Baseball lost a legend on Wednesday evening, as the Cardinals announced that Red Schoendienst has passed away at the age of 95. The Hall of Famer was a 10-time All-Star who won a pair of World Series rings as a player and another during a managerial career that spanned parts of 14 seasons at the helm of the Cardinals.
A native of Germantown, Ill., Schoendienst made his big league debut as a 22-year-old with the 1945 Cardinals, leading the NL with 26 steals and hitting .278/.305/.343. He made the first of his 10 All-Star teams in his sophomore year with the Cards, a team for whom he enjoyed 15 seasons as a player in addition to his 14-year run as manager. Schoendienst also spent parts of four seasons with the Milwaukee Braves and two seasons with the New York Giants.
Schoendienst, who had been the oldest living member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, finished his career with 2449 hits, 1223 runs scored, 84 homers, 427 doubles, 78 triples, 89 steals and a .289/.337/.387 batting line in 2216 games and 9224 plate appearances. He finished in the Top 4 of the National League MVP voting on two occasions and garnered votes in four other seasons, and he posted a career 1041-955 record as a manager — twice managing the All-Star team on the heels of a World Series appearance (1968-69). Enos Slaughter, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn and the great Stan Musial were among the all-time greats that Schoendienst called teammates over the course of a 19-year playing career. Since his playing and managerial days, Schoendienst had served as a Senior Special Assistant to the Cardinals organization.
The Cardinals issued a video tribute to their beloved franchise icon (on Twitter), paying homage to his legend against the audio backdrop of an excerpt from his Hall of Fame induction speech. Commissioner Rob Manfred also offered a statement:
“Red Schoendienst was one of the most beloved figures in the rich history of the St. Louis Cardinals, the franchise he served for 67 years. He was a 10-time All-Star second baseman, a World Series Champion as a player with the 1946 Cardinals and the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, and a championship-winning manager with the 1967 Cardinals. Red was a teammate, manager, and friend of some of the greatest players in the history of Baseball. The connection between Red and the fans of St. Louis spanned multiple generations and he was a wonderful ambassador for our game. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Red’s family, his many friends and admirers throughout our game, and Cardinals fans everywhere.”
A great Cardinal and a great person he will be missed by Cardinal nation. RIP
RIP Red
A great man who will be missed by all baseball fans!
The man spent over 70 years wearing a baseball uniform, as recently as this spring. I would have loved to sit down and talk with that man for about a week just to hear his stories. Baseball and the world will miss him.
Truly one of the greats.
RIP Red & condolences to Cardinal fans
Legend for sure.
ZERO disrespect intended. I was just looking at his stats..Is he the lowest OPS+ and/or WAR to get into the HoF as a player?
So why mention it
I just looked at his stats and saw he was a below average hitter so it got me thinking, so I asked. Can’t find anywhere that shows the hall of famers and their OPS+ in one spot.
There was zero disrespect intended or any kind of implication that he doesn’t belong in the HoF
BRef has this list:
baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_batting.shtml
If you sort by the WAR column you’ll find that Red is at 143. Not great, but Lou Brock is only 10 ahead of him at 133 and notables like Phil Rizzuto 145 and Roy Campanella 153 are behind him.
The very bottom of the list is Pitchers who, of course, also hit.
BTW, I understand you’re not trying to disrespect Mr. Schoendienst. Neither am I.
That’s fine & all. Somebody has to be the last in line. But a real disconnect in advance metrics & humans u watched win games for older baseball fans, if u retroactively apply war to a by gone legend. Makes them brustel at the conversation. My fav players as a kid George KC, Amos Otis, Willie Wilson. Have no idea how they stack up in war. Care less. They were great players on a perinial 2nd to Yankees team. It is hard to requantify what they were, with out tearing down what they were. As fan favorites. Imo
Loved your post. The value of one’s eyes are so undervalued in today’s strikeout or the fences game. Only takes one winner to change the game again as teams always try to emulate success. On a personal note, growing up the Cards had just one manager. Red. RIP.
Red Schoendienst knew how to play winning baseball. He knew how to manage and develop players to play winning baseball. He spent most of his career in an organization playing Branch Rickey baseball. He knew, taught his players, and expected his pitchers to:
move the ball around and change speeds on all their pitches as opposed throwing the ball with all their might like some 12 year-old kid so that they didn’t have to be pulled from the game and babied before completing their job….and they were not forever on disabled lists when they weren’t getting Tommy John surgery.
