Nineteenth Century Baseball Pioneer Deacon White Is An Excellent Addition To The Hall of Fame

Deacon White, Boston Red Stockings

For the first time since 1996, the BBWAA failed to elect a player to the Hall of Fame.  Years ago, the idea of a ballot consisting of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa, and Craig Biggio yielding not a single Hall of Fame inductee seemed unfathomable.  However, like everything else in baseball, Hall of Fame voting has become shrouded in the controversy of the Steroid Era.  One story that did not grab nearly as many headlines as the BBWAA election was the Pre-Integration Era Committee's vote that took place during the Winter Meetings, one month prior to January's BBWAA vote.  The Pre-Integration Era Committee voted on candidates who made their biggest contributions to the game between 1871 and 1946.  The Committee was comprised of a 16-member panel made up of retired Hall of Famers, major league executives, veteran media members, and historians.  Unlike the BBWAA, the Pre-Integration Era Committee elected three candidates to the Hall of Fame:  former New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank O'Day, and 19th century player James "Deacon" White.  While Ruppert and O'Day were elected for their respective roles as owner and umpire, White was the sole candidate who was voted in on the basis of his playing career.  After the BBWAA failed to elect anyone to Cooperstown, the average fan may feel that there is little reason to pay attention to the upcoming Hall of Fame induction ceremony.  Unfortunately, those fans will be denying themselves the chance to learn about White, one of the game's most interesting players during the early days of professional baseball.

Born on December 7, 1847 in the small town of Caton, New York, James White was nicknamed "Deacon" because he carried around a Bible and attended church regularly.  White was known for his strong integrity and mild disposition.  Playing at a time when many players shortened their careers and their lives with alcohol and tobacco, White stayed away from such vices and was, at 42, the oldest active player at the time of his retirement as well as, at 91, the oldest living player at the time of his passing.

White started his professional baseball career in 1868 as a catcher with the Cleveland Forest Citys.  Three years later Cleveland joined the National Association and White had the honor of getting the first hit in NA history when he laced a double off Bobby Mathews in the first inning of the inaugural game.  When the Cleveland club folded after the 1872 season, White was invited to join the defending NA champion Boston Red Stockings managed by Harry Wright.  Despite playing the grinding position of catcher, White proved he was of the caliber of established Red Stocking star players such as Ross Barnes, George Wright, and Al Spalding, leading the NA with 77 RBI and finishing third in the NA with a .392 batting average in his first season with the team.  In addition, White led the NA in both games caught as well as games played.  With White at catcher, the Red Stockings followed up their '72 NA championship with three more consecutive NA titles from '73 to '75.

In 1875 White became the first catcher to win a batting title, leading the NA with a .367 average.  In the 140-plus years of professional baseball only three other backstops--Bubbles Hargrave, Ernie Lombardi, and Joe Mauer--have won batting titles.  Looking at the chart below, White's '75 campaign compares very favorably to the seasons of other catchers who have won the hitting crown as White had the highest batting average and OPS+, as well as the second highest WAR per plate appearance.  Moreover, White caught the highest percentage of his team's games and was the only one to lead the league in games caught:

White's 1875 campaign compared to the seasons of other catchers who led their league in batting average
	Year	G/Team G %	GC/Rank	BA	OPS+	WAR	WAR Pos	PA	WAR/PA
White	1875	80/82 98%	75~1st	0.367	178	4.4	3rd	374	0.0118
Hargrave	1926	105/157 67%	93~4th	0.353	152	4.0	10th	366	0.0109
Lombardi	1938	129/151 85%	123~2nd	0.342	152	5.6	5th	529	0.0106
Lombardi	1942	105/150 70%	85~7th	0.330	162	3.9	13th	347	0.0112
Mauer	2006	140/162 86%	120~8th	0.347	144	5.8	5th	608	0.0095
Mauer	2008	146/163 90%	139~3rd	0.328	134	5.6	7th	633	0.0088
Mauer	2009	138/163 85%	109~6th	0.365	171	7.8	2nd	606	0.0129
G/Team G%=Games Played In/Games Played By Team, GC/Rank=Number of Games Caught and Ranking in the League
WAR Pos=rank in Position Player WAR, WAR/PA=WAR per Plate Appearance

What makes White's batting title even more impressive was that unlike Hargrave, Lombardi, and Mauer, he won the hitting crown while catching without a mask, shin guards, chest protector, or catcher's mitt.  And, while it is true that during White's '75 season pitchers threw underhand (overhand pitching was not allowed until 1884) and teams during the 1870's usually only played a 60 to 80 game schedule, the position of catcher was undoubtedly the sport's most demanding and notable for the injuries caused by trying to catch pitches barehanded.  In fact, White's hands were described as "gnarled and his fingers crooked and distorted, widening at the tips."  Yet, despite the injuries and wear and tear caused by years of catching, White was able to lead the league in batting average in 1875 and remain a productive hitter throughout his career.

