| Lou Boudreau | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Boudreau with the Cleveland Indians in 1942 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shortstop /Manager | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born:(1917-07-17)July 17, 1917 Harvey, Illinois, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died: August 10, 2001(2001-08-10) (aged 84) Olympia Fields, Illinois, 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting average | .295 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home runs | 68 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 789 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial record | 1,162–1,224 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning % | .487 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As player As manager | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of the National | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Induction | 1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vote | 77.3% (tenth ballot) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "the Good Kid", was an American professionalbaseball player and manager.[1] He played inMajor League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as ashortstop on theCleveland Indians, and managed four teams for 15 seasons including 10 seasons as aplayer-manager. He was also a radio announcer for theChicago Cubs and in college was a dual-sport athlete in baseball and basketball, earningAll-American honors in basketball for theUniversity of Illinois.
Boudreau was anAll-Star for seven seasons.[a] In 1948, Boudreau won theAmerican LeagueMost Valuable Player Award and managed theCleveland Indians to theWorld Series title. He won the 1944 American League (AL)batting title (.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.[2]
In 1970, Boudreau was elected to theNational Baseball Hall of Fame and his No. 5 was retired by the Indians that same year.
Boudreau was born inHarvey, Illinois, the son of Birdie (Henry) and Louis Boudreau.[3] His father was of French-Canadian ancestry, his mother was Jewish, and both of his maternal grandparents were observantOrthodox Jews with whom when he was young he celebratedPassoverseders.[4] He was raised Catholic by his father after his parents divorced.[5][4][6][7] He graduated fromThornton Township High School inHarvey, Illinois, where he led the "Flying Clouds" to three straightIllinois high school championship games, winning in 1933 and finishing as runner up in 1934 and 1935.[8]
Boudreau attended theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was a member ofPhi Sigma Kappa fraternity and captain of thebasketball andbaseball teams. During the1936–37 basketball and baseball seasons, Boudreau led each Fighting Illini team to aBig Ten Conference championship.[9] During the1937–38 basketball season, Boudreau was named anNCAA Men's Basketball All-American.[9]
While Boudreau was still at Illinois,Cleveland Indians general managerCy Slapnicka 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 theBig Ten Conference officials.[10][11] During his senior year at Illinois, he played professional basketball with theHammond Ciesar All-Americans of theNational Basketball League.
Despite playing professional baseball with Cleveland, Boudreau earned hisBachelor of Science 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 the1941–42 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team and he was instrumental in recruiting futureNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame InducteeAndy Phillip to play for Illinois.[9]
Boudreau made his major league debut on September 9, 1938, for theCleveland Indians at 21 as a third baseman in his first game. In 1939, Indian managerOssie Vitt told him that he would have to move from his normal third base position toshortstop since established sluggerKen Keltner already had the regular third base job.[12]
In 1940, his first full year as a starter, he batted .295 with 46doubles and 101RBI, and was selected for theAll-Star Game for the first of five consecutive seasons (MLB cancelled the1945 game due to war-time travel restrictions and did not name All-Stars).[13]
Boudreau helped make history in 1941 as a key figure in stopping the56-game hitting streak byJoe DiMaggio. 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.[14] He finished the season with a modest .257 batting average, but had a league-leading 45 doubles.
After the 1941 season, ownerAlva Bradley promoted Indians managerRoger Peckinpaugh 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 intoarthritis, which classified him as4-F and thus ineligible for military service).[12] In 1944, Boudreau turned 134double plays, the most ever by a player-manager in MLB history. When he bought the Indians in 1947,Bill Veeck, 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 forVern Stephens 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 theWorld Series, 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.
Boudreau was released by the Indians as both player and manager following the 1950 season. He signed with theBoston Red Sox, 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 theKansas City Athletics in 1955 after their move from Philadelphia until he was fired after 104 games in 1957 and replaced byHarry Craft. He last managed the Chicago Cubs, in 1960.
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| CLE | 1942 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1943 | 153 | 82 | 71 | .536 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1944 | 154 | 72 | 82 | .468 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1945 | 145 | 73 | 72 | .503 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1946 | 154 | 68 | 86 | .442 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1947 | 154 | 80 | 74 | .519 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1948 | 155 | 97 | 58 | .626 | 1st in AL | 4 | 2 | .667 | WonWorld Series (BSN) |
| CLE | 1949 | 154 | 89 | 65 | .578 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 1950 | 154 | 92 | 62 | .597 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| CLE total | 1377 | 728 | 649 | .529 | 4 | 2 | .667 | |||
| BOS | 1952 | 154 | 76 | 78 | .494 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BOS | 1953 | 153 | 84 | 69 | .549 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BOS | 1954 | 154 | 69 | 85 | .448 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| BOS total | 461 | 229 | 232 | .497 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| KC | 1955 | 154 | 61 | 93 | .396 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| KC | 1956 | 154 | 52 | 102 | .338 | 8th in AL | – | – | – | – |
| KC | 1957 | 103 | 36 | 67 | .350 | fired | – | – | – | – |
| KC total | 411 | 151 | 260 | .367 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| CHC | 1960 | 137 | 54 | 83 | .394 | 7th in NL | – | – | – | – |
| CHC total | 137 | 54 | 83 | .394 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| Total[15] | 2386 | 1162 | 1224 | .487 | 4 | 2 | .667 | |||
Boudreau is credited with inventing theinfield shift, which came to be known colloquially as the "Boudreau shift." Because sluggingRed Sox superstarTed Williams 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 orbunt 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 autobiographyPlayer-Manager.
Boudreau did play-by-play for Cub games in 1958–59 before switching roles with manager "Jolly Cholly"Charlie Grimm 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 theChicago Bulls in 1966–1968 and worked onChicago Blackhawks games forWGN radio andtelevision 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 atWrigley Field 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.[16]
Boudreau was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1970 with 77.33% of the vote. That same year, his uniform number 5 was retired by theCleveland Indians (he wore number 4 with the Red Sox). In 1973, the city ofCleveland renamed a street borderingCleveland Municipal Stadium after Boudreau.[11] 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.[17][18] In 1992, Boudreau's number 5 jersey was retired by theIllinois Fighting Illini baseball program. Boudreau is only one of threeIllinois Fighting Illini athletes to have their number retired; the other two athletes beingIllinois Fighting Illini football playersRed Grange andDick Butkus.[9][19]
Boudreau married Della DeRuiter in 1938, and together they had four children. His daughter Sharyn marriedDenny McLain, a former star pitcher with theDetroit Tigers who was the last 30-game winner in the major leagues (31–6 for the world champion 1968Detroit Tigers).
Boudreau had a home inFrankfort, Illinois, for many years. He died on August 10, 2001, due tocardiac arrest at St. James Medical Center inOlympia Fields, Illinois. He was 84. He received a Catholic funeral and his body was interred in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.[9][20]
lou boudreau jewish.
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