Vaughan Pallmore "Bing" Devine (March 1, 1916 – January 27, 2007) was an American front office executive in Major League Baseball. In the prime of his career, as a general manager, the executive who is responsible for all baseball operations, Devine was a major architect of four National League champions and three World Series champions in the six years from through . Specifically, Devine served as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals from November 12, 1957, through August 17, 1964, and was directly responsible for putting the 1964 world champion Cardinals on the field – even though he had been fired with seven weeks remaining in the season, one of the most bizarre events in baseball annals. Many of the players Devine acquired led the Cardinals to the 1967 world title and the 1968 NL championship, the latter occurring during Devine's second tour (1968–78) as the Cardinals' general manager. In between those terms, from 1965 to 1967, Devine was assistant to the president and then president (and de facto general manager) of the New York Mets, where he helped put together the organization that turned the franchise from baseball's laughingstocks into 1969's world champions as the "Miracle Mets." During the 1980s, he also served as president of the St. Louis football Cardinals of the National Football League. Early baseball career Devine was born in St. Louis, where he attended University City High School and Washington University. He played college basketball and semiprofessional baseball, then joined the Cardinals in 1939 as an office boy and batting practice pitcher. In 1941, he became business manager of the Class D Johnson City Cardinals. During a roster shortage, Devine activated himself as a second baseman for 27 games and 93 at bats, but he garnered only 11 hits for a .118 batting average. Thereafter he hung up his uniform and concentrated on his work in the front office. As pioneers of the farm system concept, the Cardinals had as many as 40 affiliated or owned teams in their minor league system before World War II. With time out for U.S. Navy service during the war, Devine rose rapidly through the ranks as a business manager of Cardinal farm teams, finally becoming the general manager of the Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A International League in 1949. After six seasons at the helm of the Redbirds' top farm team, he joined the St. Louis