Published April 5, 2025
By Phil Reyburn
In the spring of 1949, the New York Yankees signed two blond 18-year-olds. One was from Commerce, Oklahoma and the other from New Athens, Illinois. Only one was destined to wear the Yankee pinstripes in the Big Leagues, but both are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The two, Mickey Mantle and Dorrel “Whitey” Herzog, took different roads to Cooperstown.
Herzog began his professional baseball career with the Class-D McAlester Rockets of the Sooner State League where he played in 96 games, picked up 111 hits and batted .279. In 1950, Herzog was again with the Rockets. He batted .351 with 161 hits and 4 home runs. While in McAlester, Herzog’s blond hair led a sportscaster to tag him with the nickname of “Whitey.” The Rockets fans saw a resemblance to the Yankee pitcher Bob “The White Rat” Kuza. This moniker also followed him through his years in baseball. To the folks back in New Athens, he was known as “Relly.”
In 1951, Herzog was with the Class-C Joplin Miners. In 113 games he batted .285 with 119 hits and seven home runs. That year Mickey Mantle played 40 games with the Yankees top farm team, the Kansas City Blues, before becoming a mainstay with the Bronx Bombers for the next 18 years.
Herzog opened the 1952 season with the Texas League Beaumont Roughnecks, a Double-A team. On April 2nd “Dorrel ‘Whitey’ Herzog, southpaw centerfielder, got the Beaumont Roughnecks off to an early start when he banged the first pitched ball in the game over the right field wall for a home run,” the Beaumont Enterprise reported. Unfortunately, after 35 games Herzog was batting a puny .198 with a measly 24 hits, earning a demotion to the Class-B Three-I league Quincy Gems.
The 6-1, 190-pound Herzog reported to the Gems on Friday, May 23rd and played that evening. The Herald Whig column “Looking Out from The Press Coop” detailed Herzog’s first game in a Gems’ uniform. “Darrell (sic) Herzog, right field: Popped out, was hit by the pitcher, flied out, popped out and was safe on an error and had one put out and one assist.” He was 0 for 4 and the Gems lost.
The Gems and the Terre Haute Phillies played a doubleheader on Sunday May 25th. Herzog started to turn things around and went 4 for 7 at the plate with two stolen bases, one of which was home. The Herald Whig sportswriter had this to say: “That blonde Herzog boy can really travel. In Sunday night’s opener he swiped home and turned two bunts into base hits when his speed put him on first before the Phillie fielders could do anything about it.”
In a May 30th doubleheader with the Evansville Braves, Herzog stole home in both games and had 4 hits. Herzog’s move to centerfield not only had local sportswriters praising his fielding but also the fans taking notice too. “One of the outstanding plays of the game was Herzog’s diving shoestring catch of Goryl’s smash in short center in the fifth—one of the several stellar plays the blond centerfielder turned in,” reported the Herald Whig of his play on June 5th against Evansville. That same night, “on the strength of his great outfield play,” a three-fan committee picked “Relly” Herzog “star of the game” and awarded him a war bond.
On June 6th, Herzog’s eighth inning solo homerun broke up a pitchers’ duel and gave the Gems a 1-0 win over Cedar Rapids. Herzog had quickly become a fan favorite in what was shaping up to be a lackluster season for the Gems, who were fighting to stay out of last place. While out in Kansas City, the Triple-A Blues were in a dogfight with the Milwaukee Brewers for the American Association pennant.
After the Blues suffered several injuries, the Yankee organization reached down to Gems and called Herzog up to the Triple-A team. In his two plus months with the Quincy Gems, Herzog played 68 games. The Herald Whig pointed out that “the blond outfielder . . . hit .290 for the Quincy club. His hits included nine doubles, six triples and seven home runs, and he had batted in 41 runs.”
In his “This ‘N’ That in Sports” the Herald Whig sports columnist Fred Gray wrote that “when Herzog, popular with the fans, was taken, he was batting .290 and was a morale builder for the club, which needed all the morale building it could get.” The Gems were in last place and 19 ½ games out of first.
Herzog spent 1953-54 in the army. After being discharged, he returned to the Yankee Triple-A team now in Denver for the 1955 season. Traded to the Washington organization, Herzog finally made the majors with the 1956 Senators. In his 8-year Big League career, Herzog also played for Kansas City, Baltimore, and Detroit. With his playing days over, Herzog stayed in baseball first as a scout but returned to Big Leagues as a coach. He spent 1967 through 1972 working in player development for the Mets. In 1973, he was named manager of the Texas Rangers. From 1975 through 1979, Herzog piloted the Kansas City Royals. With the Royals, Herzog implemented “Whiteyball,” which is “predicated on great fielding, line-drive hitting, speed on the base paths, and solid pitching.”
In 1980, Herzog took “Whiteyball” to St. Louis where he was both the manager and the general manager. In his 11 years at the helm of the Cardinals, Herzog’s teams won 3 National League pennants and 1 World Series Title. With players like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, and Vince Coleman, the 1980s Cardinal teams symbolized “Whiteyball.” Herzog was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. On April 15, 2024, at the age of 92 “Whitey” Herzog passed away.
Phil Reyburn is a retired field representative for the Social Security Administration. He authored Clear the Track: A History of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Railroad Regiment; and co-edited “Jottings from Dixie: The Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A.”
Sources:
Foldes, Adam. “Whitey Herzog,” Society for American Baseball Research.
https://sabr.org>person>bioproj>person>whity-herzog. Search date 01 Feb 2025.
“Gems Salvage Last Game Off Evansville, 9-6.” Quincy Herald Whig, June 6, 1952.
“Gems split With Braves In Their Holiday Games.” Quincy Herald Whig May 31, 1952, 2.
“Herzog’s Homer Wins for Gems In Eighth, 1 to 0.” Quincy Herald Whig, June 7, 1952.
“Looking Out From The Press Coop.” Quincy Herald Whig, May 26, 1952, 9.
“Looking Out From The Press Coop.” Quincy Herald Whig June 6, 1952, 10.
“New Outfielder On His Way to Join the Gems.” Quincy Herald Whig, May 20, 1952, 9.
“Relly Herzog Called Up To Kansas City.” Quincy Herald Whig, August 15, 1952, 8.
“Rufneks Spill Sea Hawks 6-1 For 9th Triumph.” Beaumont Enterprise, April 3, 1952, 18.
STATS CREW Whitey Herzog minor league baseball statistics on StatsCrew.com,
https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/stats/p-cc542e. Search date 01 Feb 2025.
“This ‘N’ That in Sports,” Quincy Herald Whig August 17, 1952, 32.
