The baseball world is mourning the loss of a true mastermind. Whitey Herzog, the gruff, ingenious, and wildly successful manager who guided the St. Louis Cardinals to three pennants and a World Series championship in the 1980s with his intricate “Whiteyball” strategy, has died at age 92.
Herzog’s family informed the Cardinals of his passing on Tuesday, though no additional details were provided. The iconic skipper had been in attendance at Busch Stadium just two weeks prior for the team’s home opener on April 4th, greeting fans one final time.
“Whitey Herzog devoted his lifetime to the game he loved, excelling as a leader on and off the field,” said Jane Forbes Clark, chair of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors. “Whitey always brought the best out of every player he managed with a forthright style that won him respect throughout the game.”
That forthright, no-nonsense style defined Herzog’s managerial tenure from 1980 to 1990 with the Cardinals. A crew-cut, pot-bellied tobacco chewer who had no patience for the “buddy-buddy” managing approach, Herzog took over a Cardinals club mired in a pennant drought of over a decade. He immediately remade them into a finely-tuned machine of speed, defense, and situational baseball – a formula that came to be known as “Whiteyball.”
Gone were the days of the Cardinals bashing their way to victories with hulking power bats. A typical Herzog win was a nail-biting, low-scoring 1-run game won in the late innings by his pioneering use of a “bullpen by committee” approach. Relievers might be swapped out after a single pitch or temporarily shifted to the outfield before being summoned back to the mound. It was chaos, but brilliant chaos guided by Herzog’s strategic mind.
“They seemed to think there was something wrong with the way we played baseball, with speed and defense and line-drive hitters,” Herzog wrote about critics of Whiteyball in his 1987 memoir. “They called it ‘Whiteyball’ and said it couldn’t last.”
Oh but it did last, to historic success. Behind switch-hitters Vince Coleman and Willie McGee wreaking havoc on the basepaths, the acrobatic fielding of future Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, and an assembly line of crafty starters and relievers, Herzog’s Cardinals won pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987. His iconic 1982 club finally ended the franchise’s championship drought by edging the Milwaukee Brewers in a thrilling 7-game World Series.
“Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it,” Herzog often quipped, alluding to his rather pedestrian playing career as an outfielder and utility man from 1956 to 1963. Despite batting just .257 lifetime, Herzog had a keen eye for talent and innovation that prepared him for manager greatness.
His first major opportunity came in 1973 as the inaugural manager of the Texas Rangers, though that initial stint was brief and unsuccessful. Herzog truly made his mark after joining the Kansas City Royals in 1975, guiding them to three consecutive AL West titles from 1976 to 1978 before being fired by new ownership.
That’s when the Cardinals came calling, setting the stage for Herzog’s Whiteyball revolution and sustained run of excellence in St. Louis. While his teams relied on manufacturing runs through exquisite situational hitting, defensive wizardry, and bullpen tactics, Herzog did have power bats like George Hendrick and Jack Clark to provide some pop.
His most memorable deal, however, was swapping light-hitting shortstop Garry Templeton before the 1982 season for the defensively-gifted Ozzie Smith, now regarded as the greatest defensive shortstop ever. Other key Herzog acquisitions included starters John Tudor and Danny Cox and relievers Todd Worrell, Ken Dayley, and Jeff Lahti.
For the storybook 1982 championship run, Herzog rode his bullpen less frantically and simply brought in future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter to lock down the final innings and defeat Milwaukee in an all-time classic 7-game Series.
While his bullpen maneuvers and lineup tinkering maddened opponents and fans alike, it worked – Herzog finished with 18 managerial seasons and a 1,281-1,125 career record. He won Manager of the Year in 1985, saw his no. 24 uniform retired by St. Louis, and was finally voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2010.
Herzog’s genius didn’t come without controversy or heartbreak, however. In a defining moment from the 1985 World Series, his Cardinals held a 3 games to 2 lead on Herzog’s former team, the Kansas City Royals. They led Game 6 by a score of 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th inning with closer Todd Worrell on the mound and appeared to record the final out on a grounder to first.
But in one of the most infamous missed calls in baseball history, umpire Don Denkinger ruled Kansas City’s Jorge Orta safe at first despite replays showing he was clearly out. The Cardinals understandably unraveled, the Royals tied the game and won it in extras to force Game 7, which they took in a blowout to claim the title.
“No, I’m not bitter at Denkinger,” a stoic Herzog said years later about the blown call that may have cost his team a second straight championship. “He’s a good guy, he knows he made a mistake, and he’s a human being. It happened at an inopportune time but I do think they ought to have instant replay in the playoffs and World Series.”
In classic Herzog fashion, he displayed grace and perspective in the face of immense heartbreak and injustice. He always put the game first, wanting to ensure its integrity for decades to come even after being on the wrong end of arguably its worst officiating miscue.
When asked about the secrets to his managerial success over the years, Herzog’s self-deprecating wit and wisdom shone through: “With a sense of humor and a good bullpen.”
Herzog is survived by his wife of 71 years, Mary Lou; children Debra, David and Jim; nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He was born Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog in 1931 in the small town of New Athens, Illinois. That blue-collar upbringing instilled the rugged, gruff demeanor that fans and players alike grew to admire and respect from the White Rat, as Herzog was nicknamed for his resemblance to former Yankees pitcher Bob Kuzava.
After rocketing up the coaching ranks in the Mets organization in the late 1960s and narrowly missing out on the manager job after Gil Hodges’ passing, Herzog’s first crack at leading a team came as skipper of those famously awful 1973 Texas Rangers. After further seasoning as Royals manager and a Cooperstown-worthy run of excellence in St. Louis, Herzog departed the managerial ranks in the summer of 1990, resigning from the Cardinals mid-season because he was “embarrassed” by the team’s poor record.
In the decades since his retirement as an active manager and executive, Herzog continued receiving well-earned accolades for his historic impact on how the game is strategized and leads are cultivated through bullpen usage and other on-field tactics. Truly one of baseball’s revolutionary masterminds, Whitey Herzog will forever be revered for the gritty, intelligent “Whiteyball” style that brought three pennants and a World Series to St. Louis during the 1980s and shaped how the modern game is managed.