Prior to the reserve clause, which went into effect after the 1879 season, player movement from one franchise to another was quite common.  After helping Boston win their fourth straight NA championship, White along with Red Stocking teammates Barnes, Spalding, and Cal McVey signed with the Chicago White Stockings for the 1876 season--a move which helped lead to the dissolution of the National Association and the formation of the National League.  Not surprisingly, Chicago won the first NL championship with the Caton native leading the league in RBI.  The '76 season also marked the fifth time in six years that the durable White led his respective league in games caught.  Following the '76 championship run with Chicago, White decided to return to the Harry Wright-led Boston team which had changed its name to the Red Caps and moved from the NA to the NL.  Wright played White mostly at first base and right field, only occasionally using him at catcher, opting to stick with Lew Brown, the man who replaced White at backstop during White's year with Chicago.  The '77 season turned out to be White's finest as he led the NL in hits, triples, RBI, batting average, slugging, OPS, OPS+, total bases, and Position Player WAR--the most impressive of which were White's potent .387 batting average and staggering 192 OPS+.  With White back on the team, Boston returned to championship form and took the NL crown--marking the fifth consecutive season White played for the championship-winning team.

After his outstanding '77 season, White signed with the Cincinnati Reds and moved back behind home plate, catching for brother Will who became the Reds' top pitcher.  White spent three seasons in Cincinnati but was unable to replicate the championship-winning success he had in Boston and Chicago, though Cincinnati still managed to finish as high as second in 1878.  The 1879 season was White's last as a full-time catcher as the Reds moved him to right field for 1880.  After Cincinnati was kicked out of the NL due to a dispute over scheduling games on Sunday and allowing the sale of beer and whiskey at its games, White joined the Buffalo Bisons for the '81 season which was somewhat of a homecoming for the Caton native.

Deacon White, Detroit Wolverines 1888

White showcased his versatility in his first year in Buffalo, splitting his time between first and second while also making the occasional start in right, third, and catcher.  The following season, Buffalo moved White to third, the position he would play for the remainder of his career, but also still played him a fair amount at backstop during the '83 and '84 seasons.  Now in his mid-thirties, White was no longer the dominant player he had been in his twenties, but was still among the best third basemen in the game.  White, along with Bison teammates Jack Rowe, Dan Brouthers, and Hardy Richardson came to be known as the "Big Four."  As he had in Cincinnati, White had some good years in Buffalo for some competitive teams but was unable to win a championship.

After five seasons in Buffalo, White, along with the rest of Buffalo's "Big Four" were sold to the Detroit Wolverines franchise.  In his second season in Detroit, White won his sixth championship, helping Detroit take the 1887 NL crown and beat the St. Louis Browns, league champions of the rival American Association, 10 games to 5 in a post-season exhibition series.  The following year, Detroit slumped to 5th place in the eight-team NL.  By this point, White was age 40 and the oldest player in professional baseball.  Despite his age, White was still a very productive player and finished the '88 season with a 128 OPS+.  To this day, only nine other hitters--Cap Anson, Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Darrell Evans, Carlton Fisk, Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, and Edgar Martinez--age 40 or over, have qualified for the batting title and had an OPS+ that high.

After finishing the '88 season in 5th place, the Wolverines' owners decided to disband the team and sell their players, sending White and Rowe to the Pittsburgh Alleghanys.  Despite his calm demeanor, White was an avid proponent of players' rights and along with Rowe, was a member of the National Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players, a group strongly opposed the reserve clause.  White and Rowe had no interest in playing the '89 season for Pittsburgh and purchased the Buffalo Bisons franchise with the intention of playing for them.  Not surprisingly, Pittsburgh used the reserve clause to block White and Rowe from playing with Buffalo, creating a stalemate that dragged on for several months, well into the season, until White and Rowe reluctantly agreed to join the Pittsburgh team shortly after receiving a letter from Brotherhood leader John Montgomery Ward.  It is believed that Ward's letter encouraged White and Rowe to take the best offer they could from Pittsburgh since the Brotherhood would be forming its own league, directly in competition with the NL and AA for the 1890 season.  White was able to not only negotiate himself a portion of the sale price for his services but also received a monthly salary on top of it.  White showed his personality with this memorable quote to a Buffalo reporter after joining Pittsburgh:  "We are satisfied with the money, but we ain't worth it.  Rowe's arm is gone.  I'm over 40 and my fielding ain't so good, though I can still hit some.  But I will say this, no man is going to sell my carcass unless I get half."

The Brotherhood-led Players League did indeed take the field as a third major league for the 1890 season, with White and Rowe's Buffalo Bisons among its competing franchises.  Although he was 42 years old--fifteen or more years the senior of most of his players--and struggling to hit for extra bases, White was able to offset his shrinking slugging percentage with a .381 OBP, which was thirty points higher than the league average, and play in 122 of the team's 132 games.  Alas, the Bisons were an uncompetitive team, scoring the lowest number of runs per game in the eight-team Players League while the pitchers' collective 6.11 team ERA was nearly two whole runs higher than the next highest team.  Unfortunately for White, the Bisons finished last and the Players League folded after just one season, bringing an end to his lengthy major league career.

Deacon White, 1888

Despite being one of the best players in the early years of professional baseball and playing several seasons at the difficult position of catcher, it took White over seventy-five years to draw enough support to be elected to the Hall of Fame by the Pre-Integration Era Committee after being passed over by the Veterans Committee and its predecessors, the Centennial Committee and Old Timers Committee.  One reason for this may have been because some of his finest seasons came in the National Association and his best years came in the 1870's when most teams only played between 60 to 80 games per season so White's career statistics are understated by both traditional metrics as well as advanced sabermetrics.

