Why Whitey Herzog resigned as Cardinals manager

With his ballclub mired in last place in the National League East and rumors swirling of discontent in the clubhouse, Whitey Herzog called a press conference in San Diego on July 6, 1990, to announce that the St. Louis Cardinals’ Whiteyball era was officially over.

Herzog’s resignation came with 2 ½ years remaining on his contract. In a professional baseball career that dated back to his age-17 season with the Yankees’ Class D affiliate in McAlester, Oklahoma, it marked the first time Herzog had ever quit a job in baseball.[1]

“I still enjoy managing, but I just don’t feel like I’ve done the job,” Herzog said. “I feel like I’ve underachieved. I can’t get the guys to play.”[2]

The previous month had marked 10 years since Herzog was named Cardinals manager. Later that season, he was named the club’s general manager and initiated a flurry of moves, including trades for players such as Bruce Sutter, Joaquin Andujar, Willie McGee, Lonnie Smith, and Ozzie Smith. Taking advantage of Busch Stadium’s vast dimensions and AstroTurf surface, the Cardinals were rebuilt around pitching, speed, and defense.

Often called “Whiteyball,” the Cardinals’ style of play proved highly successful as St. Louis won the 1982 World Series, then captured the National League pennant again in 1985 and 1987. After the Cardinals won 95 games in 1987, however, they fell to fifth place with 76 wins in 1988. The Redbirds bounced back with 86 wins in 1989, but their start to the 1990 season was as bad as any Herzog had experienced in St. Louis.

“I guess you could say I joined the club where I left it – in last place,” Herzog said. “In between, we had some good times.”[3]

He added, “It isn’t that I can’t stand losing if I think the club is playing up to its capabilities,” he said. “I’m just bewildered. I can’t believe this team is playing as badly as this team is playing. It’s really been bad. I just felt I wasn’t getting it done.”[4]

Three weeks prior to his resignation, Herzog told general manager Dal Maxvill and team CEO Fred Kuhlmann he was considering resigning. Both tried to talk him out of it.[5]

On July 4, however, after a 9-2 loss to the Giants in the final game of a three-game sweep in San Francisco, Herzog called his wife Mary Lou and told her he was done. He then managed one more game, a 4-1 win over the Padres, before announcing his decision in a July 6 press conference.[6]

“It’s too bad we had to reach this point,” Kuhlmann said. “Whitey unquestionably is a great manager. We’re reluctant to accept his resignation. I can’t pass up this opportunity without expressing our heartfelt thanks of the St. Louis Cardinals and their great fans for the 10 years of wonderful baseball he gave to us in St. Louis. If there is one bright spot in St. Louis, it is that Whitey is going to stay on as vice president. We’re happy to continue to have the expertise of this man, one of the most knowledgeable men in the country.”[7]

Once the press conference was complete, Herzog hopped on an Anheuser-Busch plane and returned to St. Louis without stopping by the clubhouse to bid farewell to his players.[8] St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz wasn’t surprised.

“This was no longer his team,” Miklasz wrote. “They had stopped playing for him long ago, when they started playing for themselves. Unless Herzog could come up with heart transplants for 25, any future endeavors on his part were futile.” He continued: “Whitey didn’t resign; he evacuated, leaving behind a team so ripped apart and split open that the players didn’t try to conceal the wounds.”[9]

Catcher Tom Pagnozzi also hinted at clubhouse drama in acknowledging Herzog’s departure.

“We didn’t deserve for him to talk to us,” Pagnozzi said. “We embarrassed him. We all but spit on him with the way we played. He didn’t have to say anything to us. We know why he’s leaving. We drove him out of here and the thing that makes me so mad about this is that there are still too many people around here who have a laid-back attitude about what happened.”[10]

While Pagnozzi didn’t single anyone out, Miklasz pointed the finger at arguably the Cardinals’ most popular player: Ozzie Smith.

“Many of the Cardinals blame him for creating the conditions that ultimately led to the shocking event that eclipsed this bright, postcard day in a California paradise,” Miklasz wrote. He then quoted an anonymous player who said, “To me, this has been a power struggle and Ozzie is going to walk around here like he’s won.”[11]

Miklasz continued:

Any attempt by Herzog to motivate his team was blocked, indirectly, by the mood that Smith established in the clubhouse. One incident remains fresh: Milt Thompson, in a clubhouse prank, shoving a shaving-cream pie in Ozzie’s face earlier this season. Instead of laughing it off, Smith sternly lectured Thompson.

“You take two guys like Milt Thompson and Willie McGee,” a player said. “They’re great guys. They love life. But they always have their heads down. They look to Ozzie. If he’s in a good mood, they’re in a good mood.”[12]

Of course, the Cardinals’ struggles couldn’t be attributed entirely to Smith’s clubhouse leadership. Just a few weeks earlier, third baseman Terry Pendleton said in an interview with Cardinals broadcaster Ken Wilson that Herzog’s criticisms were having a negative effect on the team.

“Every night it was the same thing,” one Cardinal said following Herzog’s resignation. “Whitey, sitting in his office, ripping apart the players. For a while, those tactics work. But you can’t do that to people, day in and day out, and expect them to enjoy the game and enjoy playing for you.

