From our archives: 'Birds will bust their tails,' new manager Herzog says - STLtoday.com
Editor's note: Whitey Herzog was hired as the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals 35 years ago today — on June 9, 1980. This article first was published the same day in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which at the time was an afternoon newspaper. Whitey Herzog, a self-described "very opinionated, hard-headed Dutchman" takes over the bottomed-out baseball Cardinals tonight in Atlanta as the man August A. Busch Jr. , director of the board and chief executive officer of the Redbirds,... After having introduced Herzog as his first choice to replace the unfrocked Ken Boyer, Busch said Sunday that he had been "so impressed with Whitey, I felt we had to make (a change) right now. Busch termed Herzog "aggressive" and called him "one of the greatest baseball guys in the world. " In response, the Cardinals third manager since 1978 said, "I have only two things I ask of players: be at the ballpark on time and bust your tail when you're in the uniform. Boyer said there were no internal problems on the club. I don't think there was anything (more) I could do. ". Herzog, 49, has been a manager-in-waiting since being deposed by the Kansas City Royals last Oct. What provoked the dismissal of Boyer in his second full season as manager was the depth to which the Cardinals had dropped. Coming off a third-place finish in the National League East last year, Busch thought the Redbirds this season might win the pennant,. Source: www.stltoday.com
