Whitey Herzog, one of the most innovative managers in Major League Baseball history who brought a popular, entertaining brand of baseball to St. Louis that was named "Whiteyball" after him, died on Monday.
A National Baseball Hall of Famer, Herzog was 92.
Earlier this month, Herzog attended the Cardinals' home opener at Busch Stadium and received an ovation from the sellout crowd when introduced as one of the team's red-jacket legends. That kind of reception was a constant in St. Louis, where he brought a World Series championship back to the organization, added his keen wit to interviews on television or conversations at the ballpark, and made a home.
The cause of death was listed as illness.
“Whitey spent his last few days surrounded by his family," the Herzog family said in a statement released by the Cardinals. "We have so appreciated all of the prayers and support from friends who knew he was very ill. Although it is hard for us to say goodbye, his peaceful passing was a blessing for him."
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Herzog is survived by his wife of more than 70 years, Mary Lou Herzog; their three children Debra, Jim, and David; and nine grandchildren. The family plans a private celebration of life and requests that any donations in Whitey Herzog's name be made to Shriner's Hospital for Children.
After being bypassed a couple of times, Herzog was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans' committee in December 2009 and inducted the next July.
He also was elected to the Cardinals' Hall of Fame and had his No. 24 retired.
'Whiteyball' and stolen bases
In the 1980s, Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog took St. Louis Cardinals baseball to destinations previously unreachable. Three million fans in a season, twice. A record 300-plus stolen bases in a season.
How many managers have had a style of play named after them? Very few besides New Athens, Illinois, native Whitey Herzog.
The working term for the Cardinals’ style of play, mostly from 1982-'87, was “Whiteyball,†an affectionate description of how Herzog played baseball chess. But “Whiteyball" was not so much a way to play that Herzog always had valued, it was the manner in which he utilized the resources he had.
For instance, if Herzog had taken over a Cardinals team that played in a bandbox like Chicago’s Wrigley Field can be, he would have set out to amass a cadre of hulking sluggers. He didn't. Both as general manager and manager, Herzog brought in players who fit the vast expanse of Busch Stadium II.
The Cardinals had plenty of offense when Herzog took over as manager for Ken Boyer in June 1980. They had an assortment of .300 hitters but many of them couldn’t run and, as big as Busch played then — 386 feet in the power alleys — they didn’t hit that many home runs either.
“Watching them play ... it was a joke,†said Herzog, referring to the 1980 season. "We'd be first or second in batting average. We had some power, but we’d finished 11th or 12th in home runs in a 12-team league. We’d get 11 hits and two runs most of the time.
“We never did get a run with three hits. It would take us four singles to get one run. We had a lot of holes and we had a high payroll.â€
Herzog actually had installed a form of “Whiteyball†in Kansas City, his previous stop, when he inherited a group of players who could run, like Freddie Patek, Frank White and Al Cowens. The Royals stole 218 bases as they won the American League Western Division title in 1976, with seven players stealing 20 or more bases. They had 216 steals two years later in another championship season.
When Herzog got to St. Louis and weeded out a number of players he didn’t want, he quickly realized that on an artificial surface in a big park, even bigger than Kansas City, the Cardinals needed to run — and run some more.
“He was a young players’ manager,†White said. “What he essentially did was go to St. Louis and put together the same type of team he did here in Kansas City.â€
Herzog, who was also general manager at the time, traded 14 players to get 11 in the a whirlwind December week in 1980. He made a two-part deal with San Diego the next off-season to get future Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith.
In 1982, when they won their first World Series in 15 years, the Cardinals stole 200 bases. That total grew to 314 in 1985, after Vince Coleman, who provided 110 steals, arrived.
“The stolen bases would put a guy into scoring position and then it would take a ground ball and a fly ball for a run,†Herzog said.
Herzog used to joke that his Cardinals teams used to try to beat Roger Maris’ then homer record of 61 — as a team. They managed to outpoint Maris, barely, when they hit 67 homers in 1982.
“I changed the whole concept of the way to play baseball because we couldn’t hit a home run and we could neutralize the power of the other team in our ball park,†said Herzog. “So I kind of just went with speed, which is the one thing in baseball you can use on both sides of the ball. You can use it on offense and defense.â€
Breaking attendance records
As the stolen bases mounted, so did the turnstile count, as St. Louis fans marveled at the new brand of ball.
“The fact that I’m most proud of in St. Louis is that for seven years in a row, we broke our own attendance record,†Herzog said. “No one ever thought that we would surpass three million in attendance and we sold over three million tickets the last four years I was there. We were the first Midwestern team to have over three million in attendance. And in those days (in the National League), it was not tickets sold. It was turnstile count.â€
Herzog won three division titles — and three league titles with the Cardinals. He would forever regret that the Cardinals were robbed of a second World Series championship by a bad call at first in the ninth inning of Game 6 at Kansas City in 1985.
In 1981, though the Cardinals had the best total record in their division counting the two halves of a split season, they didn't make the playoffs because they didn't win their division in each half. Herzog railed at commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
Herzog also had won three straight division titles with Kansas City from 1976-'78, although the Royals lost to the Yankees in the American League championship series in all three seasons.
He was dismissed by the Royals after the 1979 season. Herzog, never at a loss for words, had made it known in strong terms that ownership should have been more active in the free agent market to give him a chance to beat the Yankees.
Herzog, then called "Relly" by his friends, originally signed with the Yankees out of high school in 1949. He was nicknamed "Whitey" by a MacAlester, Oklahoma, sportscaster.
After being traded by the Yankees before he ever played an inning for them, Herzog played in the majors for Washington, the Kansas City A's, Baltimore and Detroit from 1956-'63, hitting .254 in his career. In reference to his success as a player versus his success as a manager, Herzog once said, "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it."
Before he went into managing at the major league level, Herzog scouted, coached and served as a director of player development for the New York Mets, helping build the foundation for the World Series teams of 1969 and 1973.
Herzog managed Texas for about two-thirds of a season in 1973 before being fired and replaced by Billy Martin. He took over the Royals in 1975 after coaching for California in 1974.
In 2019, Herzog recovered from a stroke that he had at his charity golf tournament in St. Louis. He had fought through other health concerns, including a fall in October 2011 that put him in the hospital for nearly a month due to bleeding on the brain. In 2013, he fell and fractured a hip, but he recovered and was back to greet Cardinals players and his fellow Hall of Famers for the next opening day.
After his championship career with the Cardinals, Herzog remained a presence in St. Louis and at the ballpark. He made annual trips to spring training, where he would chat up players, coaches, the manager or reporters — whoever happened to be nearby. Of the scribes, he was closest with Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel, whom he called "Humm" and often chided for still working while Herzog enjoyed the game.
"He had a very distinctive style," said fellow Cardinals Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa. "He was involved in the game with the way he handled the bullpen and the way his offense played. Whitey's clubs, both in St. Louis and Kansas City, always had those guys trying to go for doubles and triples and that put a lot of pressure on the defense.
"The guys who played for him all raved about him. What more do you want?"