Whitey Herzog Builds a Winner: The St. Louis Cardinals, 1979-1982

by Doug Feldmann

As Lou Brock was chasing 3000 career hits late in the 1979 season--his last after 18 years in the majors--the St. Louis Cardinals were looking for a new identity. Brock's departure represented the final link to the team's glory years of the 1960s, and a parade of new players now came in from the minor leagues. With the Cardinals mired in last place by the following June, owner August A. Busch, Jr., hired Whitey Herzog as field manager, and shortly handed him the general manager's position, too.

Herzog was given free rein to rebuild the club in order to embrace the new running game trend in the majors. With an aggressive style of play and an unconventional approach to personnel moves, he catapulted the Cardinals back into prominence and defined a new age of baseball in St. Louis.

Genres: Baseball

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2018

About the author

Doug Feldmann is an American author of thirteen books, focusing mainly upon baseball history and the sport's sociological impact on urban and small-town America. His work has been recognized in multiple-time nominations for the Casey Award and the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. He is a professor in the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University and a former baseball scout for the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres. He completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies at Indiana University (1999), his master's degree in Secondary Education at Rockford University (1995), and his bachelor's degree in English and History at Northern Illinois University (1992), where he was an outfielder on the baseball team and a walk-on punter on the football team.

Reviews

[M.J. Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any fan of the St. Louis Cardinals will enjoy reading this account of Whitey Herzog during his tenure as manager of that team. A recap of the Cardinals' World Series season of 1982 comprises the bulk of this book. It is a very interesting book for baseball fans!

[Richard Bray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well researched book with a lot of details about Herzog, his players, and the 1982 team.

[Robert James · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific read for a life long Cardinal fan. I remember the 82 series like it was yesterday. Loved the stories about Whitey, Ozzie, Willie, Andujar, Sutter, Hernandez and Porter. Also loved the stories from the 1979, 1980 and 1981 seasons. Ted Simmons was my favorite player.