Hall of Honor
“Larry” MacPhail, one of the most colorful figures in American baseball history, had one brief season of glory on the 1907 baseball team of Beloit College, playing first base on a team which met Purdue, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame (as well as a high school, a prep school and a city team). But his love of baseball had developed when he was a boy in Michigan. He returned to that state and the University after his one year at Beloit, later took a law degree at George Washington University, and was a lawyer, a banker, and a department store president before devoting full time to the national sport. He was president of the Columbus Baseball Club in 1930, and between 1933 and 1948 was general manager, owner, or both, of the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Yankees. He founded night baseball in 1935 and originated the first telecast of a baseball game in 1939. He later became noted as a stick breeder. He served his country in both World Wars. Shortly after World War I, while still in service, he was one of a group of eight who attempted to abduct the Kaiser from the castle in Holland where he was hiding. In World War II, he was a colonel and assistant to the Secretary of War.
