Whitey Herzog, Hall of Fame baseball manager, dies at 92

August 01, 2024

Whitey Herzog, a Hall of Fame baseball manager who guided the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1982 World Series title and introduced a fast-paced, daring style of play known as “Whiteyball,” emphasizing base running, defense and a sturdy bullpen, has died at 92.

The Cardinals announced his death in a statement but did not disclose a cause. He died during the night of April 15-16. He had attended the Cardinals’ first home game of the season in St. Louis on April 4.

Like many managers, Mr. Herzog had a modest career as a player but blossomed as an evaluator of talent, motivator and teacher of the game. “Baseball has been good to me,” he quipped, “since I quit trying to play it.”

He managed in the major leagues during parts of 18 seasons and was part of a generation of stellar managers that included Sparky Anderson, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda and Davey Johnson.

Mr. Herzog first found success in Kansas City, where he led the Royals to three consecutive division titles in the 1970s, only to lose each time to the New York Yankees, which won two World Series titles in those years.

In 1980, Mr. Herzog took over the manager’s job in St. Louis, inheriting a last-place team. He briefly stepped aside as manager late in the 1980 season to become the Cardinals’ general manager. Drawing on his experiences in Kansas City, he reshaped the roster to suit the spacious dimensions and fast artificial surface of Busch Stadium. He made trades involving more than 20 players, and by 1981 was back in the dugout, leading his new team to a winning record.

“I made only one promise when I took over the Cardinals,” Mr. Herzog said in a 1987 memoir, “White Rat,” co-written with Kevin Horrigan. “I said we would hustle and bust our tails, or else I’d find people who would.”

He traded for slick-fielding Ozzie Smith, who became a fixture at shortstop for more than a decade and a cornerstone of three Cardinals World Series teams in the 1980s. He acquired Hall of Fame relief pitcher Bruce Sutter to anchor the bullpen.

Mr. Herzog’s 1982 team won the National League’s East Division title, then swept the Atlanta Braves to advance to the World Series against the hard-hitting Milwaukee Brewers, which had five players with at least 20 home runs. The Cardinals didn’t have one.

In the seventh game of the series, the Brewers led 3-1 in the sixth inning, when Keith Hernandez and George Hendrick came through with key hits to put the Cardinals ahead. They eventually won, 6-3, to win St. Louis’s first World Series in 15 years. Pitcher Joaquin Andjuar won two games for the Cardinals, and Sutter won a third and saved two others.

After Mr. Herzog butted heads with Hernandez and Hendrick, the Cardinals traded both World Series heroes away.

By 1985, the Cardinals were remade to Mr. Herzog’s specifications — a fast, fundamentally sound team designed to succeed in Busch Stadium. There were four switch-hitters in the starting lineup, including Willie McGee, who won the 1985 National League batting title with a .353 average.

Five players on the team stole at least 30 bases, led by rookie Vince Coleman with 110. Andujar and left-handed pitcher John Tudor won 21 games each, with Tudor tossing 10 shutouts. Only one player, first baseman Jack Clark, hit more than 13 home runs.

“The Cardinals were a jack-rabbit team,” sportscaster Bob Costas said on the MLB Network. “They didn’t have all that much power, but boy, did they play smart, and boy did they play to their circumstances, on the carpet in St. Louis. … [Herzog] was an expert at handling pitchers — every opposing manager said that.”

In what was called the “I-70 Series” against the cross-state Royals in 1985, the Cardinals were three outs from the championship when Kansas City came up for its final at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning. Pinch hitter Jorge Orta bounced a groundball to Clark, who tossed to reliever Todd Worrell, who was covering first base.

Umpire Don Denkinger ruled Orta safe, even though replays clearly showed that Worrell beat him to the bag. Despite vigorous protests by Mr. Herzog and Cardinal players, the play was not overturned, and Denkinger’s blown call has become a notorious part of baseball history, helping lead to video reviews of umpiring decisions.

The Royals then rallied to win the game, 2-1. The next day, the dispirited Cardinals fell apart. Mr. Herzog was ejected as his team lost the seventh and deciding game, 11-0.

The Cardinals reached the World Series again in 1987, but Clark, the team’s best power hitter, was injured and could not play. The Cardinals lost to the Minnesota Twins in seven games.

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Nonetheless, Mr. Herzog soon became one of the most popular managers in the franchise’s storied history. Team owner August S. “Gussie” Busch Jr., well into his 80s, reportedly offered Mr. Herzog a lifetime contract, to which Mr. Herzog replied, “Your lifetime or mine?”

The ‘White Rat’

Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog, the second of three sons, was born Nov. 9, 1931, in New Athens, Ill., about 40 miles east of St. Louis. His father worked in a brewery, and his mother worked at a shoe factory.

“Relly,” as he was known, had several odd jobs in his youth, including as a gravedigger and newspaper delivery boy, but he also excelled in sports, especially basketball and baseball. A left-hander, he was a pitcher and outfielder on his high school team, and he often took a bus to St. Louis to watch the Cardinals and the old St. Louis Browns.

After completing high school in 1949, Mr. Herzog signed a professional contract with the New York Yankees. In the minor leagues, Mr. Herzog became known as “Whitey” for his blond crew cut, and he later was dubbed the “White Rat” for his resemblance to Yankee pitcher Bob Kuzava, who had the same nickname.

Following Army service in the Korean War, Mr. Herzog first reached the majors in 1956 as a part-time outfielder with the Washington Senators. He later had stints with Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers before retiring in 1963.

He then was a scout and minor league manager before joining the New York Mets in 1966 as third-base coach. In 1967, he became the Mets’ director of player development, helping advance the careers of such young players such as Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry and Amos Otis.

When Mr. Herzog was passed over for the Mets’ managerial job in 1972, after the death of Gil Hodges, he left the franchise. A year later, he became the manager of the Texas Rangers, only to be replaced during his first season by Billy Martin. He was named manager of the Royals in 1975, developing the first scrappy incarnation of “Whiteyball.”

Mr. Herzog was known for his bluntness, which did not always please his players or front-office bosses. Midway through the 1990 season, with his Cardinals in last place, he told his team, “Do me a favor. When they finish the national anthem and you put your caps back on, please put your brains under your caps for the next three hours.”

He retired shortly afterward and never managed again. He was the Angels’ general manager in 1993 and 1994, then retired to St. Louis as an elder statesman of the game. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Survivors include his wife of 71 years, the former Mary Lou Sinn; three children; nine grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Herzog was known as one of baseball’s great storytellers. One came from 1957, when he was with the minor league Miami Marlins. One of his teammates was Satchel Paige, a legend of baseball’s Negro Leagues since the 1920s, and still pitching effectively at the age of 51.

In Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Herzog noticed a small hole in the outfield fence about the size of a baseball. According to Joe Posnanski’s book “The Baseball 100,” Mr. Herzog bet Paige a bottle of bourbon that he couldn’t throw a baseball through the hole.

Paige, who called Mr. Herzog “Wild Child,” said, “Wild Child, is that hole big enough for a ball to fit through?”

Mr. Herzog assured him it was, paced off 60 feet 6 inches, the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate, and handed Paige a bag of baseballs.

“No, Wild Child, I don’t believe I’ll need all those baseballs,” Paige said.

On his first throw, the ball rattled around the hole and bounced away.

When Paige took aim a second time, the ball disappeared through the hole, without scraping an edge.

Reaching for Mr. Herzog’s bottle of bourbon, Paige said, “I’ll take that.”

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