2010 Hall of Fame Inductee Whitey Herzog: How He Helped Build the 1969 Mets As Director of Player Development

Dorrel Norman Elvert "Whitey" Herzog was born November 9, 1931 in New Athens, Illinois. His pro baseball career began as a prospect for the A.L. New York team in the early 1950’s. Although he never cracked the big league squad, he spent Spring Training with the team and was highly influenced by Casey Stengel. His playing career was brief, playing mostly outfield and some first base. He got traded to the Senators in 1956 & played there two seasons. He moved to the Kansas City A’s, Detroit & Baltimore finishing an eight year career batting .254 lifetime. After his playing days he was a scout & then a coach for the A’s until he was hired by the Mets in 1966.


He served as third base coach for one season, before moving into the front office. Herzog became the Director of Player Development, making the big decisions for Johnny Murphy. His biggest problem in the organization was GM M. Donald Grant. According to Herzog, "Grant knew nothing about baseball operations. He would give up young talent to acquire a named payer whom had past glories and was usually washed up."

Herzog was instrumental in building the Mets 1969 Championship team & the 1973 Pennant winner. He would spend eight years developing young players and letting go all the dead wood. He helped develop the young 1969 staff and many of its young players within the organization. The crop of young arms to come out of the organization in the late sixties, early seventies is incredible. Seaver (3 Cy Youngs, HOF), Ryan (7 No Hitters, All Time K leader, HOF) , Koosman (20 game winner), Matlack (1972 Rookie of Year) , McGraw (one of 1970s best relievers), Swan (1978 ERA leader), Gentry, McAndrew, Apodaca, Buzz Capra (1974 ERA leader), Danny Frisella, Steve Renko, Rich Folkers, Nino Espinosa, etc.

In 1972 when Gil Hodges passed away after a heart attack, Herzog was probably the best man for the position. M. Donald Grant who always went with an old New York player from yesteryear chose Coach Yogi Berra. At Hodges funeral, Whitey was instructed to stay away from Grant so the media wouldn’t think he was getting the position. It’s something Herzog never forgave the Mets for.

Herzog was furious as the Mets gave away some of their top young talent; Nolan Ryan, Ken Singleton, Amos Otis, & Tim Foli. He believed (and with good speculation) that the Mets would have had a dynasty type team through the seventies if they had held on to this pool of players. Those trades were the ones that broke Herzog. Finally by 1973 Herzog couldn’t take it anymore. He left the Mets organization, leaving a very successful mark.

As an MLB manager he had huge success. He began in the A.L. in 1973, managing the Rangers, then he went to Kansas City & led the Royals to three AL West titles. In 1980 he went to St. Louis & stayed there for a decade. He won a World Series (1982) , two pennants (1985 & 1987) and six NL East titles. His style of play was called Whitey Ball. He used patient hitters, with good on base percentages at the top of his lineup. Speed & aggressive base running on the base paths of artificial turf led to runs scored.

He became one of the Mets biggest enemies in the 1980’s, out for vengeance against his old organization and then later, Keith Hernandez. Whitey was very outspoken about Keith in his Cardinal days, calling him lax and easy going on the field. (In contrast Hernandez came to New York and vowed to prove Herzog wrong.) After leaving the Cards in 1990 he worked in the Angels front office through the 1990’s before retiring. In 2010 he will be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.