(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Videos by MLB FilmRoom)
IN MEMORIAM
...Bill Virdon...
(1931 - 2021) |
 Former Major League-player and longtime Manager Bill Virdon passed away
Nederlands
 SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (USA) -
Bill Virdon, who has been a Major League-Manager in thirteen years for four teams and won almost 1,000 games, passed away on Tuesday (November 23) at the age of 90.
Two days earlier was the 70th wedding anniversary of Bill Virdon and his wife Shirley.
Virdon played in the Major League in twelve seasons, was the Rookie of the Year in 1955 and has been active in professional baseball since 1950.
He won two World Series, one as a player, one as a coach.
William Charles Virdon was born on June 9, 1931 in Hazel Park, Michigan.
Virdon was a talented athlete and performed well in several sports.
While in High School, he played American football, basketball and track and field.
The school had no baseball-program and so, Virdon went on to play in a Summer League and later went on to study at Drury University.
In early 1950, Virdon got signed by New York Yankees and shortly thereafter, he made his debut for Independence Yankees in the so-called Class D, which was the lowest professional level in those years.
He played in 119 games for Independence and batted .267.
Towards the end of the season, the outfielder promoted to Triple-A and played in 14 games for Kansas City Blues.
In the next two seasons (1951-1952), Virdon played respectively in Class B and Class A.
Although his batting average dropped from .286 (in 1951) to .261, Virdon was assigned to the Double-A team in 1953.
There, his batting improved again and later in the season, he returned to Triple-A.
Before the start of the 1954 season, he was traded to St. Louis Cardinals with two other players for veteran powerhitter (and future Hall of Famer) Enos Slaughter.
Virdon began the 1954 season with the Cardinals in Triple-A and in the meantime, he kept working on his hitting techniques.
In 1954, Virdon was the Best Hitter of the International League (Triple-A) with a .333 batting average and belted 22 homeruns.
And so, in 1955, Virdon finally promoted to the Major League-team of St. Louis Cardinals.
There, he became the regular centerfielder and took over that position from Cardinals-legend Stan Musial (also a future Hall of Famer), who moved to play at first base.
In his first big league season, Virdon played in 144 games, batted .281 with 17 homeruns, 58 runs scored and 69 runs batted in and was named Rookie of the Year in the National League.
He never hit more than 17 homeruns in the remainder of his career.
Early in the 1956 season, Virdon struggled again with his hitting and on May 17, he was traded to Pittsburgh Pirates for two players.
Amongst his teammates at St. Louis Cardinals were Don Blasingame, Ken Boyer, Al Dark, Bobby Del Greco, Alex Grammas, Solly Hemus, Wally Moon, Stan Musial, Rip Repulski, Bill Sarni, Hank Sauer and Red Schoendienst and pitchers Luis Arroyo, Harvey Haddix, Larry Jackson and Tom Poholsky.
While playing for Pittsburgh, his hitting improved again after his vision had improved after undergoing a treatment.
Virdon went on to play in nine full seasons for Pittsburgh and became one of the best defensive centerfielders.
At Pittsburgh, Virdon shared the outfield with legendary Roberto Clemente, who was the rightfielder, and Bob Skinner in leftfield.
In 1956, Virdon led the Major League by playing in 157 games and with 185 basehits (ten homeruns), he accomplished a career-high.
Virdon finished that season with a .319 batting average, second-best behind Hank Aaron, who batted .328.
Aaron, who also went on to be elected into the Hall of Fame, who passed away this year on January 22.
In 1957, his batting average dropped to .251.
But from 1958 on, in five of the next eight seasons, the lefthanded hitting Virdon batted .260 or higher to remain a solid hitter.
In 1962, he led the National League with ten triples.
And he also remained a constant player in the Pittsburgh-outfield, as he played in 135 or more games in all his seasons with the team.
Except for 1960, when he played in 120 games.
In seven of his Pittsburgh-seasons, Virdon played in 142 or more games.
In 1962, he won the Gold Glove Award.
With Pittsburgh Pirates, Bill Virdon won the World Series in 1960, beating New York Yankees in seven games (4-3).
New York was the better team and the big favorite and no one had expected that this Series would go seven games and that Pittsburgh would win.
This Series became famous for the championship-winning, walk-off homerun by second baseman Bill Mazeroski in Game 7.
In the seventh and deciding game, Pittsburgh led 4-0 after four innings at the famous Forbes Field, which then was the home-stadium of the Pirates-team.
In the first inning, Rocky Nelson hit a 2-run homerun, in the second inning, Virdon delivered a 2-run single.
New York then scored once in the fifth, rallied for four runs (RBI-single Mickey Mantle, 3-run homerun Yogi Berra) in the sixth and added two more runs in the top of the eighth.
Trailing 7-4, Pittsburgh staged a 5-run rally in the bottom of the eighth.
