Dorrel Norman Elvert "Whitey" Herzog (; November 9, 1931 – April 15, 2024) was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager, most notable for his Major League Baseball (MLB) managerial career.
Herzog made his major league debut as a player in 1956 with the Washington Senators. After his playing career ended in 1963, Herzog went on to perform a variety of roles in Major League Baseball, including scout, manager, coach, general manager, and farm system director.
As a scout and farm system director, Herzog helped the New York Mets win the 1969 World Series. As a big-league manager, he led the Kansas City Royals to three consecutive playoff appearances from 1976 to 1978. Hired by Gussie Busch in 1980 to helm the St. Louis Cardinals, the team made three World Series appearances, winning the 1982 World Series over the Milwaukee Brewers and falling in 1985 and 1987.
Herzog was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 2010, and was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum on August 16, 2014.
Herzog was born on November 9, 1931, in New Athens, Illinois, to Edgar and Lietta Herzog. His father worked at a brewery and his mother at a shoe factory. Whitey attended New Athens High School where he played basketball and baseball. He drew interest from the college basketball programs at Saint Louis University and Illinois. As a youth, Herzog delivered newspapers, sold baked goods from a truck, dug graves, and worked at the brewery with his father. He was known as "Relly" — a diminutive of Dorrel, his given first name.
His older brother Therron played a year of minor league baseball in 1954 in the Cotton States League.
Herzog both batted and threw left-handed. He was originally signed by the New York Yankees by scout Lou Maguolo. While playing for the McAlester Rockets in the Sooner State League in 1949 and 1950, a sportscaster gave Herzog the nickname "Whitey" due to his light blonde hair and resemblance to blonde Yankees pitcher Bob "The White Rat" Kuzava, (rather than the light blonde Yankee starter and future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford, then on the way to a 9–1 rookie season). In 1953, during the Korean War, Herzog served the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, during which time he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and managed the camp's baseball team.
While he was still a minor league prospect, the Yankees traded Herzog to the Washington Senators on April 2, 1956, to complete a February trade in which the Yankees had sent Lou Berberet, Bob Wiesler, Dick Tettelbach, and Herb Plews to Washington for Mickey McDermott. He made his major league debut with the Senators in 1956 and played for them until May 15, 1958, when he was sold to the Kansas City Athletics. Before the 1961 season, the Athletics traded Herzog and Russ Snyder to the Baltimore Orioles for Wayne Causey, Jim Archer, Bob Boyd, Clint Courtney, and Al Pilarcik. After the 1962 season, the Orioles traded Herzog and Gus Triandos to the Detroit Tigers for Dick Brown. Herzog ended his playing career after the 1963 season. In 634 games spread over eight years, Herzog batted .257 with 25 home runs, 172 runs batted in, 213 runs scored, 60 doubles, 20 triples, and 13 stolen bases. In reference to his relative success as a player versus being a manager, Herzog said, "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it."
After his playing career ended, Herzog rejoined the Athletics for two seasons, as a scout in 1964 and a coach in 1965.
His next seven years were spent with the New York Mets, the first, in 1966, as the third-base coach for manager Wes Westrum. Beginning in 1967 Herzog then made his mark with the club during his six-year tenure as its director of player development. On his watch, the Mets produced young talent that either appeared on one or both of its 1969 and 1973 World Series teams or were dealt and had successful major league careers elsewhere. Among this crop of players was Gary Gentry, Wayne Garrett, Jon Matlack, John Milner, Amos Otis, and Ken Singleton. Herzog was a candidate to become the Mets' manager after the death of Gil Hodges prior to the 1972 season, but was passed over in favor of first-base coach Yogi Berra, a future Yankee Hall of Fame catcher and brief ex-Met player, by chairman of the board M. Donald Grant. He had been ordered to not attend Hodges' funeral by Grant's associates to avoid speculation.
Perceiving Grant's actions as a snub, Herzog left the Mets to accept the first managerial assignment of his career. On November 2, 1972, he signed a two-year contract to lead the Texas Rangers, the only major league team to have 100 losses in 1972. Hired based on recommendations from general manager Joe Burke to owner Bob Short, he'd been given the understanding that he was to help develop the team's young prospects. He immediately abandoned the platoon system used heavily by his predecessor Ted Williams.
Herzog debuted with a 3–1 Rangers loss to the Chicago White Sox at Arlington Stadium on April 7, 1973. His first victory was a 4–0 triumph over the Kansas City Royals five nights later on April 12 at Royals Stadium.
He never got the chance to finish the 1973 season. With the team at 47–91, he was fired on September 7, three days after a 14–0 loss to the White Sox at Comiskey Park. Coach Del Wilber replaced him for one game, followed by Billy Martin, who had been fired by the Detroit Tigers on August 30. Short defended the change by telling reporters, "If my mother were managing the Rangers and I had the opportunity to hire Billy Martin, I'd fire my mother."
Herzog joined the California Angels as their third-base coach in 1974. He was named the team's interim manager on June 27, 1974, the same day that his predecessor Bobby Winkles was fired and also Hall of Fame bound successor Dick Williams was hired. The first game he managed was a 5–0 win for the Angels, who split a four-game weekend series against the Rangers at Anaheim Stadium during his brief 4-game stint.
Herzog succeeded Jack McKeon as manager of the Kansas City Royals on July 24, 1975, and managed the team from 1975 to 1979. At the time he took over in 1975, the team was in second place in the American League West but trailed the defending and eventual division champion Oakland Athletics by 11 games. The Royals went on to win three straight American League Western division titles from 1976 to 1978. However, each of those seasons ended with losses to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, with each one having their own particular brand of sting. In the 1976 American League Championship Series, the two teams traded wins to see an even series by the time of the decisive Game 5 in New York. The Royals trailed by three runs in the eighth before rallying to tie the game. On the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth, Chris Chambliss hit a series-ending walk off home run off closer Mark Littell. In the 1977 series, the teams traded wins again in the first four, but the Royals had a chance to clinch it at home. Game 5 saw them lead 3–1 going into the eighth inning, but the Yankees narrowed it to a run with a pinch-hit RBI. Now going with Dennis Leonard (who had pitched a complete game two days earlier), it all sputtered. He allowed a hit and a walk before being pulled, but the Yankees continued to hit the ball and scored three runs in the inning before Kansas City went down in the bottom half as the Yankees went to the World Series again. In the 1978 series, the Royals won Game 2 and played competitive in Game 3, but Herzog's decision to go with Doug Bird in the eighth inning to face Thurman Munson resulted in him belting a go-ahead two-run shot as the Yankees won 6-5. The Royals scored a run in first inning of Game 4 but the Yankees led by the end of the 5th and never looked back in a 2-1 victory.
Herzog and general manager Joe Burke clashed during the 1979 season over personnel moves, and he openly chafed at being offered one-year contracts by owner Ewing Kauffman, who in turn did not like the treatment given to first baseman John Mayberry, whose lackadaisical play in Game 4 of the 1977 series had led to Herzog benching him for Game 5 before blaming him for the series loss and then demanding Mayberry be traded. After the 1979 season saw the team finish second to the California Angels, Herzog was fired. Herzog actually expressed criticism of Burke for not doing it sooner, in order to try and give the team a spark during the season.