Cards Announce Barney Schultz’s Death

Cards Announce Barney Schultz’s Death at 89

The things I remember most about Barney are: (1) he threw the knuckler; (2) he looked like he was 50 when he was a major league pitcher; (3) Mickey Mantle correctly predicted that he would homer off Schultz in the '64 series.

Ol' Barney wasn't really 50, but his career did seem to go on forever. During the 23 calendar years of his pro career, he had only 20 major league wins and only 35 saves, but he picked up more than 150 wins in the minors. He entered pro ball as a 17-year-old schoolboy during WW2, and was still active in the minors as late as 1966. He got a couple of brief call-ups in the fifties, but didn't get a real major league shot until 1961, after some 17 seasons in the minors, during the first ten of which he never escaped the low minors.

His career was a monument to the value of persistence because he did eventually manage to get a payoff for all those bus rides. At the age of 38, some 20 years after his first appearance in a professional game, he worked as the primary closer on the championship 1964 Cardinal team, posting a sweet 1.64 ERA during the regular season and appearing in four World Series games, including a save in relief of Ray Sadecki in the series opener.