{"id":70712,"date":"2024-04-16T13:27:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T17:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=70712"},"modified":"2024-04-16T13:27:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T17:27:56","slug":"whitey-herzog-cardinals-passing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/16\/whitey-herzog-cardinals-passing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Hall of Fame Cardinals Manager Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former St. Louis Cardinals Manager and Hall of Famer Dorrel Norman Elvert &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/herzowh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whitey Herzog<\/a>&#8221; has passed away at the age of 92. Herzog led the Cardinals to the World Series in 1982, 1985, and 1987 including a title in &#8217;92. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization, I would like to offer our condolences to the family and many friends of Whitey Herzog,\u201d said Cardinals Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill DeWitt Jr. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katiejwoo\/status\/1780271302231880089\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a statement on Tuesday<\/a>. \u201cWhitey and his teams played a big part in changing the direction of the Cardinals franchise in the early 1980s with an exciting style of play that would become known as &#8216;Whitey Ball&#8217; throughout baseball.\u00a0 Whitey loved the Cardinals, their fans, and St. Louis.\u00a0 He will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Herzog ranks third in the Cardinals all-time managerial wins list with 822 trailing only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/larusto01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tony La Russa<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schoere01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Red Schoendienst<\/a>. The Cardinals World Series win in 1982 over the Milwaukee Brewers was the team&#8217;s first in 15 years at the time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Leader. Innovator. World Series Champion. Hall of Famer. Legend.<\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts are with the family and friends of former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, who passed away at the age of 92. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/etVdztQZYG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/etVdztQZYG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BallySportsMW\/status\/1780265444902903878?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Whitey Herzog Passes at Age 92<\/h2>\n<p>A native of New Athens, Ill., Herzog leaves behind his wife of 71 years Mary Lou Herzog, their three children, nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhitey spent his last few days surrounded by his family,&#8221; The Herzog family said in a statement on Monday. &#8220;We have so appreciated all of the prayers and support from friends who knew he was very ill.\u00a0 Although it is hard for us to say goodbye, his peaceful passing was a blessing for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Herzog family is planning a private celebration of life service. They would like any donations to be made to Shriner\u2019s Hospital for Children. Herzog had a lifetime managerial record of 1,281-1,125, good for a .532 winning percentage. He ranks 39th on the MLB&#8217;s all-time win total list and is a two-time Manager of the Year winner.<\/p>\n<p>Before coming to the Cardinals, Herzog managed the Texas Rangers the, California Angels in 1974, and the Kansas City Royals from 1975-79. The Royals won three straight American League West Division titles from 1976-78 but fell to the New York Yankees in the League Championship Series all three times.<\/p>\n<h3>Whiteyball Before Moneyball<\/h3>\n<p>Herzog became famous for his style of play &#8220;Whiteyball.&#8221; It was a term from Herzog that was known for speed on the base paths, solid pitching and excellent defense. He used the style of play to lead the Cardinals to the &#8217;82 World Series victory without a typical power-hitter.<\/p>\n<p>In his memoir &#8220;White Rat&#8221; Herzog said the approach was a response to spacious, artificial surface stadiums at the time. Herzog said the approach wasn&#8217;t popular in the media at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They seemed to think there was something wrong with the way we played baseball, with speed and defense and line-drive hitters,&#8221; Herzog wrote in &#8220;White Rat.&#8221; &#8220;They called it &#8220;Whitey-ball&#8221; and said it couldn&#8217;t last.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Herzog&#8217;s Playing Career<\/h3>\n<p>Herzog was primarily an outfielder during his eight-year professional career. He played for the Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers. In that time he had a .257 batting average with 25 home runs and 172 RBIs. It wasn&#8217;t until he became manager of the minor league McAlester Rockets in 1949. That was when he was given the nickname &#8220;Whitey.&#8221; The late sportscaster Bill Speith gave him the nickname for his light-colored hair.<\/p>\n<h3>Reaction to Herzog&#8217;s Passing<\/h3>\n<p>The MLB put out a statement in regards to the Hall of Fame manager.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whitey Herzog was one of the most accomplished managers of his generation and a consistent winner with both &#8216;I-70&#8217; franchises,&#8221; Manfred said. &#8220;He made a significant impact on the St. Louis Cardinals both as a manager and a general manager, with the Kansas City Royals as a manager, and with the New York Mets in player development.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Whitey&#8217;s family, his friends across the game, and the fans of the Cardinals and Royals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: \u00a9 Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former St. Louis Cardinals Manager and Hall of Famer Dorrel Norman Elvert &#8220;Whitey Herzog&#8221; has passed away at the age of 92. Herzog led the Cardinals to the World Series in 1982, 1985, and 1987 including a title in &#8217;92. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. \u201cOn behalf of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5111,"featured_media":70720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1071,25],"tags":[4530,51,164,41,168,259,5391],"class_list":["post-70712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mlb","category-cardinals","tag-anaheim-angels","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-texas-rangers","tag-whitey-herzog"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}