Back in the day, a black-and-white television set was rolled into elementary school classrooms around the St. Louis area in October. Students and teachers watched the World Series.
Yes, some World Series games were played on weekday afternoons.
As a third-grade student and baseball lover at Robinson Elementary School, we watched two games during the 1968 World Series. The Detroit Tigers came back from a 3-1 game deficit to win the title at Busch Stadium on Oct. 10. It was a Thursday.
Throughout the 1969 season I had certainly followed the Cardinals attempt to repeat as National League champions. The title would go to the New York Mets. The Miracle Mets.
The Mets would beat the favored Baltimore Orioles in five games to win the World Series.
I was 9 years old. Whitey Herzog, an architect of that Mets team as player personnel director, was 37. After managing in Kansas City for three seasons in the late 1970s, Herzog joined the Cardinals in 1980.
As a Cardinals fan, I watched with utter joy how Herzog transformed a mediocre team living off past glory into a sensation. It was called “Whitey Ball,” and it was amazing. It was about the batting average, the tight defense, the stolen base, and the masterful use of the pitching staff.
St. Louis won the 1982 World Series in seven games over the Milwaukee Brewers. I was in college. A year later I began my journalism career. In 1991 I was a member of the inaugural staff of USA TODAY Baseball Weekly.
It was there I met a gentleman from St. Louis named Rob Rains. He was the Baseball Weekly writer who covered the National League.
By the late 1990s we had both returned to St. Louis. Rains, a prolific author who had covered the Cardinals for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat during the Herzog era, offered me the opportunity to co-author a book in 2021.
The book is called “Whitey’s Boys.” We contacted players and coaches from the 1982 season to update Cardinals fans on what had transpired during the two decades since the World Series.
Herzog, Rains and I had several book signings and two golf tournament appearances during the fall of 2022. I had the opportunity to spend hours with Herzog. We talked about baseball, but he was knowledgeable on so many other topics.
He hailed from New Athens, Illinois but he was a man of the world.
The Cardinals were taking on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL playoffs that season. As we signed books and greeted people, we also analyzed what was going on during those games.
Herzog was managing and I fancied myself as his bench coach. He was more brilliant at baseball than stated in any story written about him in the last week.
He was as funny as any man I’ve met. He was as courteous as any gentleman who rose to the heights of his chosen profession.
He wanted to know as much about me as I did about him. He was genuine. He was beloved. I know why, and I know why from being up close.
Herzog died at the age of 92 on Tuesday April 16, 2024. He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
He’s in the Alvin Reid Hall of Fame – and trust me that’s a hard place to get into.
The Reid Roundup
Whitey Herzog had no problem with fielding Black players, regardless of how some St. Louisans felt about that. Just ask Ozzie Smith, Lonnie Smith, George Hendrick, Willie McGee, Vince Coleman, Terry Pendleton and so many more African Americans who were champions with the Cardinals…Centerfielder Victor Scott II was awarded his minor leagues Gold Glove last week in Busch Stadium – and was sent back to Triple A Memphis the next day…It was Jordan Walker bobble head night last Friday and Normarene Merritt, his grandmother, threw the ceremonial first pitch. After a promising rookie season, Walker had struggled through 19 games, hitting .164 with no home runs and four RBI…Bradley Beal scored 15 points in his playoff debut with the Phoenix Suns. But the host Minnesota Timberwolves thumped the Suns 120-95.
