Lou Boudreau

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Lou Boudreau

Boudreau with the Cleveland Indians in 1942

Born:

July 17, 1917

, U.S.

Died:

August 10, 2001

(aged 84)

, U.S.

Batted:

Right

Threw:

Right

MLB debut

September 9, 1938, for the Cleveland

Indians

Last MLB appearance

August 24, 1952, for the Boston Red Sox

MLB statistics

.295

789

Managerial record

1,162–1,224

Winning %

.487

at Baseball

Reference

Teams

As player

(

–

)

(

–

)

As manager

(

–

)

(

–

)

(

–

)

(

)

Career highlights and awards

8×

(

–

)

(

)

(1948)

(1944)

retired

Induction

Vote

77.3% (tenth ballot)

Basketball career

Personal information

Nationality

American

Listed

height

5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)

Listed

weight

185 lb (84 kg)

Career information

High school

(Harvey, Illinois)

College

(1937–1938)

Position

Career history

Playing

1938–1939

Coaching

1942

(asst.)

Career highlights

First-team

–

(

)

Louis Boudreau

(July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "

Old

Shufflefoot

", "

Handsome Lou

", and "

the Good Kid

", was an American

professional

player and manager.

He played in

(MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a

on the

, and managed four teams for 15 seasons including 10 seasons as a

. He was also a radio announcer for the

and in

college was a dual-sport athlete in baseball and basketball, earning

honors in basketball for the

Boudreau was an

for seven seasons.

In 1948, Boudreau won the

and managed the

to the

title. He won the 1944 American League (AL)

(.327), and led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947. He led AL

shortstops in fielding eight times. Boudreau still holds the MLB record for

hitting the most consecutive doubles in a game (four), set on July 14, 1946.

He had the most hits (1,578) for all players in the 1940s.

In 1970, Boudreau was elected to the

and his

No. 5 was retired by the Indians that same year.

Early life

[

]

Boudreau was born in

, the son of Birdie (Henry) and Louis

Boudreau.

His father was of French-Canadian ancestry, his mother was

Jewish, and both of his maternal grandparents were observant

with whom when he was young he celebrated

He was raised

Catholic by his father after his parents divorced.

graduated

from

, where he led the

"Flying Clouds" to three straight

games,

winning in 1933 and finishing as runner up in 1934 and 1935.

College baseball and basketball

[

]

Boudreau with the

team, circa 1937

Boudreau attended the

, where he was a member of

fraternity and captain of the

and

teams. During the

and

baseball seasons, Boudreau led each Fighting Illini

team to a

championship.

During

the

, Boudreau was named an

While Boudreau was still at Illinois,

general manager

paid him an undisclosed sum in return for agreeing to play baseball

for the Indians after he graduated. Due to this agreement, Boudreau was ruled

ineligible for collegiate sports by the

officials.

During his senior year at Illinois, he played professional basketball with the

of the

Despite playing professional baseball with Cleveland, Boudreau earned his

in education from Illinois in 1940 and worked as the

Illinois freshman basketball coach for the 1939 and 1940 teams. Boudreau

stayed on as an assistant coach for the

and he was instrumental in recruiting future

to play for

Illinois.

Professional baseball career

[

]

Cleveland Indians

[

]

Boudreau made his major league debut on September 9, 1938, for the

at 21 as a third baseman in his first game. In 1939, Indian manager

told him that he would have to move from his normal third base

position to

since established slugger

already had the

regular third base job.

In 1940, his first full year as a starter, he batted .295 with 46

and

101

, and was selected for the

for the first of five

consecutive seasons (MLB cancelled the

due to war-time travel restrictions and did not name All-Stars).

Boudreau helped make history in 1941 as a key figure in stopping the

. After two

sparkling stops by Keltner at third base on hard ground balls earlier in the game, Boudreau snagged a bad-hop grounder

to short barehanded and started a double play retiring DiMaggio at first.

He finished the season with a modest .257

batting average, but had a league-leading 45 doubles.

After the 1941 season, owner

promoted Indians manager

to general manager and appointed

the 25-year-old Boudreau player-manager. Boudreau played and managed the Indians throughout World War II (playing

basketball had put a strain on Boudreau's ankles that turned into

, which classified him as

and thus

ineligible for military service).

