Benjamin Raymond Geraghty (July 19, 1912 – June 18, 1963) was an American infielder in Major League Baseball and one of the most successful and respected minor league managers of the 1950s. A Jersey City native, Geraghty went right from Villanova University to the Brooklyn Dodgers, appearing in 51 games with the team in his rookie season. He appeared in 19 more games with the Boston Braves over the 1943 and 1944 seasons, compiling a batting average of .199 in 146 at bats with 29 hits in 71 career games. In 1946, he survived a horrific bus crash that killed nine of his Spokane Indians teammates. As he wound up his playing career, Geraghty started managing. He was part of the Milwaukee Braves system for nine years from 1953 through 1961, during which time Hank Aaron played for him. Aaron considered Geraghty the best manager he ever had. In his 18-year managing career, Geraghty won 1,432 games and lost 1,154 (.554). He won five pennants in seven years (1953–59) while piloting Braves affiliates. In the ten seasons of 1953 through 1962, a Geraghty-managed team never finished lower than second place. He was managing the Jacksonville Suns in 1963 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on June 18, just shy of his 51st birthday. Early life Benjamin Raymond Geraghty was born on July 19, 1912, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was the youngest of eight children of Patrick and Ida Geraghty, Irish immigrants to the United States. Patrick held several jobs during Ben's childhood; he was employed for over ten years as a teamster, then as a chauffeur for a tea factory, and finally as a night manager at the garage for the National Grocery Company. The Geraghtys lived on 157 Grand Street in Jersey City, along with two of Ida's brothers, the four-member Greaves family, and a boarder from Sweden. Patrick died in an accident not long after Ben's 14th birthday, when he was crushed between two trucks at work. Thomas, the second-oldest boy who worked as a policeman in the community, helped raise the younger children after Patrick's death. During his freshman and sophomore years of high school, Geraghty attended St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, where he played baseball as a pitcher and also was part of the basketball team. He transferred to St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark as junior. By this time, he