(Updated Sept. 7, 2024)
Red Schoendienst made a brave comeback from a serious illness.
On Sept. 2, 1959, Schoendienst appeared in a major-league game for the first time since being sidelined because of tuberculosis.
Schoendienst was diagnosed with tuberculosis in November 1958, shortly after he played in the World Series for the Braves, and it was expected he would sit out the entire 1959 season or perhaps never play again.
Schoendienst, who was confined to a sanitarium in St. Louis for several months and also underwent lung surgery, made a full recovery.
He returned to the Braves’ active roster sooner than expected, on Sept. 1, 1959, and was used as a defensive replacement and pinch-hitter in the last month of the season.
Feeling drained
Schoendienst had experience overcoming adversity. When he was 16, he was struck in the left eye by a staple while building a fence. Doctors wanted to remove the damaged eye, but Schoendienst wouldn’t let them, and his sight recovered.
A nine-time National League all-star as a second baseman for the Cardinals, Schoendienst was traded to the Giants on June 14, 1956. A year later, June 15, 1957, the Giants dealt him to the Braves. Schoendienst helped the Braves win National League pennants in 1957 and 1958. They were World Series champions in 1957.
In his book, “Eddie Mathews and the National Pastime,” Braves third baseman Eddie Mathews said of Schoendienst, “It would be hard to overstate how important he was in our winning the pennant in 1957. Leadership is hard to define. It involves clutch hitting, turning the key double play, a whole lot of things. Red did them all.”
Hank Aaron, in his autobiography, “I Had a Hammer,” said Schoendienst “was a master second baseman” who “made our team complete.”
Toward the end of the 1958 season, Schoendienst, 35, felt unusually tired. In his book, “Red: A Baseball Life,” Schoendienst said he told people he had a bad cold, “but in my own mind, I was scared.”
Schoendienst started at second base in all seven games of the 1958 World Series, batted .300, produced nine hits, including three doubles and a triple, and made one error in 63 innings, but he felt terrible.
In the 1964 book “The Quality of Courage,” Mickey Mantle, who played against Schoendienst in the 1958 World Series, recalled, “Seriously ill, he played up to the hilt for seven games. He never quit. More than that, he never stopped producing. He batted .300, fielded beautifully and literally ran his lungs out to stretch a hit into a triple.”
In an article she wrote for Parade magazine, Red’s wife, Mary Schoendienst, said her husband was so weak during the 1958 World Series “he spent nearly every hour away from the ballpark in bed.”
Said Red: “During the World Series when I was in the field, I couldn’t move. When I walked up to bat, I could hardly swing the bat. I saw the ball well, but I couldn’t react to it. There was no question I was sick.”
When he returned home to St. Louis, Schoendienst, coughing and having trouble breathing, was examined by his personal physician, who sent him to a hospital. Tests revealed Schoendienst had tuberculosis. Schoendienst’s condition was made public in November 1958. Dr. Ray Martin of St. Louis said Schoendienst would be confined to Mount St. Rose Sanitarium in St. Louis “for four to six months,” The Sporting News reported.
“Sometimes it takes as long as a year for a tubercular patient to return to even an ordinary job,” Dr. Martin said.
The Sporting News concluded, “The disclosure made it all but certain Schoendienst would be lost to the Braves for the entire 1959 season. Under the circumstances, there is grave doubt (he) will ever play again.”
Doctor’s orders
Schoendienst said he decided, “I was going to fight this disease as hard as I had played any game in my life. I had too much to live for to surrender without waging all-out war. I pledged to do whatever the doctor said, to become a model patient and listen to him as closely as I ever listened to any manager and coach.”
In February 1959, when doctors recommended surgery to remove part of an infected lung, Schoendienst replied, “Let’s do it.”
While he was in the sanitarium, Schoendienst was visited by Braves executives, who offered him a contract for 1959.
“The Braves’ owner, Lou Perini, knew I might not play a game in 1959, but he still wanted me to have that salary and I certainly appreciated it,” said Schoendienst. “Had the team not been willing to do that, I am certain it would have added a lot of mental stress to wonder how I would take care of my family. Giving me that contract allowed me to concentrate entirely on getting well.”
On March 24, 1959, Schoendienst was sent home, four months after he had entered the sanitarium. By July, he began preparing to return to baseball.
“I did bending exercises to get my legs in shape and arm exercises to strengthen my shoulders,” he said. “I started playing catch with some of the kids in the neighborhood and also my father-in-law. The doctors told me the only thing they didn’t want me doing was running.”
Schoendienst discreetly went with his brother Joe to local parks and began hitting baseballs again.
When the Braves came to St. Louis to play the Cardinals in mid-summer, Schoendienst went to the ballpark one morning and took batting practice. He also went to second base and fielded grounders and pop flies.
After the Braves left town, Schoendienst said the Cardinals allowed him to come to Busch Stadium each day and work out.
Doctors gave Schoendienst, 36, approval to resume playing before the season ended if he and the Braves “were willing to be cautious and not overdo things.”
United Press International reported, “Regular play could overtire him and that is still forbidden, according to doctors’ orders.”
Big moment
The Braves were home in Milwaukee for two games against the Phillies Sept. 1-2. Schoendienst was back in uniform for the first game but didn’t play. The next night, the Braves had a runner on second, two outs, in the seventh inning when manager Fred Haney told Schoendienst to bat for pitcher Juan Pizarro. The crowd of 18,047 at County Stadium roared and gave a standing ovation when Schoendienst emerged from the dugout.
“I had more butterflies than I ever had,” Schoendienst said to the Associated Press. “It was truly a big moment.”
In his book, Schoendienst said, “The cheers sent goosebumps down my back and I stepped out of the box a couple of extra moments to compose myself.”
Schoendienst hit a groundball to pitcher Robin Roberts, who fielded it and threw to first for the out. Boxscore
Schoendienst appeared in five games, mostly as a defensive replacement, for the 1959 Braves and was hitless in three at-bats, but he was healthy and ready to keep playing.
Schoendienst was the Opening Day second baseman for the 1960 Braves, but eventually was benched by manager Chuck Dressen. The Braves released him after the season and Schoendienst returned to the Cardinals after rejecting an offer from the Angels. He batted .300 in a utility role for the 1961 Cardinals and was a player-coach for them in 1962 and 1963.
After serving fulltime as a coach in 1964, Schoendienst became Cardinals manager for 1965, embarking on a successful second career.
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