He expected his baserunners to:
steal bases when the opportunity presented itself; run the bases properly (hitting the base with the instep of ones left foot to pivot as opposed to taking wide turns around the bases to show off their speed and hopefully have their hat fall off as well so their hair can blow in the wind on the replays while running 10-15 feet out of the baseline).
He expected his defenders to:
field their position; position themselves on defense by knowing the hitters or being assisted by their teammates on the field; lineup and backup players on defense when the ball wan’t hit to them; know which base to throw to depending on the game situation.
He expected his hitters to
make contact; move up runners even when making an out; take what the defense was giving them – i.e. if the defense was dumb enough to load up all but one player on a side of the field, then hit the ball through the massive holes, or put a bunt down into the open area (especially when a runner was on 1B and there is only one defender on the left side…if the defender has to come in to field the bunt the majority of the time no one is going to run over and cover 3B allowing the runner on 1B to sprint to the open base).
Red Schoendienst was wonderful. Most players in MLB today have been trained by the college educated baseball people that majored in Law, Engineering, and Business where they took extensive statistics classes and micro-manage the players. Front offices now tell players where to stand on defense; have the pitchers throw their arms out; the runners not to attempt to steal or initiate a hit-and-run; the batters swing with all their might and not worry about K’s or putting the ball in play. Where RBI and hitting in the clutch is a fallacy because it cannot easily be computed. In short – where the majority of the players are one-dimensional robots that get paid if they hit their numbers…..and as long as they do, the team winning is nice, but really doesn’t matter…their cotracts are based on their stats – THAT is what matters. As for the manager – he goes along and keeps his administrators up to date after each game so they can give him a plan for the next one.
I wonder if Red saw Gleyber Torres, Mookie Betts, and Juan Soto (a player that with 2 strikes actually chokes up on the bat, opens up his stance, and shortens his swing to put the ball in play) this year. I know he would have smiled.
Great post sir! Cardinal nation has lost another legend! RIP RED! He was a class act and a gentleman . One of the last remaining connections to the golden age of MLB!
I understand that you were just curious and simply asking a question. No reason to downvote you. I think Baseball Reference has a way to look up HOF’ers by WAR. But don’t bother. It’s totally useless to gauge past players. A computer never saw those guys play. Never saw how good/bad they actually were.
How do you place a value on a fielder’s range in 1945 if there is very little film footage? No statcast. You can’t go by Gold Gloves either (Palmeiro).
More value was placed on defense in years past too. Rabbit Maranville probably wouldn’t make the HOF today. Mike Bordick maybe would’ve had a shot at the Hall in the 30’s or 40’s. Orlando Arcia would never be sent to AAA in the 1980’s just because he’s slumping at the plate (Dick Schofield). Times change.
You also have to look at his managerial career..
Look at what Hank Aaron had to say about him in 1957, a year that Aaron won the NL MVP (and Red came in 3rd, despite not playing in the NL until June 15 of that year).
Rick Ferrell had a far lower WAR figure as a position player. Imagine a reliever probably has the lowest number of a HOF’er? Also, Red’s OPS+ beats Ozzie Smith’s by 7 points. I’m sure there are some more extreme examples, those were just the two players that came to mind for low WAR/low OPS.
R I P Red
RIP Red We will miss seeing you at Soring Training wearing that Red jacket on Opening Day.
@joshb600 it looks like Ozzie Smith has the lowest ops of any HOFer who was primarily a hitter. Others who had a lower ops than Red include Brooks Robinson, Phil Rizzuto and Tinkers and Chance. He’s ahead of about 20 guys in WAR. I guess OPS+ would be a better stat for these guys but I can’t find that anywhere
Who now takes the mantle of oldest living HOF’er?
Tommy Lasorda is what I read this morning.
The Legendary Bill Mazeroski had a lower war and ops+ but who cares. He has one of the most memorable homers in world series history.
Red was a cardinal legend. Imagine doing anything for 70+ years.
RIP Red Schoendienst, A well-lived life of 95 years is something to be celebrated.