Earlier this week the baseball world lost a legend when Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst passed away at the age of 95. Schoendienst enjoyed a baseball career of 76 years as a player, manager, coach and executive, mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Schoendienst won two World Series titles as a player, with the 1946 Cardinals and the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, and another as the manager of the 1967 Redbirds.
When Boston Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr passed away in November 2017 at the age of 99, Schoendienst became the oldest living Hall of Famer. That distinction now belongs to longtime Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda.
Cooperstown Cred: Red Schoendienst (inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989)
- Career: .289 BA, 84 HR, 773 RBI, 2,449 Hits, 1,223 Runs
- 10-time N.L. All-Star at Second Base (4 times as starter)
- Two times in top 4 of N.L. MVP voting
- 10th most double plays turned at 2B all-time
- Led the N.L. in fielding % six times
- Won the World Series in 1946 with St. Louis and 1957 with Milwaukee
- Managed the World Series champion 1967 Cardinals & 1968 pennant-winning Cards
(cover photo: KMOV.com)
Thanks to the SABR Bio project for some of the biographical details in this piece.
Schoendienst’s Early Life and Playing Career
Albert Fred Schoendienst was born on February 2, 1923 in Germantown, IL, a small town 40 miles east of St. Louis. The young Schoendienst had five brothers and a sister.
Nicknamed “Red” because of his red hair and freckles, Schoendienst dropped out of school after turning 16. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, spending his days planting trees or working on roads.
While with the CCC, Schoendienst nearly lost his left eye in an accident. He spent five weeks in the hospital; his eye was saved but his vision impaired for life.
In 1942, the 19-year old Shoendienst was signed as a shortstop by the St. Louis Cardinals and began his baseball career. In 1944, Red was drafted into the army but was discharged in the same year because of his eye and an injured right shoulder.
In 1945, with future first ballot Hall of Fame outfielder Stan Musial serving in the military, the 22-year old Schoendienst got a chance in the majors and made the most of it. Playing left field, he hit a respectable .278 and led the National League with 26 stolen bases.
Stan the Man returned to the Redbirds in 1946 and the team was loaded. Schoendienst, now playing second base (where he would spend the rest of his career), spent most of the season as the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter. Defensively, Schoendienst established himself as one of the league’s best, leading the N.L. in fielding %.
At the age of 23, the switch-hitting Schoendienst was the starting second baseman for the N.L. All-Star squad, joining teammates Musial, shortstop Marty Marion, and third baseman Whitey Kurowski in the starting lineup. Another Redbird, future Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, also made the N.L. squad, as did 21-game winner Howie Pollet.
The ’46 Cardinals won 98 games, finishing 2 games ahead of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League to win the pennant. In the World Series, Musial, Schoendienst and the Redbirds prevailed in 7 games over the Boston Red Sox and Ted Williams. Red didn’t do a whole lot with the bat but turned three double plays in the Cards’ Game 6 victory and delivered an RBI single in the decisive Game 7.
The ’46 season also marked the beginning of a lifetime friendship between Schoendienst and Musial. The two were roommates on the road and best of friends. Musial also had immense admiration for his teammate as a player, particularly with the leather. Red’s Hall of Fame plaque quotes Musial saying that Schoendienst had “the greatest pair of hands I’ve ever seen.”
Schoendienst the Perennial All-Star
Schoendienst slumped a bit at the start of 1947 and did not make the All-Star squad but returned to the Mid-Summer Classic in 1948, the first of eight consecutive appearances.
I tried unsuccessfully to research the reason why Jackie Robinson wasn’t the N.L.’s starter at 2nd base in ’48. Perhaps he had been on the ballot as a first baseman (his position in 1947). More likely, the fans weren’t ready to vote a black man to start the game. Regardless, reason prevailed from 1949-52, with Jackie earning the starting nod each year with Schoendienst making the squad as a backup.
Red was the hitting star of the ’50 game, delivering a solo home run to lead off the top of the 14th inning to break a 3-3 tie and lead the N.L. to a 4-3 win.
Robinson was moved to left field in 1953, opening the door for Schoendienst to once again earn starting honors at 2nd base. ’53 was Red’s best season in the majors. He set career highs with a .342 batting average, .405 on-base %, .502 slugging %, 15 HR, 79 RBI, and 107 Runs Scored. He also led all second basemen in fielding % and double plays turned.
