Bob Coleman

Who was Bob Coleman?

Robert Hunter Coleman was an American catcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. He also was one of the most successful managers in the history of minor league baseball, his career extending from 1919 through 1957; he won 10 regular season pennants and 5 league titles. He won his first pennant with the 1922 Terre Haute Tots of the Three-I League, he also won a pennant with the 1935 Springfield Senators, also of the Three-I League. The rest of his titles came with the Evansville, Indiana, franchises in the Three-I League.

A native of Huntingburg, Indiana, Coleman played just three seasons in the Major Leagues, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cleveland Indians. The right-handed-hitting catcher batted .241 in 116 total games.

In 1919, at age 28, he embarked on his managerial career with the Mobile Bears of the Class A Southern Association. By 1926 he was a coach for the Boston Red Sox, but the following season he returned to the minor leagues, and in 1928 he became manager of the Evansville Hubs of the Class B Three-I League, where he would spend much of the rest of his baseball career. He managed Evansville for 20 seasons over four separate tours of duty, and won eight pennants there including his final season.