Due to playing during a time with shorter schedules, White's lengthy 20-year professional career spanned just 6,973 plate appearances, so his traditional career stats of 2,067 hits, 24 home runs, and 988 RBI appear less impressive than they actually were.  Despite spending the first half of his career as a catcher, at the time of his retirement White's 1,560 career games played and 2,067 hits trailed only Cap Anson, Jim O'Rourke, and Paul Hines--a testament to not only his longevity but also his durability and excellence.  White was never a home-run hitter but during his prime, league leaders usually only hit around 5 long balls per season and not until the final years of his career did league leaders start reaching double digits.  At the time of his retirement, White's 988 RBI trailed only Anson in that category.  Moreover, White finished his career with an impressive .312 batting average, won two batting titles, three RBI crowns, and eight times finished in the top ten in his respective league in batting average and OBP.

Even at first glance, White's career 127 OPS+, 45.2 WAR, and .346 OBP do not appear to stand out sabermetrically.  However, White's career OPS+ is understated since his career peak came before schedules expanded to over 100 games in 1884.  For the first thirteen years of his career, from 1871 to 1883, White's OPS+ was a potent 140 in 3,740 plate appearances.  For the last seven years of his career, from 1884 to 1890, White hit at an adequate 113 OPS+ clip in 3,233 plate appearances, despite being between 36 to 42 years old--and the oldest player in baseball for the last three of those years.  White's 45.2 career WAR is easy to overlook when most Hall of Famers own a career WAR of over 50 or 60, but his lower WAR total can be attributed to playing during a time with shorter schedules.  Even in 1877 when he led all NL position players in WAR, his total was only 3.3 since his Red Caps team played just a 60-game schedule.  White's seemingly mediocre .346 OBP is not the best way to evaluate him compared to players from other eras since during most of his career it took between six to nine balls to draw a walk.  Despite not having eye-popping sabermetric career numbers, White's Hall of Fame case was a popular one with the sabermetric crowd as evidenced by becoming the second player honored as the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend by SABR's 19th Century Research Committee in 2010.

Another factor that likely hurt White's Hall of Fame candidacy was that some voters viewed him more as a third baseman than a catcher since he played a larger number of games at hot corner due to almost all of the seasons he played at backstop coming before the schedules expanded to over 100 games in 1884.  Nevertheless, from 1871 to 1879 when White was a full-time catcher, he was the game's most dominant backstop, owning the highest WAR (23.8) and OPS+ (151) of any regular catcher with John Clapp being the distant runner-up to White (14.0 and 119) in both categories.  And, though he wasn't as dominant a player when he was a third baseman in his mid-to-late thirties as he was at catcher in his twenties, White was still among the best third basemen in the game.  When the Buffalo Bisons permanently moved White to hot corner for the '82 season, he was--at age 34--the oldest third baseman in baseball.  Despite his age, White had the 3rd highest WAR and OPS+ of any regular third basemen from 1882 to 1890.  Moreover, the 19.7 WAR he accumulated from his age 34 season-on trails only Chipper Jones, Mike Schmidt, Wade Boggs, and Lave Cross for regular third basemen age 34 and over.

White was major league baseball's first great catcher and was viewed as such by many of his peers.  Hall of Fame pitcher Al Spalding, White's batterymate for four Pennant-winning seasons, called White the "greatest natural catcher that I ever saw."  In addition, Hall of Fame hurler Pud Galvin, who White caught in Buffalo, said "You can talk all you want about your great catchers, but the best man who ever worked behind the plate was Jim White.  I have seen all the good ones, but I place him first."

Taking a quick look at White's career, one may wonder how a player with just 24 home runs and 45.2 WAR, can be voted into the Hall of Fame.  However, when you look deeper into White's traditional and sabermetric stats, and delve into the narrative of his career, one can see that the Pre-Integration Era Committee made an excellent selection when they elected White to the Hall of Fame.

----by John Tuberty

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference Play Index, SABR, Buffalo Bisons, Peter Morris, Catcher:  How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero (Ivan R. Dee, 2009)

Photo Credit:  New York Public Library Digital Gallery, Tomilson Photography Studio Detroit, Michigan, Baseball Hall of Fame

Also Read The Dwight Evans Series by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

An Interview With Patrick Languzzi, The Man Behind The Petition To Get Dwight Evans Back On The Hall of Fame Ballot

Why Dwight Evans Is a Much Better Candidate For The Hall of Fame Now Than He Was 15 Years Ago

Comparing Dwight Evans' OBP, WAR, and OPS+ To The Hall of Fame Inductees of The Last Thirty Years

86 Topps Evans--eligible for HOF ballot

And: Click this link to sign the petition to add Dwight Evans to the 2013 Expansion Era Hall of Fame Ballot

Keith Hernandez, Whitey Herzog, and The Controversial Trade That Revived The New York Mets

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the controversial trade that brought first baseman Keith Hernandez from the St. Louis Cardinals to the New York Mets.  In exchange for Hernandez, St. Louis received two pitchers:  Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.  Allen and Ownbey would make little impact for the Cards.  Hernandez, on the other hand, would help reverse the trend of years of losing and bring a winning culture back to the Mets franchise.

