Syd Thrift: A most famous baseball figure

by Larry Chowning

Middlesex native Syd Thrift was general manager of the Pittsburg Pirates from 1985 to 1988 and associated with major league baseball for 50 years. Photo courtesy of Dolly Thrift
Syd Thrift, who grew up in Locust Hill and became a major league baseball management icon with the Pittsburg Pirates, played in 1949 for the La Grange Troupers in the New York Yankee farm system in La Grange, Georgia. Thrift graduated from Syringa High School and coached and taught at Middlesex High School in the early 1950s. Photo courtesy of Dolly Thrift

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most famous baseball figure in Middlesex County history was the late Sydnor W. Thrift Jr. of Locust Hill.

Syd Thrift made baseball his life and went on to become one of the greatest baseball minds in the history of the game. He became general manager of the Pittsburg Pirates and a top executive with the Baltimore Orioles.

As a seventh grader at Syringa High School (SHS), Thrift had grown to be 6 feet tall and he was recruited to play…[to-view-more]