Remembering Whitey Herzog

The former Royals manager, who led them to their first run of sustained success, passed away on Tuesday.

In the grand scheme of things, there are three people responsible for the establishment of this newsletter (and all the iterations of blogs that came prior to this effort).

First would be my grandfather who introduced me to baseball and the Royals. I’ve mentioned before that he took me to just a ton of ballgames and taught me how to keep score.

The other two would have less of a direct impact, but nonetheless, it’s there. George Brett was the man when I was developing my fandom. I think that when you’re falling in love with a sport or a team, you also need a player to gravitate toward. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a superstar or Hall of Famer. There are plenty of people who are fans because of Bo Jackson. Or Mike Sweeney. Or Mike Moustakas. My god, probably Johnny Damon. I just so happened to come of age when number five manned the Hot Corner and that mattered.

The other person would be Whitey Herzog, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 92. The White Rat was the skipper of the Royals teams of my formative years, developing the competitive edge with speed and defense that came to define his career and would be known as Whiteyball.

Herzog came to Kansas City after a failed stint in Texas as manager of the Rangers.

From Rustin Dodd at The Athletic:

Herzog’s first chance to manage came with the Rangers in 1973. In his opening press conference, he told reporters, according to the Los Angeles Times, “This is the worst excuse for a big-league club I ever saw.” He was right — and was fired in the middle of his first season.

After a stop in California with the Angels as their third base coach, Herzog was brought to Kansas City to succeed Jack McKeon as manager midway through the 1975 season. General Manager Joe Burke, who had hired him in Texas and was now in KC, was the man who tapped Herzog to come to the Royals.

Herzog took a team that had underperformed with McKeon at 50-46 and led them to a 41-25 record the rest of the way and a second-place finish in the AL West. As Charley Finley was dismantling his Oakland A’s dynasty, the Royals were primed to take advantage of the void at the top of the order. In that 1976 season Herzog deployed a lineup that featured Amos Otis hitting second, Brett hitting third, John Mayberry in the cleanup spot, followed by Hal McRae and Al Cowens. Freddie Patek and Frank White made up the double play combo and hit eighth and ninth, respectively.

A mini-dynasty was born as the Royals captured three consecutive AL West titles, starting with that team in 1976. It was impossible to be growing up in Kansas City and not fall for this team. If Cedric Tallis was the man who brought the clay, Herzog was the man responsible for molding it into a winning ballclub.

Herzog’s best team showed up next season as the Royals won 101 games, a mark that is still the franchise record. It was just an amazing collection of talent that Herzog had at his disposal. Brett and McRae both scored over 100 times. Patek led the league with 53 steals. Cowens drove in 112 runs. Brett, McRae and Cowens all topped double-digits in triples and McRae led the league with 54 doubles. In many ways, these Herzog teams were the blueprint for how to build a successful team in Kansas City. The echoes of these late-70s Royals teams were present in the most recent run of success a decade ago. Speed. Defense. Pitching. Timely hitting. Total team contributions. Ned Yost may not have emulated the style of Herzog, but to me, the similarities were definitely there.

I remember listening to Fred White or Denny Mathews leading The Whitey Herzog Show on the radio before each game. Time has certainly clouded the memory here, but I believe the show was usually about five or 10 minutes where they would discuss last night’s game and the upcoming matchups. It just seemed like plenty of baseball wisdom was distilled in that show.

Herzog was dismissed after the 1979 season, having failed three times to get past the Yankees in the ALCS and finishing that final year in Kansas City. A year later, he would move across the state where he would perfect Whiteyball and lead the Cardinals to three NL pennants in a span of six seasons. Of course, he most famously returned to Kansas City in 1985 in the visitor’s dugout. The last game he managed in Royals Stadium was the 11-0 defeat in Game Seven when he was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Don Denkinger. It probably had something to do with what transpired the night before.

Herzog was a baseball lifer who played for the Senators, Kansas City A’s, Orioles and Tigers. After his playing career was finished, he moved into a player development role in Kansas City and later with the New York Mets where he helped mold the 1969 World Championship team and the 1973 NL pennant winners. He was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame and, in 2010, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. His greatest successes came on the east side of Missouri, but his contributions to Kansas City and Royals baseball will never be forgotten. Thank you, Whitey.