Pinch-hitter Gino Cimoli led off with a single, then Virdon followed with a bad-hop infield-hit towards short stop Tony Kubek, who was hit in the face and had to leave the game.
But the two basehits were the start of a productive rally.
Cimoli scored on a single by Dick Groat.
After a pitching change and with two outs, Virdon scored on a single by Roberto Clemente, then Hal Smith hit a 3-run homerun.
However, the 9-7 lead was erased by New York in the top of the ninth on a single by Mantle and a grounder by Berra, which tied the score.
In the bottom of the ninth, Bill Mazeroski led off with a walk-off, game-winning, Series-winning homerun!
This was the first walk-off homerun to win a World Series and still is the only walk-off homerun in a seventh game.
Mazeroski (elected in the Hall of Fame in 2001) played in his entire 17-year Major League-career for Pittsburgh Pirates.
When Virdon was the Manager of Pittsburgh in 1973, Mazeroski was his third base coach.
After the 1965 season, Virdon retired, as he had devopeled a desire to become a Manager.
He already had been active as a coach in Instructional Leagues after the regular season in the early sixties.
In all his ten seasons while playing for Pittsburgh Pirates, Virdon played together with Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, as well as with pitchers Roy Face and Vern Law.
In nine of his seasons, pitcher Bob Friend was a teammate, in eight seasons, he played with Bob Skinner and in seven with Dick Groat and Dick Schofield.
Other teammates of Virdon included Matty Alou, Bob Bailey, Smoky Burgess, Donn Clendenon, Hank Foiles, Gene Freese, Don Hoak, Ted Kluszewski, Jerry Lynch, Gene Michael, Manny Mota, Rocky Nelson, Jose Pagan, Jim Pagliaroni, Willie Stargell, Dick Stuart, Frank Thomas and Lee Walls.
Pitchers included Luis Arroyo, Steve Blass, Don Cardwell, Woodie Fryman, Joe Gibbon, Don Gross, Harvey Haddix, Nellie King, Ron Kline, Don Leppert, Al McBean and Tommie Sisk.
...Bill Virdon hits a 2-run single for Pittsburgh Pirates in...
...Game 7 of the 1960 World Series...
(Video: MLB FilmRoom) |
In his playing career, Bill Virdon played in 1,583 games and finished with a .267 batting average.
He recorded 1,586 basehits, including 91 homeruns, scored 735 runs and batted in 502.
In 1966, Virdon made his debut as Manager when he led the team of Williamsport Mets, the Double-A team of New York Mets.
The following season, he also worked in the Mets-organization and was the Manager of Jacksonville Suns (Triple-A).
Virdon then made his debut as a Major League-coach in 1968, when he was the Hitting Coach in the staff of Manager Larry Shepard at Pittsburgh Pirates.
The other members in the coaching-staff were Virdon's former teammates Alex Grammas, Vern Law and Don Leppert.
During the season, Virdon also played in six games for Pittsburgh, as some players had entered military service.
Towards the end of the 1969 season, Shepard was fired and Grammas was the interim-Manager in the final five games.
After the season, Danny Murtaugh returned as Manager of Pittsburgh and Virdon stayed on as Hitting Coach.
When Virdon played for Pittsburgh, Murtaugh had been his Manager and helped him with his hitting techniques.
After the 1967 season, Shepard had succeeded Murtaugh, who had stepped down for health reasons.
In 1971, Pittsburgh Pirates won another World Series, beating Baltimore Orioles, also in seven games.
With that, Virdon won his second World Series-ring, this time as a coach.
After the 1971 season, Murtaugh again retired due to health reasons and Virdon succeeded him as Manager.
In his first season as Major League-Manager (1972), Bill Virdon guided Pittsburgh to the title in the National League East, but the team then lost the National League Championship Series.
In the off-season, the team suffered a major blow, as star-player Roberto Clemente passed away at age 38.
Clemente had been active in charity work in his off-seasons and when Nicaraguan capital Managua was struck by a strong earthquake on December 23, the outfielder set up a series of emergency relief flights in his home-country Puerto Rico.
On the final day of the 1972 Major League-season, Clemente had hit his 3,000th basehit.
And in early December, Clemente was one of the coaches of the National Team of Puerto Rico that participated in the World Championship, which was organized in Managua.
On December 31, 1972, after learning that some of the aid supplies never had reached the victims, Clemente decided to board the fourth flight himself.
The plane probably was overloaded and crashed shortly after taking off from Puerto Rican capital San Juan due to engine problems.
During the 1973 season, Pittsburgh struggled and in early September, Virdon was fired and Murtaugh returned as Manager for the fourth time.
Murtaugh also would lead Pittsburgh in the next three seasons, winning the National League-title in 1974 and 1975 and finishing in second place in 1976.
After the 1976 season, Murtaugh retired, two months later, he passed away at age 59 from a stroke.
