Howe, a native of Pittsburgh, was signed by his hometown team as a free agent in 1971 following a tryout with the team and would make his big league debut with the Pirates during the 1974 season. Prior to the 1976 season, the Pirates traded Howe to the Houston Astros for Tommy Helms. Howe would spend the next seven seasons with the Astros playing all over the infield becoming a fan favorite. He was part of the Astro teams which reached the post-season in both 1980 and 1981. After missing the entire 1983 season with an injury, Howe would join the St. Louis Cardinals in 1984 and would remain with the team until he was released early in the 1985 season ending his playing career. In 891 career games over 11 seasons, Howe collected 682 hits for a lifetime batting average of .260 with 43 HR and 293 RBI.
In 1986, Howe joined the Texas Rangers coaching staff as Bobby Valentine's bench coach. He would remain in this capacity for three seasons before the Astros hired him as their new manager prior to the 1989 season succeeding Hal Lanier. However, after failing to reach the post-season after five seasons, the Astros would dismiss Howe in favor of Terry Collins.
Howe would join the Los Angeles Dodgers as a scout in 1994 and then ventured down to the Dominican Republic and managed Azucareros del Este to their first championship in the Dominican Winter League in early 1995. Later that year, Howe joined the coaching staff of the Colorado Rockies under manager Don Baylor. That season the Rockies would earn the first ever NL Wild Card spot.
On the strength of his success in the D.R. and with the Rockies, the Oakland A's would give Howe a second chance to manage in the big leagues. Howe had the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Tony LaRussa who had departed for the Cardinals after leading the A's to three straight AL pennants and a World Series title in 1989. Over the next seven seasons, Howe would earn 600 wins as manager of the A's guiding them to three consecutive post-season appearances from 2000 through 2002 encompassing two AL West titles in 2000 and 2002 and an AL Wild Card spot in 2001.
The New York Mets would hire Howe as their manager in 2003 succeeding his old friend Bobby Valentine. After two lackluster seasons, Howe was dismissed in favor of Willie Randolph. In 14 seasons as a MLB manager, Howe had a won loss record of 1129-1137. Howe's coaching career would end where it began spending the 2007 and 2008 seasons as a bench coach with the Texas Rangers serving under Ron Washington who had served under him with the A's.
For some people, Art Howe might be remembered from the 2011 movie adaptation of Michael Lewis' book Moneyball. This is most unfortunate. While the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a great actor, his portrayal of Howe was not representative of his character or his reputation. Unsurprisingly, Howe was not pleased with his portrayal either.
But anyone who knows baseball knows the high regard in which Art Howe is held. Needless to say, I hope Howe can recover and reunite with his wife Betty to whom he has been married more than 50 years.
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