Jim Marshall Spent 70 Years in Professional Baseball

 

Former MLB player, coach and manager Jim Marshall passed away yesterday at the age of 94. 

Marshall spent 70 years of his life in professional baseball highlighted by playing parts of five seasons in MLB from 1958 to 1962 with the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates before spending three seasons in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons. However, Marshall spent a lot of time in the minor leagues. Enough time to hit more than 200 career HRs in the minors.

After returning stateside, Marshall rejoined the Cubs organization in 1967 as a minor league manager. He would join the big-league club in 1974 as its third base coach. By mid-season, Marshall was the team's manager after Whitey Lockman's dismissal. Marshall spent 2½ seasons at the helm of the Cubs going 173-218 before being dismissed at the end of the 1976 season in favor of Herman Franks.

Marshall would return to the minor leagues in 1977 joining the Montreal Expos organization as the manager of its Triple-AAA affiliate the Denver Bears who he would lead to an American Association championship. The following year, Marshall joined the Oakland A's organization managing the Vancouver Canadians, their Triple-AAA affiliate.

In 1979, Marshall would be given one more chance as a big-league manager with the A's. But this iteration of the A's was far removed from the clubs which won three consecutive World Series earlier in the decade. The A's would finish dead last in the AL West with a 54-108 record in what proved to be Charlie Finley's final year as owner. The only team which fared worse that year were the Toronto Blue Jays who went 53-109 under Roy Hartsfield. 

The lone bright spot on that 1979 A's team was the MLB debut of Rickey Henderson who stole 33 bases in his rookie season. The A's would dismiss Marshall in favor of Billy Martin who would return the team to winning form with "Billy Ball" in 1980 and in 1981.

Marshall would return to manage in the minor leagues with stints with the Nashville Sounds, then a Double-AA affiliate of the New York Yankees and later with the Buffalo Bisons, then a Triple-AAA affiliate with the Chicago White Sox. For nearly a quarter century, Marshall worked with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a spring training instructor while also serving as the organization's director of its Pacific Rim operations in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. Marshall finally retired from baseball at the end of the 2021 season.

Earlier this year, Marshall was interviewed by USA Today before he was honored this past May as the oldest living member of the 1962 New York Mets when the D'Backs hosted the Mets. During the interview, Marshall reminisced about scouting Ichiro Suzuki:

When I was scouting the Pacific Rim, I saw Ichiro [Suzuki] a lot, and he told me that his dad was a huge Chunichi Dragons fans and actually has a picture of me in their house. Ichiro was such a great guy, a great kid. He would always call me gaijin, which means foreigner in Japanese. So, the first time I see him when he gets to Seattle, I walk into their clubhouse and say, “Well, you’re the gaijin now.’ He says, 'Oh, grandfather, don’t tease me.’

I remember how he wanted to come to America so bad, and he used to come and swing the bat right in front of me, and then we'd go have dinner together. He was my favorite player, my absolute favorite player. The dedication. The discipline. The speed. The arm. My God, he had it all.

Jim Marshall had 70 years of baseball memories. We should all be so lucky. R.I.P.