Using modern metrics, Red also set career highs with a 6.4 WAR and 135 OPS+ in ’53. For his efforts, Schoendienst finished fourth in the MVP voting, behind Roy Campanella, Eddie Mathews and Duke Snider and four spots ahead of Musial.
In 1954, Red was off to another great start with the bat but was beaten out by Philadelphia’s Granny Hamner for the All-Star starting nod. Hamner hit .323 with 47 RBI in the first half of the season.
Schoendienst started again for the N.L. squad in 1955 but finished with a subpar year. After hitting over .300 the previous three seasons, Red slumped to .268 in ’55.
Leaving St. Louis
In June 1956, Red Schoendienst was traded away from the St. Louis Cardinals, packaged in an eight-player deal to the New York Giants. Musial called losing his friend to another team his “saddest day in baseball.” Red only spent one year with the Giants. One year and a day after acquiring him, the Giants sent the 34-year old Schoendienst to the Milwaukee Braves, giving Red another chance to play for a contending squad.
The ’57 Braves, who would wind up winning the pennant and World Series, had a vast array of talent. The Braves were led by two budding young stars, right fielder Hank Aaron (23 years old) and third baseman Eddie Mathews (25) along with a veteran starting pitcher, Warren Spahn (36).
“It made us all feel like Superman. We knew he was going to mean so much to our ballclub that wouldn’t show up in the box score… He definitely became the leader of that ball club.” — Hank Aaron
Between New York and Milwaukee, Schoendienst had the second best season of his career. He reached 200 hits for the first and only time, while hitting .309 and tying his career-high with 15 taters.
Using modern numbers, Red’s 5.7 WAR was the second best of his career. He also appeared in the All-Star Game for the final time.
1957 was the last quality campaign of Red Shoendienst’s career. Although the 1958 Braves returned to the Fall Classic, this time falling in 7 games to the Yankees, Schoendienst did not contribute at the same level, hitting just .262 with 1 home run and a lowly .641 OPS (77 OPS+).
Saying that he didn’t really feel right, Red played in only 106 games in ’58 and, after the season, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. According to his SABR Bio, Red received more than 10,000 well-wishing cards and letters, including one from President Dwight Eisenhower.
Schoendienst had surgery to remove part of his lung and missed virtually the entire 1959 season. Back with the Braves in 1960, the 37-year old Red Schoendienst became a part-time player, appearing in only 68 games. He wasn’t happy about it but Red wasn’t the type to complain. He was released shortly after the end of the season.
Back Home in St. Louis
Free to sign wherever he chose, Red Schoendienst decided to come home to St. Louis as a part-time player, turning down an offer to be the starting second sacker for the expansion Los Angeles Angels. In 1961-62, Red appeared in 170 games, starting only 30 of them.
After the ’62 campaign, he signed a contract to coach rather than play and only wound up appearing in 6 games, retiring as a player at the age of 40 after the season. His longtime friend Stan the Man Musial also retired after the 1963 season.
Schoendienst’s first full season as a coach was a momentous one in St. Louis. Lou Brock was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in one of the most legendary lopsided trades in MLB history.
The Redbirds won the N.L. pennant by one game over Gene Mauch‘s Philadelphia Phillies, who blew a 6 1/2 game lead, losing ten games in a row in September including the Cardinals. The Cards, back in the World Series for the first time since 1946, prevailed in a 7-game series against the New York Yankees.
Red Schoendienst the Manager
In a scene that would be repeated by Tony La Russa and Mike Matheny 47 years later, manager Johnny Keane resigned shortly after the ’64 World Championship and the 41-year old Schoendienst became the team’s new skipper. Keane took over the Yankees from Yogi Berra.
After two disappointing seasons, Schoendienst guided the Cardinals back to the Fall Classic in 1967 and they prevailed again in 7 games, this time over the Boston Red Sox.
In 1968, the Redbirds repeated as winners of the N.L. pennant and participated in another 7-game classic World Series, this time falling to the Detroit Tigers when Tigers’ lefty Mickey Lolich out-pitched the great Bob Gibson, tossing three complete games and winning 3 out of the Tigers’ 4 series wins.
Schoendienst continued to serve as the Redbirds’ skipper from 1969-1976 but would not lead the team back to the post-season, even in the newly configured divisional play where each team had to beat 5 teams to make the playoffs instead of 7 or 9 as it had been up to 1968.
