Lou Boudreau
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| Lou Boudreau | ||
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| Shortstop / Manager | ||
| Born: July 17, 1917 Harvey, Illinois |
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| Died: August 10, 2001 (aged 84) Frankfort, Illinois |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | ||
| September 9, 1938 for the Cleveland Indians |
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| Final game | ||
| August 24, 1952 for the Boston Red Sox |
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| Career statistics | ||
| Batting average | .295 | |
| Hits | 1,779 | |
| Runs batted in | 789 | |
| Teams | ||
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As Player As Manager |
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| Career highlights and awards | ||
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Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
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| Elected | 1970 | |
| Vote | 77.33% (ninth ballot) | |
Louis "Lou" Boudreau (July 17, 1917, in Harvey, Illinois – August 10, 2001) was an American Major League Baseball player and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs of the National League.
In 1948, he won the American League Most Valuable Player Award and managed the Cleveland Indians to the World Series title.
Boudreau was an eight-time All Star Game selection, starting three times. He won the 1944 AL batting title (.327), and led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947. He led AL shortstops in fielding 8 times. Boudreau still holds the record for hitting the most consecutive doubles in a game (four), set on July 14, 1946.
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[edit] Early life
Boudreau, who was Jewish and of French ancestry,[1][2] graduated from Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, excelling in sports at both schools. He was captain of the basketball and baseball teams at the University of Illinois when he signed an agreement to join the Cleveland Indians following graduation. Big Ten Conference officials ruled him ineligible for amateur participation for the remainder of his college career. He played pro basketball with Hammond of the National Basketball League.
[edit] Career
Boudreau made his Major League debut on September 9, 1938 for the Cleveland Indians, at the age of 21, playing first base in a single game. In 1939, manager Ossie Vitt informed Boudreau, who normally played third base, that he would have to move to shortstop as Ken Keltner already had the regular third base job.[3]
In 1940, his first full year as a starter, he batted .295 with 46 doubles and 101 RBI. He was also selected to play in his first All Star Game.
Boudreau helped make history in 1941 as a key figure in stopping the 56-game hitting streak by Joe Dimaggio. After Ken Keltner made two fine stops at third base earlier in the game, Boudreau snagged a bad hop grounder at short barehanded and started a double play to retire Dimaggio.[4] He finished the season with a .257 batting average and a league leading 45 doubles.
After the season, owner Alva Bradley promoted manager Roger Peckinpaugh to general manager and appointed Boudreau as the player manager. Boudreau was 25 years old.
Boudreau managed the Indians throughout World War II. Playing basketball had put a strain on Boudreau's ankles which later developed arthritis and he was classified 4-F and thus, ineligible for military service.[5]
Boudreau's first four years as manager were not an overwhelming success. His star pitcher Bob Feller enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941 and starters Keltner and Ray Mack were drafted in 1945. The Indians managed no better than a third place finish during the war. They were fifth in 1944 and 1945.
However in 1944 Boudreau did register one of his best offensive seasons. He led the American League in batting with a .327 batting average and 45 doubles, and a .406 OBP which was second in the league. He also set a record defensively, turning 134 double plays. That record would stand for 26 years and only three shortstops have turned more double plays in a season.
Boudreau was a patient hitter who was difficult to strike out. From 1946-1949, Boudreau struck out a total of 43 times in 2,088 at bats (one strikeout every 48 at bats). He had a career best of only nine strikeouts in 560 at bats in 1948.
In 1947 he led the league in doubles for the third time, and came in third in MVP voting. However, he almost lost his job at the end of the season. New owner Bill Veeck intended to hire Al Lopez as his new manager. The reaction from fans and media was almost overwhelmingly negative to the news that Boudreau would lose his job. In the end, Veeck offered Boudreau a new two-year deal.[6]
The move paid off for the Indians and for Boudreau who had his best overall year as a player and as a manager. In 1948, he not only won the MVP award, setting personal bests in nearly every offensive statistic, but also managed his team to victory in the World Series. Boudreau batted .355 (2nd behind Ted Williams) and had a personal best 18 home runs, 199 hits, 106 RBI and 116 runs scored.
