page_title: Harry Craft
section_title: Minor leagues
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Craft / Managerial career / Minor leagues
caption_attribution_description: English: Major League baseball player en:Harry Craft
context_page_description: Harry Francis Craft was an American Major League Baseball player and manager. Born in Ellisville, Mississippi, he was a center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds from 1937 to 1942. Craft attended Mississippi College, threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 185 pounds.
  From 1962 through September 18, 1964, Craft was the first manager in Houston's Major League history as skipper of the expansion Houston Colt .45s, later the Astros. Earlier, he managed the Kansas City Athletics and he was the "head coach" of the Chicago Cubs.
context_section_description: Craft began his managing career in the farm system of the New York Yankees in 1949. That season, he was Mickey Mantle's first manager in professional baseball with Independence of the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League. In 1950, Craft managed Mantle again with the Joplin Miners in the Western Association. Eventually, Craft progressed to the Triple-A level with the Kansas City Blues of the American Association in 1953–1954.
  "I was lucky to have Harry as skipper my first two years", Mantle said years later. "He started me out right."   Craft would also manage Roger Maris at the Major League level in 1958–1959 with the Kansas City Athletics, just before the young right fielder was traded to the Yankees. Maris credited Craft with helping him with his hitting.
caption: Craft in 1940
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