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Harold Clifton Lanier
San Francisco Giants
Shortstop
Born: July 4, 1942, Denton, NC
Signed: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1961 season
Major League Teams: San Francisco Giants 1964-1971; New York Yankees 1972-1973
As a Manager: Houston Astros 1986-1988
Hal Lanier was a light-hitting infielder who played most of his 10-year big league career with the Giants. He was the son of All-Star pitcher Max Lanier, who played for 14 seasons between 1938 and 1953, mostly with the Cardinals. The younger Lanier hit his career peak with a .274 batting average during his rookie season of 1964, leading to his inclusion on the 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie team. Lanier was the opening day second baseman for the Giants in 1965 through 1967 and then the team's opening day shortstop from 1968 through 1971. His defense improved steadily throughout his playing career and Lanier finished second among National League second baseman in fielding percentage in 1966 and first among National League shortstops in fielding percentage in 1968. He was sold to the Yankees before the 1972 season. Lanier played for the Yankees for two seasons and then spent the 1974 and part of the 1975 seasons with the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers in the Cardinals' system as a player/coach. In 1,196 career major league games, Lanier batted .228 with 843 hits.
Lanier's first managerial job came with the St. Petersburg Cardinals in 1976, and he'd manage or coach professionally for the next 40 years. He was promoted to the Cardinals as their third base coach in 1981, and he'd win a World Series ring with the club in 1982. He departed St. Louis after the 1985 season to take over as manager for the Astros. Guiding Houston to their best record (96-66) in franchise history up to that point, Lanier won National League Manager of the Year honors. He was dismissed following the 1988 season with a lifetime managerial record of 254-232. Lanier coached for the Phillies in 1990 and 1991 and he continued to manage in independent baseball leagues through the 2018 season.
Hal Lanier was a light-hitting infielder who played most of his 10-year big league career with the Giants. He was the son of All-Star pitcher Max Lanier, who played for 14 seasons between 1938 and 1953, mostly with the Cardinals. The younger Lanier hit his career peak with a .274 batting average during his rookie season of 1964, leading to his inclusion on the 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie team. Lanier was the opening day second baseman for the Giants in 1965 through 1967 and then the team's opening day shortstop from 1968 through 1971. His defense improved steadily throughout his playing career and Lanier finished second among National League second baseman in fielding percentage in 1966 and first among National League shortstops in fielding percentage in 1968. He was sold to the Yankees before the 1972 season. Lanier played for the Yankees for two seasons and then spent the 1974 and part of the 1975 seasons with the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers in the Cardinals' system as a player/coach. In 1,196 career major league games, Lanier batted .228 with 843 hits.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
The Card / Giants Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
1969 Season
Lanier was in the middle of his run as an everyday player for the Giants, appearing in 150 games overall and making 147 starts at shortstop. Tito Fuentes took over for two weeks in July and I'm assuming Lanier was out with an injury. Lanier batted .228 with nine doubles and made up for his light hitting with his stellar defense. He was second in the league among shortstops for fielding percentage, putouts, assists and double plays turned.
Phillies Career
Hal Lanier was named manager Nick Leyva's bench coach for the 1990 season, replacing John Vukovich who moved from the dugout to become the team's third base coach. He remained with the club through the entire 1991 season, despite Leyva's quick dismissal that April. New manager Jim Fregosi (#365) kept Lanier on the team's staff through the end of the year, and on the final game of the 1991 season Lanier was informed he wouldn't be brought back for 1992. Consulting my 1991 Phillies Scrapbook, a fairly depressing artifact, there's an article clipped from the Philadelphia Daily News with then GM Lee Thomas explaining that Lanier was former manager "Nick's guy," and that the Phillies wanted to make a change.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #118
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14): 1965-1974, 1986-1989
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1989 Topps #164
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 74 in the Beckett online database as of 5/28/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
Building the Set / Card #304
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times. I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times. I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.
Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders. I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500. This card was the 12th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me a little over $1.25.
The Card / Giants Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
This is a good baseball card, as it works well with the design elements and doesn't look strangely cropped. The back of the card highlights Lanier's fine fielding, but also calls attention to his 163 hits from the 1963 season.
Accuracy Index: Lanier's card scores a +5. Lanier is wearing a mock turtleneck under his jersey, meaning it's from a different photo session than the photos used for his 1965 through 1968 Topps cards.
1969 Season
Lanier was in the middle of his run as an everyday player for the Giants, appearing in 150 games overall and making 147 starts at shortstop. Tito Fuentes took over for two weeks in July and I'm assuming Lanier was out with an injury. Lanier batted .228 with nine doubles and made up for his light hitting with his stellar defense. He was second in the league among shortstops for fielding percentage, putouts, assists and double plays turned.
Hal Lanier was named manager Nick Leyva's bench coach for the 1990 season, replacing John Vukovich who moved from the dugout to become the team's third base coach. He remained with the club through the entire 1991 season, despite Leyva's quick dismissal that April. New manager Jim Fregosi (#365) kept Lanier on the team's staff through the end of the year, and on the final game of the 1991 season Lanier was informed he wouldn't be brought back for 1992. Consulting my 1991 Phillies Scrapbook, a fairly depressing artifact, there's an article clipped from the Philadelphia Daily News with then GM Lee Thomas explaining that Lanier was former manager "Nick's guy," and that the Phillies wanted to make a change.
Lanier appeared in the 1990 and 1991 Phillies team-issued photo card sets, his only baseball card appearances with the club.
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First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #118
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14): 1965-1974, 1986-1989
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1989 Topps #164
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 74 in the Beckett online database as of 5/28/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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