willing to set aside his longstanding rule requiring his players to wear ties at all times, saying, "If I can't get along with a .400 hitter, they ought to fire me right now." In his first season with the Red Sox, he managed them to a 96-59 record; however, Boston fell short of the pennant when they lost in the 1948 American League tie-breaker game to the Cleveland Indians 8–3. The following year, the Red Sox led the Yankees by one game with two to play, but the Yankees beat the Red Sox in those final two games to win the pennant, the first of ten for Casey Stengel. Boston finished 96-58, one game behind New York. The Red Sox started the 1950 season slowly; by late June, they were 31-28, eight games out of first. On June 21, McCarthy didn't show up for a game against the Chicago White Sox, leading to speculation that he was drinking again. McCarthy insisted he would remain in the dugout; but Cronin suspected that McCarthy had lost his competitive fire, and persuaded him to resign. In 24 seasons as a major league manager, McCarthy never managed a team to a losing record. Coaching style Despite his teams' great performance, McCarthy was not without his detractors, who believed he was simply fortunate enough to be provided with great talent and was not a strong game tactician. During his peak period from 1936 to 1943, when the Yankees won seven pennants in eight seasons, White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes described McCarthy as a "push-button" manager. Yet McCarthy was an outstanding teacher and developer of talent, and was particularly adept at handling temperamental players such as Babe Ruth, who had hoped to become New York's manager and resented a team "outsider" being hired. Ruth and McCarthy's relationship was lukewarm at best, and chilled considerably in 1934 when Ruth began openly campaigning to become manager. Partly due to this, Ruth was traded to the lowly Boston Braves after the season. While managing, McCarthy utilized a low-key approach, never going to the mound to remove a pitcher or arguing with an umpire except on a point of the rules, preferring to stay at his seat in the center of the dugout. He also declined to wear a numbered uniform with the Yankees and Red Sox. In order to draw attention to his presumed masterful leadership of the Yankees,