expos in a number of capacities for almost 25 years. As their field manager in , he guided Montreal into the playoffs for the only time in the 36-year history of the franchise.
In his professional playing days, he was a catcher who played most of his career in the minor leagues. He spent the 1957 season and parts of three others with the Chicago Cubs between 1954 and 1957, compiling an anemic batting average of .170 in 64 career games played, with two doubles, no and 24 total hits. On September 14, 1957, in the second game of a double-header against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Fanning caught Cub pitcher Dave Hillman, playing on their shared 30th birthdays, the only known instance of a battery sharing the same birth date (that game, though, is more famous for the three home runs hit by Chicago's star shortstop Ernie Banks).
Fanning then became a manager in the minor leagues, eventually joining the Atlanta Braves organization, where in the middle of the 1960s he was promoted to the positions of Director of Minor League Operations and assistant general manager.
Fanning was briefly listed as a coach for the 1968 Braves, but before spring training began, he departed to become the first director of the Central Scouting Bureau. Just months later, when his old Milwaukee boss, John McHale, became the first president of the expansion Expos, Fanning accompanied him to Canada as the Expos' general manager. Fanning and McHale built the Expos from scratch; in those days, prior to the era of Free agent, newly formed clubs could only rely on expansion and amateur drafts and trades to build their talent base.
Dubbed le Grand Orange, Staub became one of the early folk heroes of les Expos, along with fellow outfielder Jones and no-hit pitcher (and future Expos' executive) Stoneman. Most of the other veterans were soon traded: Mota and Wills were sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 11 for veteran Ron Fairly, who became Montreal's regular first baseman four days later when Clendenon was swapped to the New York Mets for young players that included pitcher Steve Renko. The Expos improved incrementally over their first three seasons. Morton, whom Fanning knew from their days together in the Braves' organization, won 18 games in and was the NL Rookie of the Year; Renko would win a total of 28 games in 1970 and , and 27 more in and . Entering their fourth season in , Fanning reshaped the Expos through another headlining transaction, trading Staub to the Mets for three young regulars – shortstop Tim Foli, outfielder Ken Singleton and first baseman Mike Jorgensen. The trio helped Montreal contend for the NL East title in , when they finished only 3 games out of first place.
Overall, with opportunistic manager Gene Mauch at the helm, Fanning achieved a degree of success during his eight years as GM. In the mid-1970s, the Expos began to harvest players from their farm system, including Steve Rogers (1973), Barry Foote (1974), Gary Carter, Larry Parrish and Ellis Valentine (), and Warren Cromartie and Andre Dawson (). After the season, McHale and Fanning promoted Triple-A manager Karl Kuehl, who had overseen the development of many of the younger players, to replace Mauch at the Expos' helm.
However, when Montreal regressed in 1976 and fell back into the NL East cellar, Fanning was reassigned by McHale to a player developmental role and succeeded as general manager by Charlie Fox. Fanning then served in a number of front office posts with Montreal, including director of scouting, when, during the 1981 stretch run, he was called back into uniform. Manager Dick Williams, who had led the Expos into contention in and , had alienated his players and clashed with the front office over his use of bullpen closer Jeff Reardon. With 27 games left in the season, Williams was sacked on September 8, and Fanning was named his replacement. The move came as something of a surprise; he hadn't managed in almost 20 years.
Fanning returned as pilot in , but the Expos finished a disappointing third, six games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. Fanning moved back into the front office, handing over the manager's job to Bill Virdon, recently fired by the Houston Astros. But Virdon could not arrest the Expos' decline in and was fired with 30 games left in the campaign. Once more, Fanning came down to the field and took over the club, but with poor (14–16) results, as the team finished a disappointing fifth.
He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario, in 2000, and received his Canadian citizenship in 2012.
Fanning died as the result of a heart attack on April 25, 2015, at his London, Ontario, residence at the age of 87.
|
|
