Eddie Haas, the outfielder, coach, manager, and scout who spent the better part of seven decades in professional baseball and managed the Atlanta Braves during one of the franchise’s more difficult seasons, died on June 4, 2026 in his hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. He was 91.
Born George Edwin Haas on May 26, 1935, he signed his first professional contract with the Chicago Cubs out of St. John High School in Paducah and made his Major League debut with the Cubs on September 8, 1957. He was traded to the Milwaukee Braves that offseason and over the course of 55 games across three seasons with Chicago and Milwaukee batted .243 with one home run and 17 total hits. A broken ankle wiped out the entire 1959 season, the kind of injury that changes the trajectory of a career quietly and permanently. His playing days at the Major League level were over by 1960.
What came next was the real career, and it lasted considerably longer. Haas stayed in the Braves organisation after his minor league playing days ended and never really left, serving as a minor league manager and coach from 1965 through 1973, returning in the same capacity from 1978 through 1984, and coaching for the MLB Braves from 1974 through 1977. That is the kind of institutional loyalty that organisations depend on and rarely adequately reward, the career of a baseball lifer who understood the game at every level and spent decades passing that knowledge along.
After Joe Torre departed following the 1984 season, Haas was given the opportunity to manage the Atlanta Braves at the Major League level. His 1985 club went 50-71 before he was let go on August 26 of that year with the team sitting 22 games out of the lead in the National League West. It was not a long run, but it represented the culmination of a lifetime of work in the game, the moment when an organisation trusts you with the whole thing.
After his managerial career he pivoted into scouting, serving as a special assignment scout for the Montreal Expos from 1986 through 1994 and for the Boston Red Sox from 1995 through 2003. That is eighteen more years in the game after most people would have walked away. He was not most people.
Baseball ran in the family at a level that is genuinely remarkable. His brother Louis played in the Braves organisation. His sons Matt and Danny are longtime scouts and former minor league players. His cousins Phil and Gene Roof are former Major League players and coaches with many years as minor league managers. Another cousin, Paul Roof, pitched in the minor leagues. The Haas family did not do things by half measures.
He was 91 years old and had been part of professional baseball for most of them. The game was lucky to have him for that long.