Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Whitey Herzog booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company for booking Whitey Herzog speaker appearances, autograph signing, endorsement deals or hiring Whitey Herzog as a keynote speaker for your next event. Find Whitey Herzog official website information, speaker fees, booking fees, costs and schedule. Whitey Herzog made his debut as a player in 1956 with the Washington Senators. After his brief playing career ended in 1963, Herzog went on to perform a variety of roles in Major League Baseball.

Most noted for his success as a manager, he led the Kansas City Royals to three consecutive playoff appearances from 1976 to 1978. He was hired by Gussie Busch in 1980 to manage the St. Louis Cardinals and won the 1982 World Series. He made two other World Series appearances in 1985 and 1987. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 2010.

Herzog began his major league career as a player in the New York Yankees organization. The lefty was traded and made his major league debut for the Washington Senators. In addition to the Senators, Herzog played for the Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers in his eight season career. In reference to his success as a player versus his success as a manager, Herzog once said, "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it.”

Herzog made his way up to the managerial ranks by spending time as a scout for the Kansas City Athletics and the third base coach and director of player development for the New York Mets. After establishing himself in the game of baseball, Herzog took a managerial job with the Texas Rangers. His first stint as manager did not go well as he was fired midway through the season with a 47-91 record.

Herzog continued building his managerial credentials with the California Angels (1974 on an interim basis), Kansas City Royals (1975–1979) and St. Louis Cardinals (1980–90). He had his greatest success in Kansas City, where he won three straight American League Western division titles from 1976 to 1978, and in St. Louis, where he won the 1982 World Series and the National League Pennant in 1985 and 1987. In total, he managed six division winners, three pennant winners and one World Series winner in compiling a 1,281-1,125 (.532) career record.

With his extensive background in player development, Herzog also was a general manager with both the Cardinals (1980–1982) and the California Angels. He succeeded Jack Krol as manager of the Redbirds in 1980, managed for 73 games, then moved into the club's front office as GM on August 26. During the offseason, Herzog reclaimed the manager job, then held both the GM and field manager posts with St. Louis for almost two full seasons, during which he acquired or promoted many players who would star on the Cards' three World Series teams of the 1980s.

Herzog's style of play, based on the strategy of attrition, was nicknamed "Whiteyball" and concentrated on pitching, speed and defense to win games rather than home runs. Herzog's lineups generally consisted of one or more base-stealing threats at the top of the lineup with a power threat such as George Brett or Jack Clark hitting third or fourth, protected by one or two hitters with lesser power, followed by more base stealers. This tactic kept payrolls low while allowing Herzog to win a lot of games in stadiums with deep fences and artificial turf, both of which were characteristics of Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) and Busch Memorial Stadium.

Herzog was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee on December 7, 2009, receiving 14 of a possible 16 votes. Herzog's induction into the Hall of Fame is on July 25, 2010. In addition, the Cardinals retired the number ‘24’ that he wore during his managerial tenure.

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