Red Schoendienst Old Reds' Opponent Dies At 95 The Oldest Living Hall of Famer

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Red Schoendienst retired in 1963 after playing 19 seasons in the Major Leagues.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee in 1989.

Schoendienst passed away on Wednesday June 6 in a St. Louis suburb.  He was the oldest living Hall of Famer.  Born Alfred Fred Schoendienst in Germantown, Illinois on February 2, 1923. He played his last game on July 7, 1963 at the age of 40.  Schoendienst then became a manager and coach, spending 75 years in a baseball uniform.  The switch hitter hit .289 in 9,224 plate appearances and was a second baseman.

He was a teammate with the great Stan Musial most of his career.  Musial also retired in 1963 his last game was at Crosley Field on September 29.  He singled off Jim Maloney and was removed for pinch runner Gary Kolb.

Reds' interim manager, Jim Riggleman, spent eight years as a coach and manager in the Cardinals farm system, he was a minor league field coordinator for three seasons and spent time as the team's farm director.

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It was in the Cardinals system that Riggleman had contact with Schoendienst and Musial through Whitey Herzog, former Cardinal manager.

"Whitey Herzog put me on his staff in 1989," Riggleman said. "Red was there. There was no term bench coach at the time but that was really what he was.  He was in uniform every day in the dugout a full time coach. Whitey loved him and relied on him.  He was generous with his time.  He was the most pleasant guy.  His closest friend was Stan Musial.  You would never know those guys even played baseball (let alone been Hall of Fame players).  The would never talk about their achievements they were great humble people.  Red was a wonderful man."

Schoendienst played at 170 pounds on a 6 foot frame.  He survived Tuberculosis and an eye injury.

Schoendienst was one of seven children born to Joe, a coal miner and Mary in the town 40 miles east of St. Louis.  The family lived without running water.  Red showed great baseball skills and was so much better than the kids around him that they used to handicap him by making him bat left-handed.

At 16, Schoendienst was working in one of Franklin Roosevelt's work projects, the Civilian Conservation Corp,  when he injured his left eye while fixing a fence.  Doctors wanted to remove the eye but he resisted.  It was difficult for him to follow the spin of breaking balls from right-handed pitchers, so Schoendienst started facing right-handers from the left side of the plate, becoming a switch hitter.  He joined the US Army and placed in the bazooka corp but the eye injury prompted a medical discharge.

Schoendienst joined the Cardinals in 1945 at the age of 22.   He made his debut at Wrigley Field on April 17.  His first hit was a triple off Paul Derringer.  He scored his first run on a single by Walker Cooper.

"He was a very strong man, physically," Riggleman said.  "Whitey Herzog used to talk about playing golf with him and how far he could hit a golf ball with power in his hands and arms.  When he was playing he looked a little slight when he was playing but later he was a big man. He had an amazing career.  He managed in the World Series (1967 and 1968)."

Schoendienst managed the St. Louis Cardinals in back-to-back pennant seasons, winning the World Series over the Boston Red Sox in 1967 and losing to the Detroit Tigers in the 1968 World Series.

As a player he played in three World Series, 1946 with the Cardinals against the Red Sox and in 1957 and 58 with the Milwaukee Braves against the New York Yankees. He had 21 hits in 78 World Series at bats.

His number 2 uniform is retired by the Cardinals.