| Billy Gardner |
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Gardner was signed by the Giants and came up with them on April 22 , 1954 . In early 1956 , he was purchased by the Orioles, which is where the bulk of his career began, and he would begin to secure himself as an every-day player. Gardner was not speedy, picking up a career-high of only 10 steals, but in his best season of 1957 , he did lead the league in doubles with 36, and at bats with 644. He batted .262 that season with 6 home runs and 55 RBIs in the full 154 games that he could play. Gardner also came in the top 10 in Hit By Pitch es twice (1956, '57), with a career-high of 8 in 1957 (5th in the league). He wound up on the powerful 1961 Yankees, winning the 1961 World Series with them against the Cincinnati Reds . In his one and only at bat of the postseason, he lined out to Short Stop in the 9th inning of Game 2. The Yankees lost the game 6-2. He was never an every-day player with the Yankees, because at the time, they had Bobby Richardson to fill the spot. He ended his career with 2 years on the Red Sox, picking up 70 hits with them, in 283 at bats. He was a fairly good fielder, finishing with a .976 Fielding Percentage all-time. In 10 seasons (some not full), Gardner Batted .237 with 41 Home Run s and 271 RBIs in 1034 games played. He picked up 841 Hits , with 159 Doubles and 18 Triples , in 3544 career At Bat s. He finished with 19 career Steals . Gardner was a major league Coach for the Red Sox (1965-66), Montreal Expos (1977-78), and the Twins (1981) and then managed them from 1981 through 1985 , never leading them to the playoffs, and only once not serving up a losing record (1984, 81-81). He finished with a 268-353 record with them, before nabbing a job with the Royals as their manager in 1987 . After first being considered for third-base coach, terminally ill Royals manager Dick Howser retired during spring training, and Gardner got the position. He was fired in August of that year after going 62-64, and John Wathan took over. All in all in his managing career, he was 330-417 in his career, a .442 Winning Percentage .
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