He found an escape from his hometown and a bad family situation through baseball, beginning a quick rise through the minor leagues that led him to the Orioles at the age of 18.

Under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, the Orioles of the 1890s won three National League (NL) pennants; McGraw was one of the stalwarts of the team alongside Wee Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Wilbert Robinson.

Through his just-short of thirty years managing the Giants, McGraw exerted control on players and team, and saw great success, winning ten pennants (matched only by Casey Stengel, who played for and learned from him) and three World Series.

[7] Shortly after his 16th birthday, he began playing for his town's team, the Truxton Grays, making a favorable impression on their manager, Albert "Bert" Kenney.

McGraw, who played shortstop, became a favorite of local fans, who dubbed him "el mono amarillo" (the yellow monkey), referring to his speed, his diminutive size, and the color of his team's uniforms.

McGraw hit three doubles in five times at bat, playing errorless ball at shortstop, and the reports of that game led several minor league teams to seek to sign him.

[26] Deciding McGraw could handle third base, Hanlon traded two infielders for five-time batting champion Dan Brouthers and diminutive outfielder Willie Keeler.

Under manager Ned Hanlon, an unerring talent spotter, the Orioles won three straight pennants, making them the second-best team of the decade.

From such discussions arose the discovery that a runner on third had an excellent chance of scoring if he left at the pitcher's first motion and the batter bunted, originating the squeeze play.

[38] The Orioles' "Big Four" (McGraw, Jennings, Keeler and Joe Kelley) held out to start 1895, but came to terms with the club in time for spring training.

To Hanlon's surprise, attendance in Baltimore rebounded, and the Orioles remained close to Brooklyn in the pennant race through late August, when McGraw had to leave the team due to the illness of his wife.

McGraw and Robinson, centerpieces of the old Orioles where such aggression was routine, were an odd fit, but as Johnson renamed his circuit the American League (AL) and sought to put franchises in abandoned NL cities like Baltimore, they became key to his plans.

[57] McGraw batted leadoff and managed the Orioles as Major League Baseball made its return to Baltimore in 1901, but missed games due to injuries and because of a suspension by Johnson for abusing the umpire.

[59] McGraw started the 1902 season with a knee injury; recovery from that, suspensions and a deep cut from the sharpened spikes of a baserunner meant he played few games for the Orioles.

[60] Although being a manager and part owner of a New York AL team would be a major opportunity for him, McGraw was convinced Johnson planned to discard him in the process.

"[62] On June 18, 1902, with the Orioles on a western road trip with Robinson as acting manager, McGraw (who was recuperating from the spiking) traveled to New York and met with Andrew Freedman, owner of the Giants.

[69] According to Alexander, given a crisis in his professional life as Johnson sought to exclude him from the Orioles' move to New York, McGraw acted in a way that was "totally ruthless and unscrupulous".

McGraw played occasionally, and spent part of the season appearing in AL cities seeking to sign players, much to the discomfiture of the local team's management.

[75] McGraw's new-look Giants got off to a hot start in 1903, and were in first place ahead of the two-time defending NL champion Pirates at the end of May, as crowds not seen in a decade flocked to the Polo Grounds.

Brush died after the season; control of the Giants passed to his heirs, including Harry Hempstead, the new team president, who gave the manager a new five-year contract for $30,000 per year.

Others suggested his players mentally froze at key moments out of fear of letting down McGraw, and Mathewson, in a column published under his name after the 1913 season, called the Giants a "team of puppets being manipulated from the bench on a string".

[114] They stayed close to the lead in the early part of the season, but due to players entering the military to fight in World War I (to which the patriotic McGraw did not object), did not have talent enough to catch the Cubs, who finished ahead of the Giants by 10+1⁄2 games.

There were setbacks, such as Frisch's absence due to appendicitis and two short suspensions for McGraw, who got into a (possibly alcohol-fueled) brawl at the Lambs' Club on August 8, and secluded himself in his apartment.

In his absence, Johnny Evers, the coach, ran the team, though McGraw eventually allowed himself to be questioned by local prosecutors, as well as federal agents seeking to enforce the Prohibition era Volstead Act.

This did not stop him from fiddling with his roster, as he in mid-season made a deal with the Phillies, acquiring, among others, Johnny Rawlings, Irish Meusel and Casey Stengel.

According to Alexander, "if it wasn't a great team, it was a very good one, a talented, experienced, smart bunch of ballplayers, virtually all of whom readily accepted the common estimate that, whatever his faults as a man, John McGraw was the greatest manager who'd ever lived.

Brooklyn got off to a league-leading start and remained close, taking the league lead for a few hours on September 6 before the Giants won the second game of a doubleheader to edge back ahead.

[150] McGraw missed much of a western road trip with illness, allowing Bancroft to manage during the subsequent homestand, or running the team from the clubhouse.

She was present when the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, was opened in 1939: her husband had been elected in 1937, along with Keeler and Mathewson, and thereafter attended many of the induction ceremonies.

[178] Although McGraw, an exponent of inside baseball, disliked the home run era, which he considered less interesting, he was flexible enough to find himself sluggers in his drive to win.