By Marty Appel<\/p>\n
Forty years ago, infielder Billy Herman was part of the \u201cClass of 1975.\u201d He was a popular choice\u00a0in that he was truly a \u201cbaseball lifer,\u201d and everyone in the game seemed to know him and like him.<\/p>\n
Billy broke into professional baseball in 1928 with the Louisville Colonels, played for the Cubs,\u00a0Dodgers, Braves and Pirates, finished playing with the Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League in 1950,\u00a0managed the Pirates and the Red Sox, and coached for Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Boston, California, and San\u00a0Diego.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 50 spring training camps, plus two lost to World War II service, where he served in the\u00a0Pacific theater during the last two years of the War. And oh, the things he saw\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
He was a 10-time All-Star, beginning with the second All-Star Game – 1934 – a game in which 29\u00a0of the players in the box score went onto the Hall of Fame. Billy\u2019s first All-Star at bat came in the last of\u00a0the ninth in that game, as he doubled off Mel Harder but was left stranded in a 9-7 National League loss.<\/p>\n
It was the game in which Carl Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al\u00a0Simmons and Joe Cronin.<\/p>\n
Billy was 24 at the time, in his third full season. He had made a name for himself as a rookie with\u00a0the pennant-winning Cubs in 1932, collecting 206 hits en route to a .314 season. He was at second base in\u00a0the World Series when Babe Ruth did – or didn\u2019t – point to the bleachers before depositing his \u201ccalled shot\u00a0home run.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be his first of four World Series appearances, repeating with the Cubs in \u201935 and \u201938, and\u00a0then moving to the Dodgers in 1941 to help them win their first pennant in 21 years. He was at second\u00a0when a third strike got past catcher Mickey Owen, allowing Tommy Henrich to get to first, and the\u00a0Yankees to rally from behind for a win.<\/p>\n
He managed the Pirates in 1947, the year they had both Hank Greenberg and Ralph Kiner in the\u00a0lineup. It was Hank\u2019s final season.<\/p>\n
He was the Dodgers third base coach when they won their first and only world championship in\u00a0Brooklyn in 1955, and witnessed Don Larsen\u2019s perfect game a year later, probably signaling to pinch-hitter\u00a0Dale Mitchell to \u201cswing away.\u201d He was a Braves coach when the Yankees\u2019 Bob Turley won two and saved\u00a0one (like Madison Bumgarner) in the 1958 World Series, and he was a Red Sox coach when Ted Williams\u00a0homered in his last at bat. He managed Tony Conigliaro\u2019s heroic first three seasons with the Boston Red\u00a0Sox, and then was coaching for the Angels the following year (1967), when Tony was hit in the eye by a\u00a0Jack Hamilton pitch, seriously setting back that most promising career.<\/p>\n
He was coaching for San Diego when Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Gaylord Perry and Rollie\u00a0Fingers populated the roster – players who would one day join him in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n
When it came time to vote for him, few members of the Veterans Committee didn\u2019t know him\u00a0personally. He hit .304 over 15 seasons, and was six times a top ten MVP finisher.<\/p>\n
Billy died at 83 in 1992. His granddaughter, born in New Albany, Indiana like Billy, is married to\u00a0Mitch Daniels, the President of Purdue University and a former Governor of Indiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Marty Appel Forty years ago, infielder Billy Herman was part of the \u201cClass of 1975.\u201d He was a popular choice\u00a0in that he was truly a \u201cbaseball lifer,\u201d and everyone in the game seemed to know him and like him.… Continue Reading