In 1944, Boudreau turned 134

, the most ever by a player-manager in

MLB history. When he bought the Indians in 1947,

, after being approached by Boudreau, renewed the player-

manager agreement with mixed feelings on both sides, as Boudreau stated that he would rather be traded than only play

shortstop. Details of possibly trading him for

of the St. Louis Browns in 1947 only attracted fans to

the side of Boudreau. However, Boudreau hit .355 in 1948; Cleveland won the AL pennant and the

, the

Indians first World Series championship in 28 years and only the second in Indians history, with Veeck and Boudreau

publicly acknowledging each other's role in the team's success.

Later career

[

]

Boudreau was released by the Indians as both player and manager following the 1950 season. He signed with the

, playing full-time in 1951, moving up to player-manager in 1952 and managing from the bench in 1953–54. He

then became the first manager of the

in 1955 after their move from Philadelphia until he was

fired after 104 games in 1957 and replaced by

. He last managed the Chicago Cubs, in 1960.

Managerial record

[

]

Team

Year

Regular season

Postseason

Games

Won

Lost

Win %

Finish

Won

Lost

Win %

Result

154

.487

4th in AL

–

153

.536

3rd in AL

–

154

.468

6th in AL

–

145

.503

5th in AL

–

154

.442

6th in AL

–

154

.519

4th in AL

–

155

.626

1st in AL

.667

Won

(

)

154

.578

3rd in AL

–

154

.597

4th in AL

–

CLE total

1377

728

649

.529

.667

154

.494

6th in AL

–

153

.549

4th in AL

–

154

.448

4th in AL

–

BOS total

461

229

232

.497

–

154

.396

6th in AL

–

154

102

.338

8th in AL

–

103

.350

fired

–

KC total

411

151

260

.367

–

137

.394

7th in NL

–

CHC total

137

.394

–

Total

2386

1162

1224

.487

.667

Boudreau shift

[

]

Boudreau is credited with inventing the

, which came to be known colloquially as the "Boudreau shift."

Because slugging

superstar

was a dead-pull hitter, he moved most of his Cleveland Indian fielders

to the right of second base against the Splendid Splinter, leaving only the third baseman and left fielder to the left

of second but also very close to second base, far to the right of their normal positions. With characteristic stubborn

pride, Williams refused the obvious advice from teammates to hit or

to left against the Boudreau shift, but great

hitter that he was, not changing his approach against the shift didn't affect his hitting very much.

Boudreau later admitted that the shift was more about "psyching out" Williams rather than playing him to pull. "I

always considered the Boudreau shift a psychological, rather than a tactical" ploy, he declared in his autobiography

Player-Manager

Broadcasting

[

]

Cubs broadcasters, July 13, 1965 –

and Lou Boudreau

Boudreau did play-by-play for Cub games in 1958–59 before switching roles

with manager "Jolly Cholly"

in 1960. But after only one season

as Cubs manager, Boudreau returned to the radio booth and remained there until

1987. He also did radio play-by-play for the

in 1966–1968 and

worked on

games for

and

as well.

The presence of a Hall of Fame announcer affected at least one game. On June 23, 1976, the Cubs were two runs behind at

home in the fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates at home when the umpires

called the game on account of darkness (since there were no lights at

until 1988), announcing that the

game would be resumed at the same point the next day as was normally the case in those days. But Boudreau knew the

rules better than anyone else in the park, it turned out, for he went down quickly to the clubhouse and pointed out to

the umpires that a game that was not yet an official game could not be treated as a suspended game (i.e., it had not

gone five innings, or four and a half with the home team leading, as neither was the case), and as such had to be

replayed from the first pitch (as was then the rule in a rain-out). The umpires called the National League office,

found Boudreau was correct, and removed the two-run Cubs deficit.

Later life and honors

[

]

Lou

Boudreau's

number 5 was

by the

1970.

Boudreau was elected to the

in 1970 with 77.33% of the vote. That same year,

his uniform number 5 was retired by the

(he wore number 4 with the Red Sox). In

1973, the city of

renamed a street bordering

after Boudreau.

Boudreau Drive in Urbana, Illinois, is also named after Boudreau.

In 1990, the Cleveland Indians established The Lou Boudreau Award, which is given every year to the

organization's Minor League Player of the Year.

In 1992, Boudreau's number 5 jersey was retired

by the

program. Boudreau is only one of three

athletes to have their number retired; the other two athletes being

players

and

Personal life

[

]

Boudreau married Della DeRuiter in 1938, and together they had four children. His daughter Sharyn married

a former star pitcher with the

who was the last 30-game winner in the major leagues (31–6 for the world

champion 1968

Boudreau had a home in

, for many years. He died on August 10, 2001, due to

at St.

James Medical Center in

. He was 84. He received a Catholic funeral and his body was interred

in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.