Norman Elvert Herzog began his Major League playing career in 1956 and he ended his managerial career in 1990. He played for 4 different teams and he managed 4 different clubs. Along the way his baseball career took him to such titles as scout, coach, manager, general manager and even farm system director. As a farm system director, he was part of the 1969 World Series Mets team.

As a big league manager he lead the Kansas City Royals to three consecutive play-off appearances from 1976-78. Then, with the Cardinals he made 3 World Series appearances winning the 1982 World Series. Here are some other facts you may not know about this great baseball man.

1. Whitey had an older brother named Therron who played 1 year of minor league baseball in the Cotton States League.
2. Herzog was originally drafted by the Yankees but was traded to the Washington Senators, where he made his major league debut. Washington traded him to the Kansas City Athletics (yes they were called the Athletics in 1961) and traded again to the Orioles and they traded him to the Tigers.
3. In 634 games spread over eight seasons, Herzog batted .257 with 25 home runs, 172 RBI’s, 213 runs, 60 doubles, 20 triples, and 13 stolen bases.
4.  A sportscaster gave Herzog the nickname “Whitey” due to his light blonde hair and resemblance to blonde Yankees pitcher Bob “The White Rat” Kuzava.
5. Whitey spent 7 seasons with the Mets starting in 1966. After the death of Manager Gil Hodges he became a leading candidate for the managerial vacancy but the job was given to a guy you may be familiar with, Yogi Berra.
6. Herzog then signed a 2 year contract with the Rangers to be their Manager, but he fired before the contract was up with an overall record of 47-91
7. Whitey then became the 3rd base coach for the California Angels. He was later named the teams interim manager, for 4 games until Hall of Famer Dick Williams was hired. He split the 4 games winning and losing 2 each.
8. He then took over the reins of the Royals where the won 3 straight American League West Division titles from 1976-78.
9. In 1980 he became the Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals for 10 years. He went to the World Series with them 3 times and won one.
10. Whitey had a younger brother, Codell, who preceded him in death. He made out Whitey’s 1st line-up card in St. Louis

 “If my mother were managing the Rangers and I had the opportunity to hire Billy Martin, I’d fire my mother.”

Texas Rangers Owner Bob Short as to why he fired Whitey Herzog as Ranger’s Manager.

Herzog was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veteran’s committee on December 7th 2009 receiving 14 of the possible 16 votes. In 2010 the St. Louis Cardinals retired his #24 jersey number. In January of 2014 the Cardinals announced Herzog was part of 22 former players who would be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum.

Whitey Herzog gave a good chunk of his life to the game he loved, and received several accolades for doing so. He passed away on April 15th and will be sorely missed by his family and everyone here at the We love Sportz family, he was 92 years old.

By : Ballentine

Photo Credit; VOA, Los Angeles Times, and Redbird Rants

The items above were gathered from MLB Trade Rumors and Wikipedia

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