1934-36 Diamond Stars: #144 Bill McKechnie MG

Sunday, February 22, 2026

#144 Bill McKechnie MG - Boston Bees

William Boyd McKechnie

Boston Bees

Manager

Bats: Both Throws: Right Height: 5'10" Weight: 160

Born: August 7, 1886, Wilkinsburg, PA

Major League Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates 1907, 1910-12; Boston Braves 1913; New York Yankees 1913; Indianapolis Hoosiers 1914; Newark Pepper 1915; New York Giants 1916; Cincinnati Reds 1916-17; Pittsburgh Pirates 1918, 1920

As a Manager: Newark Pepper 1915; Pittsburgh Pirates 1922-26; St. Louis Cardinals 1928, 1929; Boston Braves 1930-35; Boston Bees 1936-37; Cincinnati Reds 1938-46

Died: October 29, 1965, Bradenton, FL (79)

Hall of Fame Induction: 1962

Bill McKechnie had a respectable career as a major league player, playing in 11 seasons overall and enjoying his best season in 1914 as the starting third baseman for the the Frontier League's Indianapolis Hoosiers. He batted .304 that season with 47 stolen bases. McKechnie would begin his lengthy and successful managerial career the following year as the player/manager for the Newark Pepper, and he'd get his first National League job with the Pirates in 1922. McKechnie guided the Pirates to a National League pennant in 1925, with his club defeating the Washington Nationals in seven games in the World Series. After an acrimonious end to his time with the Pirates, McKechnnie briefly managed the Cardinals, leading that team to a World Series in 1928. They were swept by the powerhouse Yankees.

McKechnie would spend eight years at the helm for the Braves/Bees, never finishing higher than fourth place in the league. He'd join the Reds in 1938, with Cincinnati winning back-to-back pennants in 1939 and 1940, and winning the World Series in 1940 with a seventh game win over the Tigers. Focusing on strong pitching and defense throughout his career, McKechnie became the first manager to win a World Series title with two different teams. He retired as a manager following the 1946 season with 1,892 career managerial wins, ranking fourth in major league history at the time. McKechnie would coach for the Indians (1947-48) and Red Sox (1952-53), winning another World Series ring with the Indians in 1948. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

Header cards included with the complete set
Building the Set

December 16, 2020 from Albion, NY

Within days of officially deciding to collect the Diamond Stars set, I found myself searching for the 1993 extension set consisting of 36 more "what if" cards this time issued by the Chicle Fantasy Company. Individual cards from this set are very prevalent on eBay, but I wanted to buy a complete set to save myself some time and money. Given this is a relatively modern set, I was somewhat surprised at the closing auction prices for previously sold complete sets and I was happy to win my set at a lower price. These cards are gorgeous, and I can tell a lot of hard work and love for the originals went into making this tribute set. What's more, the set's creators were smart enough to start the numbering with card #121, given the 1981 extension set had left off with #120.

Variations Available

1 - 1993 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1993 copyright

The Card / Bees Team Set

The back of the card mentions the low point of McKechnie's Hall of Fame career - the 115 loss season with the Braves in 1935. It also foreshadows his success yet to come with the Reds in a few years.

1936 Season

In a huge improvement over the disastrous 1935 season, the newly-named Bees finished the season with a 71-83 record, in sixth place in the National League, 21 games behind the pennant-winning Giants. From McKechnie's SABR biography, written by Warren Corbett:

[Boston owner] Judge Fuchs had run out of money, credit, and hope. Before the 1936 season the National League took over the franchise and engineered a recapitalization with the longtime baseball executive Bob Quinn as principal owner. The 65-year-old Quinn had a knack for picking lost causes. He had owned the Red Sox after Harry Frazee plundered the team and then served as president of the debt-ridden Brooklyn Dodgers. Quinn changed the team nickname to Bees but kept the manager. McKechnie started rebuilding again. He acquired a few useful players, including Al Lopez (#97) and Tony Cuccinello (#55), possibly as an act of charity by the rest of the league, and improved the club’s record by 33 wins in 1936, good enough for sixth place.