Hernandez, Herzog, & Allen '82 Donruss; Ownbey '83 Fleer

Hernandez made his major league debut for the Cards in August 1974 and quickly established himself as one of baseball's finest players--both offensively and defensively--winning his first of 11 straight Gold Glove Awards in 1978 and being voted co-NL MVP, along with Willie Stargell, after an excellent 1979 season in which he led the NL in batting average, doubles, and runs scored.  By no means was Hernandez a home run hitter--he generally hit around 10 to 15 long balls per season--but he more than made up for it by hitting for a high average, smacking a healthy share of extra base hits, and using his keen batting eye to get on base.  Those attributes, coupled with his reputation for delivering in the clutch made him one of the most feared hitters of his time.  Hernandez also possessed magnificent baseball instincts and was viewed as one of the most intelligent players in the game.  Although, what made Hernandez stand out most among his peers was his superb defensive play at first.  Hernandez had outstanding glovework and range, which allowed him to steal base hits away from opposing hitters.  He was also fearlessly aggressive in charging bunt attempts, which often deterred rival managers from bunting and forced them to change their strategy.  Moreover, his accurate arm gave him the uncanny ability to gun down advancing runners at any base.  Hernandez's defensive skill set was so unique for a first basemen and his fielding abilities were so impressive that his excellence actually transcended the position.

Yet, despite strong efforts from Hernandez and others, the Cardinals of the late Seventies were unable to win the NL East Division.  After an abysmal 18-33 start to the 1980 season, the Redbirds replaced manager Ken Boyer with Whitey Herzog.  Herzog was just over a year removed from winning three consecutive AL West titles with the Kansas City Royals.  By October of that year, Cards' owner Gussie Busch had hired Herzog to take over the reins as general manager, in addition to his duties as field manager.  Herzog sought to strengthen his bullpen and defense as well as bring in speedy players whose style of play were well-suited for Busch Stadium, the Redbirds' vast home ballpark.  The autocratic Herzog immediately put his stamp on what he perceived to be an underachieving team, controversially trading three All-Star players from his roster.  Herzog first dealt catcher Ted Simmons and third baseman Ken Reitz after the team completed the disappointing '80 campaign and then shipped off shortstop Garry Templeton following the '81 season in which St. Louis narrowly missed the playoffs.  Those bold trades brought the Cards two future Hall of Famers, speedy Gold Glove winning shortstop Ozzie Smith and relief pitcher Bruce Sutter, who had won the NL Cy Young Award in 1979.  With Herzog's retooled roster, the Cards were finally able to put it all together in '82, winning the NL East and beating two power-hitting teams, the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers, en route to the World Championship.  The Redbirds' triumph was due in large part to Hernandez, who drove in a Series-leading 8 RBIs, including a game-tying 2-run single in the bottom of the 6th inning of Game 7.

Hernandez started the '83 season strong, batting .354 in April but struggled the following month, hitting just .264.  For the first week of June, the Cards rolled into Atlanta to face the defending NL West champs, whom they had swept in the previous October's NLCS.  Both teams had played strong in the season's first two months with St. Louis leading the East by 3 games with a 26-18 record, while Atlanta trailed the red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers by 2.5 games despite a strong 31-17 record.  Herzog's Redbirds dropped the first three contests before salvaging a win in the final game of the four game stand.  However, it was Hernandez's listless play in the third loss on June 4 that drew the ire of Herzog.  With his team down 6-4, in the top of the 9th, one out, Willie McGee on first, and George Hendrick on third; Hernandez grounded a Terry Forster pitch into a 4-6-3 game-ending double play.  Grounding into a double play in that situation was bad enough, but it was Hernandez's lack of hustle down the line and what Herzog perceived to be his cavalier demeanor about the play that bothered the Cards' manager.  Herzog already felt Hernandez's attitude had been deteriorating and years later wrote in his book "You're Missin' a Great Game", that it was at this point, that he decided the team should trade their Gold Glove first baseman.  Though Herzog had stepped down as GM prior to the '82 season to focus on his managerial duties, his replacement, Joe McDonald, had been brought to the franchise by Herzog as assistant GM, so the Cards' manager still had strong influence over trades the club made.  Hernandez heard whispers that Herzog and the Cards were working on a trade that would send him to the Houston Astros for third baseman Ray Knight and pitcher Vern Ruhle.  Hernandez let Astros' assistant GM Bob Kennedy--a close friend and confidant--know that he had no interest in playing in Houston and would play out the rest of his contract, which ran through the 1984 season, and sign elsewhere.  Hernandez's main reason for "blocking" the trade to the Astros was because his mother's side of his family lived near Houston and he found it difficult to play in front of family.  Herzog and the Cards' front office did not appreciate their first baseman's "informal veto"--as Hernandez called it--of the trade and on June 15, Herzog broke the news to Hernandez that he had been dealt to the last place Mets for Allen and Ownbey.

At the time of the trade, the defending champion Redbirds were first in the NL East with a 31-26 record and a 1 game lead over the Montreal Expos.  Conversely, the 29-year old Hernandez joined a Mets team sporting a major league worst 22-36 record.  Moreover, the Mets were coming off six consecutive losing seasons which included four last place finishes with a high watermark of 67 wins.  Understandably, Hernandez dreaded joining the lowly Mets and felt that he had been "banished" by Herzog and the Cards and "shipped to the Siberia of baseball."  At first, Hernandez considered retiring rather than report to his new team, but after some prodding from his agent, relented and joined his new team.

