Cedric Tallis

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cedric Nelson Tallis (July 29, 1914 – May 8, 1991) was an American baseball executive who helped shape two powerhouse teams in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the Kansas City Royals’ first general manager and later a key executive for the New York Yankees, helping them win the 1978 World Series.

Born in New York City, Tallis served in the U.S. Army during World War II, rising to the rank of major. After the war, he managed minor league teams, including the Birmingham Barons and the Vancouver Mounties, and served as business manager for the Los Angeles Angels in their first season (1961).

In 1968, Royals owner Ewing Kauffman hired Tallis to build an expansion team that began play in 1969. Tallis assembled a talented management group (including John Schuerholz, Lou Gorman, Syd Thrift, Jack McKeon, and Herk Robinson) and launched the Royals Baseball Academy, a pioneering program for talented athletes with little baseball experience. He also built a strong farm system. By 1971, Kansas City had a winning record, earning Tallis The Sporting News Executive of the Year. The Royals opened Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in 1973. Tallis was replaced as Royals GM in June 1974 by Joe Burke; under Burke, players like George Brett developed into stars that helped the club win later in the decade. Tallis is in the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame.

He then joined the Yankees in the front office, helping supervise the 1974–75 renovation of Yankee Stadium. After the 1977 season, he became the Yankees’ general manager, reporting to George Steinbrenner and Gabe Paul. The team won the 1978 World Series under his watch; however, 1979 was difficult after the death of Thurman Munson, and Tallis left as GM after the season, though he stayed with the Yankees as an executive vice president for three more years. He later led the Tampa Bay Baseball Group, aiming to attract a major league team to Tampa Bay—an effort that did not succeed in his lifetime. Tallis died of a heart attack in Tampa in 1991 at age 76.