Philip Mason Garner (April 30, 1949 – April 11, 2026) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an infielder with the Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants from 1973 to 1988. He was a three-time MLB All-Star. With the Pirates, he won the 1979 World Series. He managed the Milwaukee Brewers from 1992 to 1999, the Detroit Tigers from 2000 to 2002, and the Astros from 2004 to 2007. He led the Astros to their first league pennant and an appearance in the 2005 World Series.
Garner was born on April 30, 1949, in Jefferson City, Tennessee, and grew up in Rutledge, Tennessee. After a year of high school in Rutledge, which did not have a football team, Garner's father moved the family to Knoxville, so Garner could attend Bearden High School, which had an athletic program with both football and baseball. Garner played football and baseball, and going to Bearden gave him an opportunity to play both sports, increasing his chance of obtaining an athletic scholarship to college, which would otherwise be unaffordable for the family. He was Bearden's starting quarterback in 1965–66.
Bearden's baseball facility is now named Phil Garner Ballpark, and the school dedicated a bronze bust of Garner in front of the facility in 2003.
He attended the University of Tennessee on a baseball scholarship, playing second and third base on the baseball team from 1968–70. In 1969, he led the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in home runs (12), and twice led his team in runs batted in (RBIs). He was selected All-Southeastern Conference twice and was named an All-American in 1970. Two years after being drafted into professional baseball, in 1973, Garner graduated with a business administration degree.
In 2002, he was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. In 2009, the University of Tennessee retired his number 18.
Garner was originally drafted out of Tennessee by the Montreal Expos in the eighth round of the 1970 MLB draft, but did not sign. Seven months later, he was the second overall pick by the Oakland Athletics in the secondary January 1971 draft. Garner was in the A's minor league system from 1971 to 1974, playing almost all of his games as a third baseman.
In 1973, he played for the Tucson Toros of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, with a .289 batting average, 14 home runs, 73 RBIs, and 87 runs scored. He came up to the A's for nine games at the end of the year, but was back at Tucson for the majority of the following year in 1974. He was even better at Tucson in 1974, batting .330, but again played sparsely when called up to the A's later in the year. The A's won two World Series in 1973 and 1974, but Garner was not on the World Series roster either year. Garner's problem was the A's had an All-Star third baseman in Sal Bando, so Garner had no place to play.
During spring training in 1975, the A's released second baseman Dick Green and converted Garner into a second baseman. He started 159 games at second base for the A's in 1975 and had a .968 fielding percentage. This was the first time since 1972, however, that the A's did not win the World Series. Among other things, the A's lost future Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter to the New York Yankees in one of the earliest
free agency signings in modern baseball. On June 27, 1975, he got the A's 10,000th hit on a double off the California Angels' Andy Hassler in Anaheim. Garner had a breakout year for Oakland in 1976 in which he hit eight home runs and had 74 RBIs. He was named an All-Star that year, for the first time in his MLB career. He stole a career-high 35 bases that year.
Before the 1977 season, the Athletics traded Garner, Chris Batton, and Tommy Helms to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tony Armas, Rick Langford, Doug Bair, Dave Giusti, Doc Medich, and Mitchell Page. Garner's best year as a player was in 1977, when he hit 17 HRs and 35 doubles, had 77 RBIs, stole 32 bases, and scored 99 runs. On September 15, 1978, Garner became one of only seven MLB players to hit a grand slam in consecutive games (including Babe Ruth twice), though as of 2024, the number is near 30.
In 1979, he was a member of the World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates, batting .417 (5 for 12) in the 1979 National League Championship Series and .500 (12 for 24) in the World Series, a mark that stands as the highest World Series batting average (minimum 25 plate appearances).
Garner was nicknamed "Scrap-Iron" due to his gritty style of play. After being traded to Pittsburgh, the team's announcer, Milo Hamilton, asked Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Stargell about Garner. Stargell said the tough and competitive Garner was like an old piece of scrap metal that can be beaten and bent, but not broken. Hamilton then gave Garner the name "Scrap-Iron". His icon at the time was the scrappy, similarly mustachioed cartoon hero, Yosemite Sam. He was named an All-Star again in 1980, batting .259 while hitting 5 home runs, with 58 RBIs and stealing 32 bases. He was named an All-Star for a third and final time in his career the next season in 1981, though his statistics declined from previous years. He hit just one home run while having 26 RBIs on the year and had just 10 stolen bases.
On August 31, 1981, Garner was traded from the Pirates to the Houston Astros for second baseman Johnny Ray and pitcher Randy Niemann. In 1986, Garner helped Houston win a National League West Division title and reach the National League Championship Series (NLCS) to face the New York Mets. In game 6, on October 15, 1986, Garner was the Astros' starting third baseman in a 16-inning loss, going 1-for-3, until being replaced by a pinch-hitter. The Astros lost the NLCS to the Mets in six games. This was the final postseason appearance of his playing career. He remained with Houston until 1987.
Garner was traded in 1987 to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which granted him free agency after the season, and he then spent a year with San Francisco Giants in 1988. He went through 1989 without signing with any team and announced his retirement a year later.
In 1,860 games over 16 seasons, Garner posted a .260 batting average (1594-for-6136) with 780 runs, 299 doubles, 82 triples, 109 home runs, 738 RBIs, 225 stolen bases, 564 bases on balls, a .323 on-base percentage, and a .389 slugging percentage. He finished his career with an overall .965 fielding percentage playing at second and third base and shortstop. In 21 postseason games, he batted .309 (21-for-68) with 10 runs, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 8 RBIs, and 8 walks.
On October 30, 1991, Garner was named manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, replacing Tom Trebelhorn. Garner was hired by general manager Sal Bando, his former A’s teammate. The Brewers chose him over Tony Muser, Don Baylor, Gene Tenace (another A's teammate), Mike Cubbage, Tommy Sandt, and Gene Lamont. He was one of several former players at the time named manager of an MLB team without previous major league managing experience. He quickly installed a running-focused style of play, as every starter that year stole at least 10 bases. Standing out were 1992 AL Rookie of the Year Pat Listach, who stole 54 bases, veteran Paul Molitor stealing 31 (doing so in his final season with the team), and outfielder Darryl Hamilton stealing 41.
He led the team to a nine-game improvement from the previous year and led the Brewers to second place in the American League East Division, losing out by four games to the eventual world champion Toronto Blue Jays. He finished second in voting for American League Manager of the Year. This was the last time until 2007 that the team would finish above .500. Garner would lead them to more than 80 losses in four of his six full seasons spent with the team, which had icons such as Paul Molitor and Robin Yount leave (the former in free agency and the latter due to retirement). He was fired in the midst of a 1999 season that saw them at 52–60 (Jim Lefebvre replaced him and went 22–27 to close out the year).