whiteyball

Whiteyball was term used in the 1980's to descibe the kind of baseball played by the St. Louis Cardinals and their manager Whitey Herzog. It was characterized by speedy base running, defensive fundamentals, a penchant for pinch hitting, a very intricate use of middle relievers and lack of power hitting. The team was built for speed instead of power because of the enormous size of the playing field at the old Busch Memorial stadium. The team won one World Series and three penants under Whitey Herzog. The team was always at the top of the statistics for stolen bases, earned run average, runs batted in and saves, but were at the bottom for home runs. The object was to manufacture runs by speed and sacrifices then hold the lead for their closing pitchers, Bruce Sutter or Todd Worrell.