With his aggressive baserunning strategies, Whitey led the Royals to their first three playoff appearances.
Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog, who managed the Royals from 1975 to 1979, has died at the age of 92.
Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog grew up just east of St. Louis in Illinois, excelling at baseball enough to be signed by the Yankees as a teenager. After a stint in the Army and a trade to the Washington Senators, he made his MLB debut as an outfielder in 1956. He played for the Kansas City Athletics from 1958 to 1960, and had short stints with the Orioles and Tigers before his career ended in 1963.
Herzog was hired as manager of the Texas Rangers in 1973, but was fired after just 138 games so the team could hire Billy Martin. In 1975, Royals GM Joe Burke, who had been Herzog’s boss in Texas, fired Jack McKeon mid-season and brought in Herzog to lead the team. The team won 62 percent of their games after his hire and finished with 91 wins, their best season ever.
Herzog used spacious Royals Stadium and its artificial turf field to his advantage, employing “Whiteyball”, a strategy that stressed line-drives, speed on the bases, pitching, and defense. The 1976 Royals hit just 65 home runs, but stole 218 bases and were second in the league with a 3.21 ERA as they won their first division title in club history. The team won 102 games the next season, a club record that still stands. In 1978, they won their third consecutive division title, but fell to the Yankees in the playoffs for the third time in a row.
The Royals fell to second place with 85 wins in 1979, just three games back of the Angels. But the lack of post-season success and a combative relationship with owner Ewing Kauffman cost Herzog his job. He went across the state to take over a floundering Cardinals ballclub, and by 1982 he won his only championship, beating the Brewers in the World Series.
Herzog would face his old ballclub in the 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and Royals. It was a very close series, but a controversial call late in Game 6 cost the Cardinals an out, and the team lost their composure and blew the game. Herzog complained about the safe call on Jorge Orta in post-game comments and the frustration seemed to carry into Game 7, when the Royals jumped on the Cardinals and won in a 11-0 blowout.
Herzog won another pennant in 1987, but fell to the Twins when injuries cost him some key players. By 1990, the Cardinals had fallen off, and Herzog resigned with the team mired in last place. He ran the Angels as GM for two seasons, without much success, and retired from baseball in 1994.
In parts of 19 seasons as a manager, Herzog won 1,281 games with a .532 winning percentage. He made the playoffs seven times, won three pennants, and a title. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.