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Still Alive in Baseball

Edgy MD Jul 08 2017 02:39 AM

Red Schoendienst, Keith Hernandez' first manager, reportedly visited the Mets booth tonight. I was looking up Rico Carty the other day. Rico has perennially joined Richie Allen and Gil Hodges as among the best players not in the Hall of Fame. One of the reasons he isn't in was missing two full seasons in his absolute prime. He missed one season after smashing up his knee in winter ball (should've paid your players better, MLB) and another earlier after contracting tuberculosis. It turned out that helping him get through his convalescence was a heartfelt letter of encouragement from Red Schoendienst whose own career was shortened by TB. Red missed all but five games of a season, and had to undergo a partial pneumonectomy. Doctors said he'd never play again, but he returned to be a player-coach, and a devastating hitter off the bench. Took him a lot of years and veterans' committee ballots to make the Hall of Fame too. Red Schoendienst, TB survivor, missing a chunk of a lung since 1959, but still alive — and ACTIVE — at 94.

Benjamin Grimm Jul 10 2017 01:10 PM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

He was the first Cardinals manager in my memory. Whenever I hear his name, I think of this baseball card:

MFS62 Jul 10 2017 01:21 PM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

I remember when Bob Murphy would pronounce his name, he would include every syllable. Most pronounced it "SHANE-dinst". Bob pronounced it "SHOW-en-dinst" Later

Chad Ochoseis Jul 10 2017 07:27 PM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

In 1974 or so, I received a hand-me-down Sports Illustrated Baseball game. SI Baseball was one of the many Strat-O-Matic knockoffs of the 70s, and the game I inherited was based on the 1970 season. That was the year Rico Carty hit .366 with the Braves, and I remember being utterly blown away that the best hitter in the majors that year was some dude I'd never heard of. They also included defensive ratings, and Rico's was a -2. Average outfielders got +5 or so. Willie Mays and Paul Blair got +10s. 0 was pretty bad. -2 was unheard of. So that goes a long way towards explaining why Rico Carty was never considered a serious HoF candidate. Dick Allen was equally bad in the field, but was a much better hitter for a much longer time. Back to the subject of older players who are still alive, the Times had a moving piece on Jim Bouton last week. The guy who wrote the smartest and most insightful baseball book in history is now struggling to write and speak in complete sentences. The article says that he went public with his brain disease at the SABR meeting last month, so maybe Fafif heard more about it when he was there.

G-Fafif Jul 10 2017 08:05 PM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

I wasn't at SABR when Bouton spoke, but they posted audio from the panel here. The Times article was very moving. Also recommending Keith Olbermann on baseball cards here.

Frayed Knot Jul 10 2017 11:15 PM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

Being in StL had Keith bringing up both Schoendeinst and Whitey Herzog which in turn sent me to BB-Ref to see if Whitey also was still alive (yes - 85) Funny how I knew that Red was but less sure on Whitey. Get those two together with Blue Moon Odom and trot them out on your next July 4th game before it's too late. Back to the subject of older players who are still alive, the Times had a moving piece on Jim Bouton last week. Reading that piece on Bouton last week immediately reminded me of the Times' piece that Jim's son had written many years ago. Michael Bouton's Father's Day op-ed to the Times Sports section, probably in 1998 and done totally without his father's knowledge, was essentially a call for the end to the petty feud which had for many years kept Jim out of the yearly NYY Old Timer's Game. Bouton had been very popular with fans during his brief NYY run but not so much with management and so was never invited to the annual OTD game -- both because of BALL FOUR but for other reasons as well; the Yanx were cheap, petty and used to getting their own way and Bouton had the nerve to say so publicly. Michael made the case that the feud was was senseless and had gone on too long, particularly so as it was the first summer since the death of Jim's daughter/Michael's sister in a car accident several months earlier. For those who read BALL FOUR when it was still more or less contemporaneous and remembered nothing more than the brief references to Laurie Bouton as a feisty little girl trying to make her way in a family with two brothers and a jock father, that letter served as a real kick in the gut and helped to spread the story of his sister in those pre-internet days when every little fact about everyone didn't circle the globe within two days. The letter did in fact shame the Yanx into finally un-black-listing Bouton and when this recent Times piece mentions that Jim's stroke occurred on the anniversary of Laurie's accident, well that was almost too spooky for words.

Edgy MD Jul 11 2017 12:45 AM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

Keith was also effusive in his praise of Whitey, calling him the best manager he ever played for. While that's a small sample size, it's high praise for a guy who sent you to baseball Siberia because he was put off by you doing crossword puzzles. (I tend to agree that Whitey was great, even though I resent that he was the first guy to build his pitching staff backwards, using the closer as the foundation, and working from there, thereby leading to so much of the craziness of our times.) As for un-blacklisting Bouton, that's great. The Mets need to un-blacklist Old Timer's Day.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 13 2017 03:57 AM Re: Still Alive in Baseball

I wasn't at SABR when Bouton spoke, but they posted audio from the panel here. The Times article was very moving. Also recommending Keith Olbermann on baseball cards here. If you're still into baseball cards, the Olbermann link is a must listen. Finally, the explanation for why Rusty Staub was missing from the '72 & '73 Topps sets, beginning at the 43:10 mark. It's got something to do with this 1971 coin: [fimg=333]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/10106/10106-111Fr.jpg[/fimg] Strangely enough, Rusty was always under contract to Topps, even when he "disappeared" for those two years.