RetroSimba

Whitey Herzog showed appreciation during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech July 25, 2010, when he remembered Harry Craft for helping him.

“Harry Craft was a guy who was always in my corner,” Herzog told the crowd at Cooperstown, N.Y. “He kind of saved my career. Claimed me on waivers when I wasn’t doing so good at Washington.

“I was able to get nine years (in the majors). I wasn’t a very good player … I was the kind of player everyone wanted; when they got me, they didn’t know what the hell to do with me.

“Anyway, Harry Craft was great to me and I was wishing he would be here today” (Craft died at 80 in 1995).

Craft managed Herzog twice: in the minor leagues at Class AA Beaumont, Texas, and in the major leagues with the Kansas City Athletics.

Herzog was a 20-year-old prospect in the Yankees system when he was sent to Beaumont in 1952. He struggled there, batting .198 in 35 games.

“I wasn’t ready for the pitching in the Texas League,” Herzog wrote in the book, “White Rat.” “The manager there in Beaumont was Harry Craft, who took a real liking to me. Harry had been a great defensive outfielder but a poor hitter, and I think I reminded him of himself.”

Herzog persevered and, four years later, reached the major leagues with the Washington Senators.

By 1958, struggling to hit the curve, Herzog’s baseball career was in jeopardy. Herzog began the season by catching President Eisenhower’s Opening Day first pitch from the boxseats. (According to the report in The Sporting News, “It was a low, spinning throw which just missed the dirt as Whitey made the stab.”)

In May, the Senators placed Herzog on waivers. Craft, who was managing the Athletics, urged the club to sign Herzog. He became a backup to first baseman Vic Power and to outfielders Roger Maris, Bob Cerv and Bill Tuttle.

“Harry picked me up, which prolonged my big-league career long enough to qualify under the pension plan,” Herzog said. “In baseball, you never burn any bridges.”