“Look at what Whitey did to Vince Coleman last year. He got on Vince Coleman unmercifully. I’ve never seen him ride a player like that. It could have destroyed Vince, but Vince was strong. Whitey is outspoken, but he never used to be so personal about it. He used to be able to motivate this team. You’d come to the stadium believing you could do it. But that was a long time ago, and the manager is accountable. If we stopped caring, it was because he stopped caring too.”[13]

It’s possible that Herzog’s frustration with his players was mirrored by disgust at Anheuser-Busch’s fading commitment to the Cardinals since the passing of Gussie Busch. Despite their success under Herzog’s leadership, the brewery assigned the team’s decision-making to a committee comprised largely of Anheuser-Busch executives. As a result, Herzog frequently was stymied in his attempt to either upgrade the plug or keep talented players already on the roster.

Jack Clark, who signed as a free agent with the Yankees after the 1987 season, said he had no doubt he would have remained if Herzog had the authority to re-sign him.

“Maybe it’s been a buildup over the years,” Clark said. “Maybe he’s been frustrated by some of the decisions he’s wanted to make about players like myself and has been unable to make. Maybe he just got tired of that.”[14]

Miklasz agreed.

“Instead of making snap personnel decisions and answering to no one except Gussie Busch, Herzog in his latter years had to lobby a committee – including some non-baseball people – to put his ideas into action,” he wrote. “The Cardinals led baseball in procrastination, a direct conflict with Herzog’s fast-forward, do-it-now nature.”[15]

Given the team’s lethargic decision-making process, Herzog could certainly see that the Cardinals were headed toward a challenging offseason. Ten players were eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

“We’ve got so many people … just playing for themselves,” Cardinals broadcaster and former player Mike Shannon said. “They’re just playing for their free agency and Whitey Herzog is not going to be responsible for having a club that’s not a team.”[16]

Despite all the warning signs, the Cardinals and all of baseball were shocked by Herzog’s decision.

“This caught us all like an unsuspecting punch in the stomach,” said pitcher Joe Magrane, who had gone 18-9 in 1989 but was just 4-11 with a 4.12 ERA when Herzog resigned. “I have a lot of blame to absorb. Hell, I’m 4-11. It’s just disappointing. If there ever was a guy who was going to die with the birds on his chest, it was going to be him.”[17]

“I’m shocked,” first baseman Pedro Guerrero said. “We should take the blame, not him. I feel bad that I let him and a lot of people down. I’m embarrassed the way we played. I know that I haven’t done the job that I did last year at this point.”[18]

Braves general manager and manager Bobby Cox said he needed to see it in print before he believed that Herzog’s tenure in St. Louis was over. Expos general manager Dave Dombrowski said the news was “going to hit the baseball world like a bomb.”[19]

In 11 seasons as Cardinals manager, Herzog compiled an 822-728 record for a .530 winning percentage. Over 18 seasons as a major-league manager with the Rangers, Angels, Royals, and Cardinals, the White Rat had a 1,281-1,125 career record.

“I look back at Whitey Herzog as the guy who revived baseball in St. Louis,” said Lee Thomas, the Cardinals’ director of player development from 1981-1988. “To appreciate that, you have to look at how bad things were before he came in. He made new life in St. Louis, to the tune of 3 million (fans) a year. Whitey probably had more to do with that than anybody.”[20]

Giants manager Roger Craig said, “I always respected Whitey as a manager and thought he was great for baseball. During the course of the game, as far as strategy is concerned, he’s one of the best I’ve ever gone up against. He’s excellent at knowing the personnel of both his team and the team he’s managing against.”[21]

Almost as soon as Herzog resigned, speculation arose regarding where he would manage next. There were rumors that Herzog might land in San Diego, where his friend Jack McKeon served as general manager and manager but had expressed an eagerness to shed one of those responsibilities.

“I really admired Whitey as a manager,” said former Cardinal Garry Templeton, now a veteran with the Padres after being traded to San Diego for Smith ahead of the 1982 season. “I enjoyed playing for him, even though we had a little run-in back in ’81. You hate to see good managers leave the game. Whitey brought a lot of interesting things to the league. He won a lot of pennants for the Cardinals.”[22]

Despite the scuttlebutt, Herzog never managed again. Instead, he served as general manager of the Angels in 1993 and 1994, but struggled to turn the team around amidst a limited budget and front-office power struggles.[23] After the 1996 season, Herzog turned down an offer to manage the Red Sox, and in 2001 he declined an offer to serve as Boston’s bench coach alongside manager Joe Kerrigan.[24] In 2010, Herzog was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Following Herzog’s resignation, the Cardinals named Red Schoendienst the interim manager. He led the team to a 13-11 record before Joe Torre was named manager on August 1.

---

Enjoy this post? Sign up below and get Cardinals history delivered directly to your inbox!

---

[1] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[2] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[3] Jeff Gordon, “Rat’s Pack: Cards Fun Began When Whitey Arrived In ’80,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Whitey Quits,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[9] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[10] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[11] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[12] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[13] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[14] Dan O’Neill, “Clark Says Discontent Was Building,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[15] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards Clubhouse Divided: Faces Of Hatred Are Unmasked,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[16] Rick Hummel, “Bad Call: Players Say They’re To Blame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[17] Rick Hummel, “Bad Call: Players Say They’re To Blame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[18] Rick Hummel, “Bad Call: Players Say They’re To Blame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[19] Vahe Gregorian, “Resignation ‘Hits Like a Bomb,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[20] Vahe Gregorian, “Resignation ‘Hits Like a Bomb,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[21] Vahe Gregorian, “Resignation ‘Hits Like a Bomb,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[22] Dan O’Neill, “Clark Says Discontent Was Building,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 7, 1990.

[23] Bob Nightengale, “Angels GM Herzog Out in Surprise Resignation,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1994.

[24] “Herzog turns down Boston’s bench coach offer,” ESPN.com, https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/2001/1215/1296375.html.