Image from Old Judge card set	Tom Loftus Born: November 15, 1856 Died: April 16, 1910 Goto Baseball Reference for Tom Loftus Manager Majors: Yes
	St. Louis Position: Manager First game: Last game: # of games:	Manager for the St. Louis Whites. Became manager of Cleveland in July after the Whites folded. Article about Tom Loftus on the SABR website. SABR biography for Tom Loftus

The manager of the St. Louis Whites in 1888 was Tom Loftus. Loftus played baseball for the amateur St. Louis Reds in 1876 before appearing in three games with the St. Louis Brown Stockings (the original St. Louis entry into the National League) in 1877. In 1878, he had his first stint managing as a player-manager with the Peoria Reds. He moved to Dubuque in 1879 and played on the team there for manager Ted Sullivan with Charlie Comiskey, brothers Bill and Jack Gleason, and Sleeper Sullivan. These four were in the Browns opening day lineup for their first game in the American Association in 1882. After Ted Sullivan was hired as the Browns manager for 1883, he brought Loftus to St. Louis from Dubuque. Injuries limited him to only six games with the Browns that season. Those were his last game in the majors. He moved to Milwaukee in 1884, where he was player-manager for part of the season before switching to managing full time. When Milwaukee joined the Union Association late in the 1884 season, Loftus had his first experience managing in the major leagues.

When the Whites were accepted into the Western Association, Loftus was named as the manager for 1888. He was involved in the process of getting the club into the league, and was also a stakeholder in the club. After a strong start, the club faded as Von der Ahe looked to sell it. The final record was 14-25 when the club disbanded in June. Less than one month later, Loftus took over as the manager of the Cleveland franchise in the American Association. Cleveland was 20-44 when he took over, and he managed to improve that performance to a 30-38 record the rest of the season. Cleveland moved to the National League in 1889, and Loftus managed in his third different major league. He moved to Cincinnati in the National League in 1890 and 1891. While he had a winning record in 1890 (77-55), the Reds performance slipped to 56-81 the next year, and Loftus was back to managing in the minors.

Loftus had two more stints managing in the majors. He managed the Chicago Cubs (known as the Orphans at that point) in 1900 and 1901. In 1902 he took over managing the Washington Senators in their second season. He was a part owner of the club for several years from 1901 - 1904 when the American League first started. Loftus managed in all or part of nine seasons in the majors across four different leagues (Union Association, American Association, National League and American League).

Loftus played in Dubuque for three seasons, but lived in Dubuque for the rest of his life. He was president of the Three-I League (Ilinois-Indiana-Iowa) in 1908 before returning back to Dubuque. He died of cancer in 1910.