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Herman Louis Franks
San Francisco Giants
Manager
Born: January 4, 1914, Price, UT
Signed: Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a free agent before 1935 season
Major League Teams: St. Louis Cardinals 1939; Brooklyn Dodgers 1940-1941; Philadelphia Athletics 1947-1948; New York Giants 1949
As a Manager: San Francisco Giants 1965-1968; Chicago Cubs 1977-1979
Died: March 30, 2009, Salt Lake City, UT (age 95)
Herman Franks played 15 seasons of professional baseball between 1932 and 1949, appearing in 188 games over that time with the Cardinals, Dodgers, A's and Giants. He hit .199 in the Majors with 3 home runs and 43 RBIs as a back-up catcher or pinch-hitter. A highlight from his playing days is that he caught the no-hitter thrown by the Dodgers' Tex Carleton on April 30, 1940. It was his time catching for the Dodgers that established his long-time association with then Dodgers shortstop Leo Durocher.
Franks served as a coach for Durocher, now managing the Giants, between 1949 and 1955. It's alleged it was Franks who was stealing signs from the Dodgers from the Giants' center field clubhouse that led to Bobby Thomson's famous pennant winning home run in 1951, now known as the Shot Heard Round the World. He served as a coach with the Giants again in 1958 and 1964, before managing the club between 1965 and 1968. He served as Durocher's pitching coach in 1970 with the Cubs and would go on to manage the Cubs between 1977 and 1979. He briefly served as the Cubs' general manager in 1981 before being replaced by Dallas Green (#203).
In seven seasons managing, Franks compiled a record of 605-521, with no postseason appearances.
July 20, 2020 from Scottsdale, AZ - Card #130
I continued to be fairly active with my eBay purchases in July, as we prepared for the abbreviated 60-game baseball season to start. Having been somewhat haphazard in my eBay hunts up until this point, I decided to focus and specifically try to complete the first series of our 1965 Topps set. I added 10 cards to our set from the first series (cards #1 through #88) from Scottsdale Baseball Cards, and the envelope with our new cards arrived on July 20th. As of this writing, we need 39 of the 88 cards from the first series so we're more than half-way there. The priciest card still needed is the A.L. Home Run Leaders card (#5) featuring Mickey Mantle. This Franks card entered our collection for $1.50.
The Card / Giants Team Set
Franks appeared in the 1952 Topps set as a Giants coach and this is his first appearance in a Topps set as a manager. Despite his time as a player, it doesn't appear as if he appeared on any mainstream baseball cards during his playing days. The back of the card mentions Franks' military service and he missed 3 1/2 seasons while serving in the Navy in the Pacific Theater.
1965 Season
This was the first season for Franks as a manager, and it was also to be the first of four consecutive seasons in which he guided the Giants to a second place finish. His Giants went 95-67, and he'd never again manage a team that won that many games. Even though he didn't bring the Giants to the postseason, his 367 wins during his time with the club was the most managerial wins in the Majors between 1965 and 1968. He was at the helm for some of the greatest seasons in the careers of Willie Mays (#250), Willie McCovery (#176), Juan Marichal (#50) and Gaylord Perry (#193).
In 1968, he promised to resign following the season if the Giants didn't win the pennant and following their fourth second place finish in a row, he did just that.
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First Mainstream Card: 1952 Topps #385
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8): 1952, 1965-1968, 1977-1979
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Topps 1952 Reprint Series #385
32 - Franks non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/24/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #31 Mike White - Houston Astros
Next Card: #33 Jackie Brandt - Baltimore Orioles
I never heard the story of the 1951 Giants stealing signs until the recent Astros' debacle made the news.
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