Tony Lupien (April 23, 1917 - July 9, 2004) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball. He was a left-handed batter who played for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox. Lupien was an all-around athlete and successful coach. Born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard University in 1939. At Harvard, he was captain of the baseball team as a junior and of the basketball team as a senior. He was the Eastern Intercollegiate League batting champion in 1938 and 1939, and he also was a quarterback for his freshman football team at Harvard.
Upon graduation from Harvard, Lupien signed a professional baseball contract with the Red Sox and played the 1939 season for the Double-A Scranton's Eastern League championship team. He made his majors debut for the Red Sox on September 12, 1940. One of his most productive seasons came in 1942 when he batted .281 with three home runs and 70 runs batted in for the Red Sox. He was traded to the Phillies where he played in 1944 and early in 1945 before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In the 1944 season he hit .283 with five homers, 52 RBI, 82 runs, 23 doubles, 9 triples and 18 stolen bases. In 1948, he played for the White Sox.
Lupien finished his MLB career hitting .268 with 18 home runs, 230 RBI, 285 runs, 92 doubles, 30 triples, and 57 stolen bases in 614 games. In 1949, he played with Triple-A Toledo (American Association). He concluded his professional career from 1951-53 and in 1955 when he was a player as well as field and general manager with Jamestown and Corning, New York, in the Pony League. From 1951-56 he was head basketball coach at Middlebury College, compiling a record of 60-49 in five seasons.
In 1956, Lupien was hired as Dartmouth College's baseball coach. He spent 21 seasons at the school and guided his teams to 313 wins, 305 losses and three ties record, winning the Eastern Intercollegiate League championship four times (1963, 1967, 1969-70). His 1970 team advanced to the College World Series at Omaha, Nebraska where it finished fifth. That team had a 24-10 record that included a 21-game win streak. He was also the Dartmouth's freshman basketball coach from 1956-68.
Lupien retired from coaching in 1977 but continued to work for many years as a stockbroker with various firms in New England. He died in Norwich, Vermont, at 87 years of age.
Note
Tony Lupien was recognized for decades as a great teacher and mentor. He was also an outspoken observer of labor relations in professional baseball. In 1980 he collaborated with writer Lee Lowenfish to author The Imperfect Diamond, a book that remains a definitive text on baseball labor from the introduction of the reserve clause in 1879 to the litigation in the 1970s that led to free agency .
