Baseball Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog dies at 92

Whitey Herzog, the cantankerous, savvy Hall of Fame manager who won three pennants and a World Series title with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s, has died. and perfected an intricate, nerve-wracking strategy known as “Whiteyball.” He is 92 years old.

Cardinals spokesman Brian Bartow said Tuesday that the Missouri-based team learned of Herzog’s death from his family. Herzog attended the Cardinals’ home opener at Busch Stadium on April 4 and died Monday, according to Bartow.

“Whitey Herzog dedicated his life to the game he loved and was an outstanding leader on and off the field,” Jane Forbes Clark, chair of the Hall of Fame’s board of directors, said in a statement. Whitey’s straightforward style always brought out the best in every player he managed, which earned him respect throughout the game.”

Herzog, a crew-cut, pot-bellied, tobacco-chewing man with no patience for the “buddy-dude” school of management, joined the Cardinals in 1980 and helped end that by adapting to artificial surfaces and vast distances. The team’s pennant drought lasted more than a decade. The fence at Busch Memorial Stadium. A typical victory for the Cardinals under Herzog was a low-scoring, 1-run game locked in the final inning by a “bullpen by committee” in which relievers might be replaced after one pitch, Or temporarily moved to the outfield and brought back to the mound.

The Cardinals had power hitters such as George Hendrick and Jack Clark, but they relied primarily on the speed and resourcefulness of switch-hitter Vince Coleman and Willie McGee, shortstop and future celebrities. The acrobatic defense of Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and the effective pitching of starters such as John Tudor and Danny Cox and reliever Todd Worrell Todd Worrell, Ken Dayley and Jeff Lahti. For the ’82 championship, Herzog didn’t bother rotating relievers and simply brought in future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter to get the job done.

Under Herzog, the Cards won pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987 and the World Series in 1982, when they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games. Herzog led the Kansas City Royals to division titles from 1976-78, but they lost to the New York Yankees in the league title each time.

Overall, Herzog coached for 18 seasons and compiled a record of 1,281 wins and 1,125 losses. He was named Manager of the Year in 1985 and was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2010, with a plaque noting his “tough-yet-good style” and his dedication to speed, pitching and defense. Pay attention to. Just before he officially entered the auditorium, the Cardinals retired his uniform number: No. 24.

Dorell Norman Elvitt Herzog was born in New Athens, Illinois, a blue-collar community that shaped him long after he left it. He excelled in baseball and basketball and was willing to skip class occasionally to attend Cardinals games. Signed by the Yankees as a center fielder, he found himself facing competition from rookie Mickey Mantle, who had been born weeks before him.

Herzog never played for the Yankees, but he did get to know manager Casey Stengel, another player-shuffling guru who became a key influence on him.

Like many successful coaches, Herzog was a mediocre player, batting just .257 in eight seasons and playing multiple positions. His best year was in Baltimore in 1961, when he hit .291. He also played for the Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics and Detroit Tigers, ending his career in 1963.

“Baseball has been good to me since I stopped trying to play baseball,” he likes to say.

Herzog is survived by his wife of 71 years, Mary Lou Herzog; their three children, Debra, David and Jim, and their spouses; nine two grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.