Twenty-five year old right-hander Neil Allen was the centerpiece of the deal for St. Louis.  Allen had been New York's closer for much of the past three seasons but after the emergence of Jesse Orosco and Doug Sisk, his role on the team had become much less defined.  Allen came to St. Louis with a 2-7 record and a 4.50 ERA over 54 innings.  New York had mostly used Allen out of the bullpen, but had also experimented with him as a starter, the role which Herzog and the Cards acquired the righty for.  Allen's well documented issues with alcohol and stress mirrored the rumors of substance abuse that followed Hernandez around in St. Louis.  Rick Ownbey, the other 25-year old righty in the deal was in his second year with the team and sported a 1-3 record with a 4.67 ERA over 34.2 innings.  Ownbey had initially come up as a starter the previous August, but had split time in the rotation and the bullpen in '83.  Upon receiving Ownbey, St. Louis optioned the young pitcher to AAA Louisville where he would finish out the year.  Hernandez, himself was having a bit of an off-year, hitting .284 over 55 games with an uncharacteristically low 3 home runs and 26 RBIs.

In his first two weeks with New York, Hernandez hit .415 over a 17-game stretch that included ten meetings against Herzog and his former team--games which the exiled first baseman helped the Mets split evenly.  Nevertheless, the franchise and its players had been brow beaten by years of losing and Hernandez was finding it hard to resist the temptation to play for the good of himself over the team, as he had his eyes set on his impending free agency after the '84 season.  However, in mid-August while taking batting practice from third base coach Bobby Valentine prior to a game at Candlestick Park, Hernandez's older brother Gary--himself a former minor league player for four seasons with the Cardinals--took offense to Keith's lackadaisical attitude and gave his younger brother a dressing down about the lack of respect he was showing his coaches, his teammates, and himself.  Hernandez took Gary's words to heart and went on a tear after that series, hitting .362 with a .479 OBP over the final month and a half of the season to raise his final average to .297.  Hernandez was unable to save the '83 Mets from another last place finish but their .442 win/loss percentage after the trade was much more respectable than the .379 clip they played at prior to the deal.  By contrast, St. Louis struggled to stay above .500 after the trade, yet still found themselves locked in a four-way battle for the Division lead in the weak NL East in early September.  Much to Herzog's chagrin, the Cards would collapse, winning just 7 of their last 21 games and finish with a distant 4th with a 79-83 record.  Initially, the Hernandez trade yielded results for the Redbirds as Allen gave up just one run in 15 innings over the course of two June victories against his former club.  But, by season's end, Allen was just another pitcher struggling to stay in Whitey's rotation, pitching at a league average 3.70 ERA over 121.2 innings with St. Louis.

Mets GM Frank Cashen offered to trade Hernandez after the '83 season if the first baseman wasn't interested in re-signing with the team, since his contract only ran through the '84 season and the franchise preferred to trade Hernanadez rather than lose him via free agency.  Hernandez had taken a liking to the city of New York and saw some promise in the young team but was afraid that by signing an extension with the Mets, he "would be signing up for six years of sixth place."  Keith's father John and brother Gary both urged him to re-sign with New York, citing the promising pitching talent the franchise was developing in the minor leagues and how Keith would be the right fit to lead the young team.  Hernandez remained skeptical but went against his gut and took his father and brother's advice and signed a 5-year, $8.4 million extension that would keep him in the Big Apple through the 1989 season.

Hernandez's contract extension paid immediate dividends the following season when he won the Silver Slugger Award, batting .311 with 15 home runs and 94 RBIs.  Hernandez also flashed the leather, leading NL first baseman in double plays turned and assists.  Though the awards and statistics only tell half the story as Hernandez's presence was felt everywhere on the '84 Mets, whether it was his positioning of the infielders or the knowledge he passed along to teammates about opposing pitchers and hitters.  Hernandez also stressed the importance of team camaraderie and clicked well with rookie manager Davey Johnson, who appreciated the leadership and wisdom his veteran first baseman displayed to his teammates.  Moreover, with rookie Mike Fitzgerald handling the bulk of the catching duties, Hernandez guided the very talented but very raw pitching staff and helped with pitch calling.  The '84 Mets weren't supposed to contend for the Division title but led the East as late as July 31, ultimately finishing six games behind the Chicago Cubs, in 2nd place, with a 90-72 record.  The '84 Mets were actually outscored 676 to 652 over the course of the season, giving them a pythagorean record of only 78-84.  However, the team rose to the occasion in one-run games going 29-20 with an NL-best .592 win/loss percentage and were an unbelievable 11-1 with a MLB-best .917 win/loss percentage in extra inning games.  Hernandez batted .400 and drove in or scored the winning run in four of those twelve extra inning games including a July 24, two-out, 10th inning walk-off-RBI single against the Cards that, ironically, came off Neil Allen.  Hernandez and the young Mets team quickly became the toast of New York and at season's end the slick gloved first baseman finished runner-up to Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg for the NL MVP.  As for Herzog, his Redbirds were a non-factor in the Division race, spending most of the season struggling to stay above .500, finally managing to finish a distant 3rd after a late season charge that improved their final record to 84-78.  Allen once again pitched at a league average level, this time out of the bullpen as set up man to Bruce Sutter, going 9-6 with a 3.55 ERA.  Ownbey spent the bulk of '84 in Louisville but also made four starts for St. Louis, finishing with a 0-3 record and 4.74 ERA for the Cards.