Before the start of the 1974 season, Virdon was named Manager of New York Yankees.
Initially, Dick Williams was to be the Manager, but that was nullified by American League-President Joe Cronin.
The reason for this was that Williams still was under contract with Oakland Athletics.
Remarkable enough, a few weeks ago, there was a similar situation, as Bob Melvin, who was the Manager of Oakland this season and was to return in this position in 2022, became the new Manager of San Diego Padres.
Oakland had granted San Diego permission to talk with Melvin.
In 1974, New York finished in second place behind Baltimore Orioles in the American League East.
But in 1975, things didn't went well in New York and in August, Virdon was fired as Manager.
He was replaced by Billy Martin, who had been fired as Manager of Texas Rangers ten days earlier.
Led by Martin, New York Yankees had several memorable and successful seasons.
...Bill Virdon celebrates winning the National League West-title...
...in 1980 by winning a tie-breaker against Los Angeles Dodgers...
(Video: MLB FilmRoom) |
Almost three weeks after he had been fired by New York, Virdon became the new Manager of Houston Astros, where he succeeded Preston Gómez.
After finishing the 1975 season, Virdon led the Houston-team as its Manager in the next seven seasons.
In 1979, the team finished in second place in the National League West.
Houston then finished in a tie for first place in 1980 with Los Angeles Dodgers, but then won an one-game tiebreaker to reach the National League Championship Series.
Houston was then eliminated by Philadelphia Phillies, which went on to win its first World Series.
In 1981, Houston again was eliminated in the NLCS, then dropped to fifth place during the 1982 season.
In August of that year, Virdon was fired as Manager and was succeeded by Bob Lillis.
In 1983 and 1984, Virdon was the Manager of Montreal Expos, where he succeeded Jim Fanning.
At the end of August 1984, Virdon was fired and Fanning returned.
Virdon returned to the big league in 1986 when he was the Hitting Coach of Pittsburgh Pirates, where Jim Leyland then was the Manager.
In following years, he was a Minor League Hitting Instructor for Pittsburgh (1987-1989) and a Spring Training Instructor for St. Louis Cardinals (1990-1991).
He then returned as a Major League-coach in 1992 with Pittsburgh Pirates and remained a member of the coaching-staff of Leyland through 1995 as Bench Coach.
This wasn't the end yet of his coaching-career, as he was the Bench Coach of Manager Larry Dierker at Houston Astros in 1997.
In 2001 and 2002, Virdon was active in the same position for then-Manager Lloyd McClendon at Pittsburgh.
After the 2002 season, Virdon retired, but thereafter, he continued as a Spring Training outfield-instructor for Pittsburgh for more than ten more years.
In his career as Major League-Manager, Virdon won 995 games.
Since 1983, the Major League honors the Manager of the Year.
But since 1936, sports-magazine The Sporting News handed out and Award to the Manager of the Year in the Major League.
Virdon won the Award in 1974 and 1980.
Since 1986, the magazine hands out an award to the best Managers in both leagues.
Bill Virdon was inducted into two Halls of Fame.
In 1983, he was elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (located in his hometown Springfield) and in 2013, he was inducted into the Independence Baseball Hall of Fame.
A bronze bust of Virdon was unveiled in 2012 on the Legends Walkway of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame when he was named a Missouri Sports Legend.
A statue of Virdon making a catch during the 1960 World Series was unveiled in 2017.
Bob Nutting, Chairman of Pittsburgh Pirates, stated:
,,Bill Virdon was a man who took such great pride in being a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates family.
Every fan who followed our 1960 team will always remember the instrumental role that he played to bring a third World Series championship to the city of Pittsburgh.
We are also eternally grateful for everything that Bill did representing the Pirates following his playing days, not only as a successful manager, but also in helping a countless number of our young players that he so proudly instructed and mentored as a coach and one of our long-time Spring Training guest instructors.
We send our thoughts and prayers to Bill’s wife of 70 years, Shirley, his children Debbie Virdon Lutes, Linda Virdon Holmes and Lisa Virdon Brown, along with his seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren''.
Houston Astros released the following statement:
,,Bill Virdon was an extremely vital part of the Astros success, leading the franchise to its first two postseason appearances.
He was respected throughout baseball for his intensity and knowledge of the game and enjoyed a long, successful career both as a player and manager.
His impact on the Astros organization will never be forgotten.
We send our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Shirley, and to his family and friends''.
Jerald Andrews, CEO and Executive Director of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, said:
,,The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame joins with The Virdon Family in mourning Bill’s passing.
Bill and his wife, Shirley, have been great friends, and he was just a great man.
In my 26 years here, I think he played a more significant role than any other Missouri sports personality.
He was just involved in anything and everything we did''.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News also extends his condolences to the family of Bill Virdon and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(November 26)
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