Lum Harris (#147)

We haven't had a manager's card for awhile. Here we have Lum Harris, the manager of the Astros (or is he?)



On the back of the card, after going on and on about Harris' career, Topps wraps up with the statement "Lum was released as manager of the Houston Astros on December 12, 1965."

This raises several questions:
1) How inept was the Astros' front office that it took until December 12th before they decided to fire their manager? What losses occurred between October 1 and December 12?

2) Why would Topps bother to include a Harris card? After reading this a second time, I noticed that the text starts off "Lum was the manager...". (Not "is", "was".) So a sentence about his firing wasn't just tacked on to the end of an already-composed card back. It's at the top! Why not just pull the card, replace it with another Astros player, and catch up later in the summer after the Astros have decided who the new manager will be?

Harris went on to manage the Braves from 1968 to 1972.