Unlike the previous year, Hernandez and the Mets went into the '85 season expecting to contend for the NL East crown.  There was good reason to be optimistic:  in Hernandez, the team not only had a great on-the-field leader but also one of the best #3 hitters in the game.  The club also had Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, arguably the best young pitcher and power hitter in baseball.  Their manager, Davey Johnson, had a full year at the helm under his belt and seemed to have the right attitude to fit the young, talent-filled team.  What's more, the club had acquired All-Star catcher Gary Carter from the Montreal Expos during the off-season.  The addition of a veteran receiver in Carter not only took the pressure off Hernandez to work with the pitchers, but also gave the team a lethal 3-4-5, lefty-righty-lefty combination of Hernandez-Carter-Strawberry in the middle of the order that would keep opposing pitchers out of sync.  Contrary to New York, St. Louis was viewed as a long shot to win the East title in '85.  During the off-season, the team lost closer Bruce Sutter to the Braves via free agency and Joe McDonald resigned his post as GM.  Without a top level closer and front office ally McDonald, Herzog's managerial reign in St. Louis was viewed as being on borrowed time going into the '85 season.  However, Herzog responded to the pressure by having what was, arguably, his finest year as a manager.  One of McDonald's last moves as GM was to trade for pitcher John Tudor, whom Herzog was able to mold into the unexpected ace of the staff, going 21-8 with a 1.93 ERA.  The Cards' front office also traded for Jack Clark, a feared power hitter whom Herzog was able to build his speedy offense around.  With Clark as the only significant power threat in his line up, Herzog used the team's speed to keep the opposition off-balance, stealing an incredible 314 bases as a team with five different players swiping 31 or more bags.  Though Herzog's most impressive feat that year may have been his piecing together of a bullpen-by-committee that, in the absence of Sutter--who had set a record-tying 45 saves in '84--combined to save 44 games.  New York and St. Louis battled toe-to-toe in a hotly contested Division race, with the Cards winning an amazing 101 games to edge the Mets by 3 games.  The Redbirds defeated the Dodgers in the NLCS but were felled by a blown call and upset by Herzog's former team, the Royals, in a thrilling seven-game World Series.  At season's end, Herzog picked up a well-deserved NL Manager of the Year Award.

However, 1985 was not a great year for every member of the Cardinals.  At the start of the season, Herzog turned to Neil Allen to succeed Sutter as the team's closer.  Unfortunately, Allen would struggle mightily in April and was used less and less by Herzog until he was ultimately sold to the New York Yankees on July 16.  Allen was happy to leave St. Louis and no longer have the weight of the Hernandez trade hanging over his head.  The righty had gone 1-4 with just 2 saves and a 5.54 ERA over 29 innings with St. Louis but would rebound in New York and help the Yankees go to the wire against the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East crown.  The biggest win for Allen, however, occurred towards the end of his career when he overcame his problems with alcohol.  Since retiring, Allen has stayed in the game as a minor league pitching coach and served as bullpen coach for the Yankees in 2005.  Ownbey was a non-factor in the Division race as he spent the whole season in Louisville, finishing the year at 10-9 with a 3.42 ERA in 25 minor league starts.

Keith Hernandez 1986 Fleer & Whitey Herzog 1985 Topps

During the '85 season, Hernandez was forced to come face-to-face with the whispers of substance abuse that had followed him around the last few years when he was called to testify, on two separate occasions, in front of a grand jury at the Pittsburgh Drug Trials--once during spring training and later in the thick of the Division race on September 6.  During his testimony, Hernandez called cocaine "the devil on this earth" and admitted that he started using the drug during the 1980 season, a campaign that despite his success--Hernandez finished a close second to Bill Buckner for the NL batting title and led the league in runs scored--had been particularly tough on him since he and his wife separated during the All-Star break.  Hernandez used cocaine recreationally until just before the June 1983 trade, when he kicked the habit for good after seeing Cardinal teammate Lonnie Smith miss a game because of the drug.  Despite the off-the-field distractions, Hernandez had another solid season in '85, finishing with 10 home runs, 91 RBIs, and a .309 batting average.  Even with the second testimony looming over his head and the ensuing controversy that followed, Hernandez was at his finest during the final weeks of the close Division race, hitting an eye-popping .395 with a staggering .457 OBP from September 1 until the end of the season.  Hernandez tied Tudor for 8th place in the NL MVP vote and continued to showcase his brilliance with the glove, leading NL first basemen in fielding percentage and assists, picking up his perennial Gold Glove at season's end.

Hernandez documented the ups and downs of his tumultuous '85 campaign in "If At First: A Season With the Mets", his day-to-day account written over the course of the season.  "If At First" gives insight into his rivalry with Herzog during that time.  Hernandez pulls no punches in his criticism of his former manager and the trade that sent him to New York.  Hernandez is perturbed by the general consensus that Herzog dealt him away because of his cocaine use--a habit he had kicked before the trade.  Hernandez reasons that most of what spurred the trade was Herzog's interest in acquiring Neil Allen and a personality clash between himself and Herzog.  Hernandez adds, that according to Mets coach Bobby Valentine, from the moment Herzog joined the Cards, he regularly discussed trading him during Winter Meetings.  Herzog himself has stated that he originally offered Hernandez to the Cubs in the deal that sent Bruce Sutter to St. Louis prior to the '81 season.  The rivalry between Hernandez and Herzog was heightened by the fierce Division battle between their two teams.  In his book, Hernandez recounts how Herzog engaged in some gamesmanship, complaining to the league office about his left foot being in foul territory while holding the runner--something the first baseman regularly did while playing for Herzog.  Yet, Hernandez also praises Herzog, stating that his "admiration for Whitey as a field manager--and for putting together a practically new team after winning the World Series three years ago--knows no bounds."