He led the Indians to a first-place tie with the Boston Red Sox, then got 4 hits including two home runs in a one-game playoff at Fenway Park, depriving the city of an all-Boston World Series. The Indians went on to defeat the Boston Braves 4 games to 2 win the Series (their last Series win as of 2008).
As both shortstop and manager, he was the inventor and most ardent practitioner of the "Williams shift" (a.k.a. "Boudreau shift"), stacking all but one defensive player on the right side of the field when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox would come to bat in certain situations.
The new Indians ownership fired Boudreau after a disappointing campaign where the team finished fourth. Boudreau, who was now a part time infielder, was also released as a player.
The Red Sox signed Boudreau as a utility infielder for the 1951 season and he would play in 82 games. He would receive another chance to manage after Steve O'Neill was forced out by health problems in 1952. Boudreau managed three years in Boston and ended his playing career by playing in four games in 1952. His tenure in Boston was largely unsuccessful, managing the team to only one winning season.
Connie Mack sold the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954 who moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season. Boudreau signed on as the manager. The Athletics, however, were already a bad team before he took over and Boudreau was unable to turn it around. In three years, Kansas City posted a 151-260 under Boudreau, who received his walking papers during the 1957 season.
After, the debacle in Kansas City, Boudreau returned to his native Illinois and found work as a color announcer for the Chicago Cubs. He would receive one final opportunity to manage when the Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley took Boudreau out of the broadcast booth and made him the manager in 1960. Manager "Jolly Cholly" Grimm became the team's radio announcer. The experiment failed, as Chicago went 36-67 the rest of the year under Boudreau.
[edit] Broadcaster
After that season, Grimm retired, Boudreau went back to the booth for good, and Wrigley began his 5-year experiment called the College of Coaches. Boudreau finished his career as a manager with an overall record of 1,162 wins and 1,224 losses.
As a broadcaster, "The Good Kid" was a mixed bag. When called upon to do play-by-play, he was a bit awkward, stumbling over difficult-to-pronounce names, such as Chris Cannizzaro which came out "Can-zah-narrow" until Chris joined the Cubs and Louie learned how to say the name correctly. Likewise with Milt Pappas, whose last name Boudreau inexplicably pronounced "Pappish." He also called Mike Schmidt "Smit." Another example was Doug Rader, whom he called "RADAR." He was stronger as an analyst, and his typically soft-spoken personality won him many fans during his nearly 3 decades of service with WGN (AM). His two best-known radio play-by-play partners were Jack Quinlan and Vince Lloyd. He also worked on television with Jack Brickhouse from time to time. In 1988, his contract with the Cubs was not renewed and Boudreau retired.
[edit] Hall of Fame and retirement of number
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970 with 77.33% of the vote. The same year Boudreau had his # 5 retired by the Cleveland Indians.
[edit] Personal
Boudreau married Della DeRuiter in 1938 and they had four children. His daughter Sharyn married Denny McLain, a former star pitcher with the Detroit Tigers.
Boudreau died in 2001 in Frankfort, Illinois and is interred in Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Chicago Jewish News
- ^ Florida Jewish News
- ^ Ralph Berger, Baseball Biography Project, SABR.org
- ^ John Holway, A Mystery Man in the End to DiMaggio's Streak, New York Times, July 15, 1990
- ^ Ralph Berger, Baseball Biography Project, SABR.org
- ^ Schneider, Russell (2001). Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia. Sports Publishing LLC, 59. ISBN 1582613761.
[edit] External links
- WGN Radio's page for Lou Boudreau
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
- Major league career managerial statistics from Baseball-Reference
- Baseball Hall of Fame – Member biography
- Baseball Hall of Fame
- The Deadball Era
- Jewish Major League career leaders
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Luke Appling |
American League Batting Champion 1944 |
Succeeded by Snuffy Stirnweiss |
| Preceded by Joe DiMaggio |
American League Most Valuable Player 1948 |
Succeeded by Ted Williams |
| Awards and achievements | ||
| Preceded by Johnny Lujack |
Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year 1948 |
Succeeded by Leon Hart |
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