After St. Louis went 72-90 in 1976, Red Schoendienst was fired. He finished those 12 years at the Cards’ skipper with a 1010-925 record (.522). At the time, he was the longest tenured manager in Cardinals history. La Russa would surpass that record by managing the Redbirds from 1996-2011 (16 years).
Schoendienst spent the 1977 and 1978 seasons on the Oakland A’s coaching staff. He had an offer to manage the team in 1979 but declined because he didn’t want to manage a bad team for owner Charles Finley.
Cardinal Lifer
Red Schoendienst returned home to St. Louis in 1979 to serve as hitting coach for manager Ken Boyer, a former teammate with the Redbirds. Boyer was fired early in 1980, replaced by future Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog. The White Rat kept Schoendienst on his staff and even had him manage the last 37 games of the season so that he, in his dual role as team GM, could scout the team’s minor league prospects.
Whether it was as a coach or in another organizational role, Red remained a Cardinal for the final 40 years of his life.
St. Louis Dispatch sportswriter Bob Broeg, a Hall of Famer himself as the Spink Award winner in 1979, likened Schoendienst to the Mark Twain character Huckleberry Finn. From his teenage years until his passing at 95, the red-haired native of Germantown, Illinois wanted nothing but to be around the game of baseball.
From the first time I met Red to really talk to him, when the Cardinals took a barnstorming trip by railroad from St. Petersburg, Fla., immediately after World War II, I knew he had to be Huck Finn. Heck, he even looked the way I knew Huck had to look. He was tall, loosey-goosey, freckled and carrot-topped, and had a deep, Ferdy Froghammer voice, if you knew the caricature used in the movies then.
— Bob Broeg, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Baseball’s Huck Finn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Schoendienst’s Long Path to Cooperstown
Red Schoendienst retired as a player after the 1963 season. At that time in history, his 1,834 games played at 2nd base was the 7th most in history. At the time, only five other second basemen had more than Red’s 2,449 career hits.
As a 10-time All-Star, a 2-time World Champion and a deserved rep as an excellent defensive player, Shoendienst had a legitimate case for the Hall of Fame. He debuted on the ballot in 1969 (with friend and teammate Musial) and earned 19.1% of the vote while Stan the Man sailed into Cooperstown as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Schoendienst topped out at 42.6% of the vote in 1980, far shy of the 75% needed for a Hall of Fame plaque. He dropped off the ballot after 15 years, getting 39.0% of the vote in 1983.
As it was for dozens of players before him (and since), Schoendienst was elected by the Veterans Committee, in 1989. Red had two significant advocates on the Veterans Committee. One was Musial, his lifelong friend. The other was Broeg, who was a member of Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors from 1972 to 1999.
The votes and deliberations of the Veterans Committees over the years have been closely guarded secrets but it’s inconceivable that Musial and Broeg didn’t have a significant impact on Red getting his Cooperstown plaque.
When you look closely at the numbers (both old school and sabermetric), it’s clear that Red Schoendienst is a little short of the standards of most Hall of Fame second basemen. His career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is 42.3, just 33rd among all second basemen in baseball history. On the career WAR leaderboard, he’s just behind Chuck Knoblauch, Ben Zobrist and Davey Lopes and barely ahead of Placido Polanco.
Out of the 122 second sackers with at least 5,000 plate appearances, his career ballpark-and-era-adjusted OPS+ of 94 is just 71st best. It doesn’t matter what statistic you apply, Red Schoendienst doesn’t appear in the top 10 of any.
However, and this is a big however, the totality of the baseball life of the red-haired Cardinal lifer can’t be measured by his playing statistics.
Are there second basemen who are not in the Hall of Fame who had superior playing careers to Shoendienst’s? The answer is “Yes.”
Are there any who also spent 12 years as a MLB manager, skippering his squad to 2 pennants and 1 World Championship? The answer is “No” to that inquiry.
Baseball’s Huck Finn is in the Hall of Fame and that’s fine with me. Red Schoendienst led a long baseball life. He will always be remembered as one of the most important figures in St. Louis Cardinals’ history in the 20th century.
Rest in peace, Red.
Thanks for reading. Please follow me on Twitter @cooperstowncred.