Unlike the '85 season, the '86 NL East Division race had little drama to it:  the Mets simply dominated from the start, winning 20 of their first 24 games--including a statement-making four game sweep against the rival Cardinals in St. Louis.  New York already had a 13.5 game lead by the All-Star break and never let up, finishing with a final record 108-54 and a 21.5 game lead over the second place Philadelphia Phillies.  Hernandez contributed to the Mets' superiority with another excellent season, batting .310 with 13 home runs and 83 RBIs.  The keen-eyed veteran also showed his patience at the plate, drawing a league leading 94 bases on balls and finishing behind only Tim Raines in the NL with a .413 OBP.  Hernandez displayed his defensive prowess, leading all NL first baseman in fielding percentage and was honored with his 9th consecutive Gold Glove.  Hernandez also continued to receive praise as the on-field leader of the dominant Mets and finished 4th in the NL MVP vote.  In one of the most memorable postseasons ever, New York eliminated the cagey Houston Astros in six hard fought NLCS games but then stumbled against the AL champ Boston Red Sox, losing the first two games of the Series at home.  The Mets roared back to tie the Series with an improbable 10th inning rally in Game 6.  In Game 7, down 3-0 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 6th, Hernandez stepped to the plate to face Bruce Hurst, winner of Games 1 and 5.  Just as in the '82 Fall Classic, Hernandez came up big with a two-run single that helped set the stage for Gary Carter's game-tying fielder's choice one at bat later.  In the bottom of the 7th, Ray Knight broke the tie with a home run and Hernandez padded the lead with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.  Hernandez's insurance run proved to be important as Dwight Evans' two-run double in the top of the 8th brought Boston to within one.  However, New York would hold on to win 8-5 and bring the franchise its second World Championship.

In contrast to New York, St. Louis and Herzog slumped badly in '86, finishing a distant 3rd with a 79-82 record.  Ownbey made his way back to St. Louis during the '86 season and made three starts in April before being sent back to the bullpen.  Ownbey went 1-3 with a 3.80 ERA over 42.2 innings before being demoted back down to Louisville.  Ownbey left the organization as a free agent at season's end and signed with the Royals, making four appearances with their AA affiliate, Memphis, in what turned out to be his final year in professional baseball.  With Ownbey's departure from the St. Louis organization representing the last link between Hernandez and the players the Cardinals received, the trade had indeed come full circle for the first baseman.  In a little over three years, Hernandez had helped the Mets not only emerge from the depths of being the laughingstock of the NL to become a perennial winner, but had also played a significant role in leading the team to the World Championship, something that seemed unfathomable at the time of the trade.

Keith Hernandez 1988 Score Glossy

Though Allen and Ownbey were gone from St. Louis by no means was the rivalry between Hernandez, Herzog, and their respective teams over.  In 1987, Hernandez hit a career high 18 home runs but in a Division race reminiscent of 1985, the 95-win Cards held off a late season charge by the Mets to take the NL East by 3 games.  However, the Redbirds would, once again, fall one win shy of a World Championship, this time at the hands of the Minnesota Twins.  New York came back strong in '88, easily picking up the NL East crown, finishing the season with 100 wins and a 15 game lead over second place Pittsburgh.  Yet, their bats were silenced by Orel Hershiser and the strong pitching of the Los Angeles Dodgers who upset the Mets in a close seven-game NLCS.  During the '88 campaign, injuries plagued the usually durable Hernandez--who prior to that season had never been on the disabled list--causing the veteran first baseman to miss more than a third of the team's games.  Despite the injuries, Hernandez still put up deceivingly strong numbers in a season dominated by pitchers and won an unprecedented 11th straight Gold Glove Award.  Moreover, the team played at a much higher .684 win/loss percentage in games started by Hernandez than the .538 clip they played at when he did not.  Unfortunately, Hernandez's '88 injuries marked the beginning of the end for the cerebral first baseman.  A broken kneecap the following May caused him to miss nearly two months of the season and upon his return, the Mets' on-the-field general was unable to play at his established level.  The '89 Mets finished with a 87-75 record, 6 games behind the Cubs, in second place.  At the end of the season, Hernandez's contract expired and the Mets franchise chose not to re-sign their veteran first baseman.

Hernandez's departure from New York closed the book on the most successful era in the franchise's history.  In his six full seasons with New York, the team never finished lower than 2nd, averaged an amazing 96 wins per season, won two Division titles, and one World Championship.  That was in stark contrast to the six consecutive losing seasons--which included four last place finishes--prior to the Hernandez trade.  Hernandez signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians but a recurring calf injury kept him off the field and limited him to just 43 games for the '90 season.  A bulging disk hampered Hernandez the following Spring and he sought a second opinion before undergoing back surgery.  Although the surgery was considered a success and was only supposed to keep him out of action until the All-Star break, Hernandez never played another game.

Without the presence of Hernandez, the Mets lacked adequate veteran leadership and got off to a disappointing 20-22 start, costing Davey Johnson his job.  The team temporarily resuscitated under new manager Buddy Harrelson and finished the season strong at 91-71, just losing out to Pittsburgh for the NL East crown.  However, the franchise struggled the following season, tumbling to a 77-84 record.  The front office tried addressing the club's leadership vacuum, signing sought-after veteran sluggers Bobby Bonilla and Eddie Murray.  Though, unlike Hernandez, neither Bonilla nor Murray would be a good fit for the Big Apple and the team dropped to 72-90 in '92, before completely bottoming out with a MLB worst 59-103 record in '93.

