Hal Lanier, a 1961 graduate of Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport who went on to have a 10-year playing career in major league baseball and was a Manager of the Year, admits he was surprised — and saddened — to hear recently that his alma mater no longer fielded a baseball team.
“It’s a shame,” Lanier said from his home in the St. Cloud area of Osceola County. “My brother Terry told me about it. It’s sad to hear that news. I don’t know all the reasons for it, but I am sure a lot (of players) were looking forward to playing this year.”
Several schools in Pinellas County have undergone changes in the past year with several sports teams affected.
Back when Lanier played for Boca Ciega, however, it was a different story. Lanier not only was a quality baseball player, but he also played basketball.
“I loved baseball and basketball,” said Lanier, now 83. “Looking back, I probably enjoyed basketball more. I played three years and was a guard. We had a tall team for the time. I might have been the shortest one at 6-foot-2. I know we had a couple of guys over 6-4.”
But baseball was where it was at. After all, he comes from a baseball family. His father Max pitched in the majors for 14 years, including several years with the Cardinals, which is how the family ended up in St. Petersburg, where St. Louis held spring training. Lanier excelled as an infielder and pitcher. Lanier caught the attention of scouts early on. His father cast the deciding vote. No surprise, Lanier’s future was in baseball.
“The Giants were scouting me in ninth grade,” said Lanier, who lost his mother when he was 6 after she died in a car accident. “Scouts were at every game. Nick Shinkoff, scouting for the Giants, told me when I was a junior that he was going to make sure that they would sign me.”
The bigger question was not whether he would sign with a major club, but whether or it would be as an infielder or pitcher. In three years of mound work, the righthanded Lanier was 33-3. In his senior year he helped the Pirates win the conference championship and make it to the state finals (where they lost to Jacksonville) with his bat and arm. He was a steady hitter, consistently in the .400 range. When the Giants made their offer, though, it was determined that Lanier would stick to the infield where his chances of making it to the majors were faster.
While Boca Ciega had some other quality ballplayers over the years including Tom Zimmer and Dave Porter, it was Lanier who earned baseball card status.
Once signed, Lanier worked his way up through the system and was a solid .300 hitter. In 1964, Lanier made it to San Francisco where he would play eight years alongside some of the great Giants including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal.
In his rookie year he batted a very respectable .274. He hit second in the order ahead of Mays, which provided him with better pitches to hit. He was rewarded for his efforts by being named to the Topps All-Rookie team.
The following year he got off to a slow start and fell to eighth in the order, just ahead of the pitcher. Later, when Herman Franks was the manager, Lanier experimented in becoming a switch hitter and did pretty well from the left side. But Franks balked at the move and told Lanier to stick to batting from the right side.
“I felt I could do well from the left side, hitting line drives and putting the ball in play.” Dejected, Lanier got a boost from Mays. “He took me under his wings,” remembered Lanier. “He was very close to me. He told me to do what the manager said.”
As time went on, Lanier, whose career batting average was .228, was much better known as a defensive standout.
“When I first came up (manager) Alvin Dark, who had played with my dad, gave me an opportunity to play second base,” said Lanier, who until then mainly played shortstop.
Between playing second and short, the sure-handed Lanier would enjoy a long-playing career, finishing out with two years as a New York Yankee in a utility role.
Eventually Lanier would turn to coaching and managing for 10 years in the majors, including five years as a coach with the Cardinals. During that span, St. Louis, managed by Whitey Herzog, won the World Series in 1982 and were National League champions in 1985. In 1986 he was hired as manager of the Houston Astros.
“I learned a lot from Whitey,” Lanier said. “He really knew how to handle a pitching staff. He was ahead of his time.”
Lanier took that knowledge to Houston, which had a stellar group of hurlers led by Cy Young winner Mike Scott.
“We had a lot of ‘team’ players,” emphasized Lanier. “We put the defensive pressure on teams — five guys with 20 or more stolen bases, not stopping at second base on a hit. We weren’t particularly fast, but we could run.”
The Astros won the National League West with a record of 96-66, only to lose to the New York Mets in a grueling six-game series that featured an epic 16-inning Game 6 clinching contest for the ages. From there, the Mets would beat the Boston Red Sox.
“We were within reach of the World Series,” sighed Lanier, who was named the National League Manager of the Year.
Houston tumbled below .500 the next year then rebounded with a record of 82-80 in 1988. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for the front office and Lanier was let go. Still, “I enjoyed my three years there,” he said. Lanier later became a bench coach with the Philadelphia Phillies. When the Phillies let him go in 1995, he couldn’t find any other takers.
“I thought I might have a couple jobs, but they didn’t work out,” he said. In the winter of ’95, Lanier got a call from an independent league team in Winnipeg. Would he be interested in managing in Canada?
“I had no idea what independent baseball was about,” he admitted. It would be the start of a new chapter for Lanier. He would manage a host of independent teams over the next several years.
“It really was like the majors and I enjoyed it,” said Lanier. “A bunch of our guys made it to the majors and that was a good feeling.”
Lanier retired from baseball in 2019. He is a Boca Ciega Hall of Famer along with his brother Terry. Two years ago, Lanier was inducted into hall of fame, this time with the Independent League’s American Association of Professional Baseball Hall.
Until recently he played golf three times a week with his wife of 20 years, Pam. He still hits the links, generally only once a week these days. When he gets the chance, he still enjoys the challenge or a golf tourney.
He does wonder occasionally what would have happened if he signed as a pitcher.
“Every now and then I’d think about getting on the mound to see what I could do,” he said.
That’s a question without an answer. Still, Hal Lanier was in major league baseball for 20 years. Now that’s an answer worth thinking about.