The Chris Moeller Archives

King Rat

The Cardinals' greatest skipper is headed to the Hall of Fame. Yes, there will be a plaque in Cooperstown beginning this summer that bears the name "Dorrel Norman Elvert 'Whitey' Herzog." "The White Rat" is the first Cardinals manager to go into the Hall of Fame since the late Billy Southworth last year. He'll become the 10th member of the Baseball Hall that has managed the Cardinals and its first member named Dorrel. His predecessors as field manager for the Birds, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa, are locks for the Hall upon their retirement, which means that the Cardinals have had a Hall of Fame manager in their dugout for 42 of the last 45 years (chronologically: Schoendienst, 3 1/2 year drought 1977-1980, Herzog, Torre, LaRussa).

I'm terribly excited today. Whitey Herzog is mein Deutsch bruder, a small-town Midwestern German like me caught up entirely in the game. His St. Louis teams of my 1980's youth are the reason I'm a Cardinals fan and a baseball fan today. He walked away from the dugout in his mid-50s, which left him without the longevity that many felt would be necessary for Hall enshrinement, but his teams in Kansas City and St. Louis had already, it seems, left an indelible mark on the game.

Many record-holders in baseball are unknown or uncelebrated. Some records themselves are even unknown. For example, for years, nobody knew that it was the great Pete Rose who played in more winning games than any player in history. How did we find out that Pete had that record? Because he told us. He did his own research. And wouldn't you know it, he was right. Somewhat similarly, Whitey Herzog has suggested that he might just own the record for most seasons as manager that broke a franchise's attendance record-- 9. That's all four years in KC-- 1976-1979, and then in St. Louis in 1982, '83, '85, '87, and '89. The guy only managed 13 complete seasons anywhere, and one of those was strike-shortened. So I'm counting 9 out of 12 on his percentage.

There's a simple reason for this-- Whitey's teams were thrilling to watch. They hustled, they stole bases, they played spectacular defense, they played intelligently. Hometown fans of Whitey's teams weren't just killing time at the ballpark. They were immersed in the action. The Rat was educating us. He didn't just manage the Cardinals ballclubs to three World Series in the 1980's, he simultaneously built the roster as general manager. And he might just be the only man in baseball history who rebounded a lackluster franchise, bringing it to championship glory, while cutting payroll. After three AL Western Division Championships in Kansas City, he came to St. Louis and transformed the roster to fit the cavernous Busch Stadium and the results were electrifying.

It's easy to forget that St. Louis wasn't always the Baseball City, U.S.A. that it is today. Despite decades of championships going back to Lindbergh, there have been precarious times. They were almost squeezed out of town in favor of the Browns and Bill Veeck in the early '50s. Their greatest clubs had largely coincided with Depression-era crowds and World War II fan absenteeism. The team's revival of the 1960s lasted only as long as the great careers of Lou Brock and Bob Gibson began fading in the mid-'70s. If Mark McGwire is the Michael Jordan of the Cardinals' global reach around the world, then Whitey and his dazzling shortstop, Ozzie Smith, were certainly the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Herzog's front office exploits were almost the equal of his dugout. He was the director of the minor leagues for the Mets in the 1960s, putting together the young pitching talent that catapulted the '69 Champs. At the opposite end of his career, he went to work for Gene Autry in California, and redirected an organization renown for its dependence on free agent stars to one built on talented, drafted young stars like Tim Salmon, Garrett Anderson, and Jim Edmonds. His work for the Cowboy culminated in a World Championship in 2002.

And oh, how he can talk. A former competitor now dead hasn't "passed away," he's "on the other side of the grass." He can bullshit for hours, yet his directness is legendary. His mind as sharp as anybody's ever connected to the game. His good pal and card crony, the late Jack Buck, thought Herzog was the smartest man he ever met. Buck used to love telling the story about the time Whitey filled an entire pre-game interview radio slot with just one simple question from the host. It was in 1990, upon Herzog's 10 year anniversary with the Cardinals, Buck began with the comment, "Ten years, huh?" and Herzog followed with a year-by-year rundown of the club's exploits during his tenure along the lines of "...Then we lost Sutter to Ted Turner in 1985, but Jeff Lahti stepped in and we didn't blow a ninth-inning lead that season until Denkinger and Game 6 of the World Series... And then in '86." It was 10 minutes perfectly encapsulating Herzog's tenure with the club, and 20 years later, I've heard the interview replayed three different times on the Cardinals network during various rain delays.

Characteristic of the Rat's speech stylings were his comments today for the man he'll be enshrined with next summer-- long-time National League umpire Doug Harvey, a bit of a Herzog nemesis over the years. "I’m happy for him," Whitey said, "He was a conscientious guy. He hustled all the time. He looked good in his uniform. We both chew tobacco. He kicked me out more than anybody but it wasn’t over balls and strikes or fair and foul. It was always some other issue, like the weather. He was a good umpire but he was the worst weatherman I ever saw. It doesn’t matter who I go into the Hall of Fame with. Hell, I’d go in with the Devil. Not that Harvey’s the Devil."

Whitey's still pissed about a game Harvey refused to call for rain over two decades ago.

Today was some time in coming. Many observers felt that Herzog's solitary World Championship in 1982 may have been too little for him to receive the honor, but that puts a helluva weight to put on the shoulders of the umpire, Don Denkinger, that cost the Cards the championship in 1985. Whitey and Denkinger have become good pals over the years with the former umpire appearing at sports memorabilia shows in St. Louis and serving as guest speaker at a 20th anniversary dinner honoring the '85 team and benefiting a Herzog charity. Denkinger can sleep soundly tonight. And I hereby publicly forgive him.

An added bonus of today's announcement, for baseball fans everywhere, is that it means Whitey will have to deliver a speech in July in Cooperstown. It's bound to be a good one. As a fan, it will be a thrill for me right up there with the time I met Whitey.

Congratulations, White Rat. Thanks for all the fun.

posted by CM @ 8:35 PM