Joe Burke
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Born
| Joseph Roy Burke
(
1923-12-08
)
December 8, 1923
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Died
| May 12, 1992
(1992-05-12)
(aged 68)
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Occupation
| Baseball executive
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Years active
| 1948?1992
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Joseph Roy Burke
(December 8, 1923 ? May 12, 1992) was an American front office executive in
Major League Baseball
who served as
general manager
or club president of the
Kansas City Royals
for almost 18 years during the most successful period in that
expansion team
's early history.
Burke was executive vice president and general manager of the Royals from the middle of the
1974
season through October
1981
. He then served as club president until his death on May 12, 1992. During his tenure, Burke was general manager of the Royals' first
American League
championship team, the
1980
edition, then was president of the
1985
Royals, who won the franchise's first
World Series title
. In addition to those two pennant-winners, the Royals won
American League West Division
championships in
1976
,
1977
,
1978
,
1981
(second half of a split season) and
1984
. In
1976
, he was named Major League Executive of the Year by
The Sporting News
after his first division title.
Before coming to Kansas City, Burke had been a member of the front office of the
Texas Rangers
and its predecessor, the second modern-era Washington Senators franchise. He had begun his baseball career in 1948 with the
Louisville Colonels
of the
Triple-A
American Association
, where he worked under general manager
Ed Doherty
. After rising to the post of GM of the Colonels in
1960
, Burke joined the
expansion
Senators in their debut
1961
season as business manager, again working for Doherty, the team's first general manager. He later was named the Senators' vice president and treasurer, and was retained when
Bob Short
purchased the Senators in
1968
. He accompanied the franchise to Dallas-Fort Worth when it relocated after the
1971
season and became the Rangers' general manager in their
first season
in North Texas. After two years in that role, Burke moved to the Royals as business manager after the
1973
campaign.
In June
1974
, Burke became the second general manager in the Royals' six-year history. One of his first major moves was the hiring of
Whitey Herzog
as
manager
during the middle of the
1975
season on July 25. Herzog would be elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame
as a manager in 2010, but he had failed dismally as the Rangers' pilot, working under Burke, during
1973
. In Kansas City, he would turn the Royals into consistent contenders in the AL West. Burke also appointed
Jim Frey
and
Dick Howser
as managers after Herzog's exit, and each man would lead Kansas City to an American League pennant (and, in Howser's case, the
1985 World Series
title as well).
Burke became the Royals' second club president after the 1981 season, succeeding owner
Ewing Kauffman
, and his top assistant,
John Schuerholz
, was promoted to general manager. Like Herzog, Schuerholz would also be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (in 2017, for his later success as GM of the
Atlanta Braves
).
Burke died of lymphatic
cancer
in
Kansas City, Kansas
, at age 68.
References
[
edit
]
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Franchise
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Ballparks
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Culture
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Lore
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Team Hall of Fame
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Minor league
affiliates
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Key personnel
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World Series
championships (2)
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American League
pennants (4)
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Division titles
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Seasons (56)
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1960s
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- 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 ·
1969
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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