After leading the Redbirds to their third Pennant in six years, Herzog struggled to field a competitive team in St. Louis.  The '88 team stumbled out of the gate and was never a factor in the Division race, finishing a distant 5th with a 76-86 record.  St. Louis rebounded the following year and battled Chicago and New York for the East, but a 7-game losing streak in September ended their chances and the team finished the year with an 86-76 record, 7 games behind the Cubs, in 3rd place.  Towards the end of the '89 season, Cards' owner Gussie Busch passed away at age 90.  With the death of Busch, Herzog lost one of his most ardent supporters within the organization.  Going into the 1990 campaign, many of the team's key players would be eligible for free agency at season's end.  Herzog scoffed at the front office's indecisiveness in offering the impending free agents contract extensions and feared those players would play for personal statistics over the best interests of the team.  The '90 Cards got off to a dismal start and by mid-June were already a dozen games out of first, battling to stay out of the cellar in the NL East.  In early July, the Redbirds were swept by the Giants and Herzog, fed up with the front office, the direction of the franchise, and the selfish play of his charges, decided he'd had enough.  Two days later, on July 6, Herzog officially resigned as manager of the Cardinals.  The team's listless play against San Francisco had been the final straw for Herzog who said "I was totally embarrassed by the way my ball club played up there."  A worn out Herzog took responsibility for the team's failures, adding, "I just can't get the guys to play and I think anybody could do a better job than me."  At the time of his resignation, Redbirds sat at the bottom of the NL East with a 33-47 record, 15 games back.  Cards' coach Red Schoendienst replaced Herzog on an interim basis until the franchise hired Joe Torre as a permanent replacement in August.  The '90 Cards finished the season last in the NL East with a 70-92 record and most of the impending free agents signed with other clubs during the off-season.

Similar to Hernandez's exit from New York, Herzog's leaving St. Louis represented the ending of an era.  After winning three Pennants and two World Championships in a five-year span during the decade of the Sixties, the St. Louis franchise suffered through a lackluster Seventies before Herzog brought the club out of their malaise and back to their winning ways, leading the team to three Pennants and a World Championship in the Eighties.  The Cards rebounded in 1991, going 84-78 to finish a distant second to Pittsburgh, but without the guile and direction of Herzog, the Redbirds would make just one playoff appearance during the Nineties.

Hernandez returned to baseball as a television commentator for New York Mets games in 1999.  After resigning from the Cards, Herzog never managed again but did work in the California Angels' front office for a few years in the early Nineties.  In 2010, Herzog received baseball's highest honor when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after being voted in by the Veterans Committee.  Just as the trade came full circle, Hernandez and Herzog's relationship has come full circle as well--as time has seemingly healed any bad blood between the two men.  In 2008, Hernandez was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.  During his induction he called Herzog the best manager he played for and spoke passionately about the influence the former Cards skipper had on his career.  It appears that over time, Hernandez came to accept that, although he had kicked the cocaine habit before being dealt, his suspected drug use was at least some of the reason for the trade.  Hernandez has reached out to Herzog to smooth over any past tension between the two, something his former manager has commended him for, "You know, Hernandez called me and thanked me so many times."  Herzog said, "And he wrote me a real nice letter, that he appreciated how I protected him and never said anything about the drugs, took the heat for three years over that."  Herzog has also been complimentary of Hernandez, saying that his former first baseman "is a heck of man."

Unlike Herzog, Hernandez has yet to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The Gold Glove-winning first baseman managed to last nine years on the BBWAA ballot but each time fell short of the 75% of the vote required for election.  However, Hernandez's failed Hall of Fame candidacy could get a second chance as he is now eligible to appear on the upcoming ballot for the Expansion Era Committee, which will convene to vote at December's Winter Meetings.  The Expansion Era Committee assembles once every three years and Herzog was actually one the Committees' 16 panel members chosen to cast a vote the last time the Committee met in 2010 and elected retired GM Pat Gillick to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The Expansion Era Committee will likely include many of the same panel members from the previous election to vote on December's ballot, and if that is the case, Herzog could play a part in whether or not Hernandez is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

----by John Tuberty

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference Play Index, Google News Archive, SI Vault, Time Magazine, Observer-Reporter, The New York Times, The Milwaukee Senitel, The Daily Senitel, The New York Observer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Spokesman-Review, Chicago Tribune, The Dispatch, Long Island Newsday, Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan-If at First:  A Season With the Mets (McGraw-Hill), Whitey Herzog and Jonathan Pitts-You're Missin' A Great Game (Simon & Schuster), Peter Golenbock-Amazin': The Miraculous History of New York's Most Beloved Baseball Team (St. Martin's Griffin), Peter Golenbock-The Spirit of St. Louis:  A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns (Harper Paperbacks), Bob Klapisch and John Harper-The Worst Team Money Could Buy (Bison Books), Jeff Pearlman-The Bad Guys Won! (Harper Perennial)

Other Tubbs Baseball Blog Articles:
Bobby Grich Was The Victim of Some Bad Baseball Cards and Some Even Worse Hall of Fame Voting

Why Dwight Evans Is a Much Better Candidate For The Hall of Fame Now Than He Was 15 Years Ago

Tim Hudson, 200 Wins, and The Path To The Hall of Fame