Former outfielder and manager Bill Virdon has died. He was 90 years old:
Virdon was a career .267 hitter in 12 seasons with St. Louis and Pittsburgh, winning a World Series in 1960 with the Pirates and a Gold Glove in 1962. He retired for good in 1968 and went into coaching, going 995-921 during a 13-year managerial career that featured stints with Pittsburgh, the New York Yankees, Houston and Montreal.
His greatest success came during an eight-year run with the Astros from 1975-82, when he led the franchise to its first two postseason appearances, both ending with five-game losses. Houston lost to Philadelphia in the 1980 NL Championship Series and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL Division Series prompted by the 1981 players’ strike.
NYPost.com
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Virdon won the Rookie of the Year award in 1955. His best offensive season appears to be 1956, but his highest WAR came in 1960, when he helped the Pirates win a World Series.
It’s tough to identify a strength as a hitter. He did hit a good number of triples, 81 in 6522 PA. With a good glove and steady offense, he was a very useful piece of the puzzle for the Pirates.
Virdon was a pretty good manager, with a career winning percentage of .519. He was a place holder for the Yankees, as they dumped him as soon as Billy Martin was available. The Yankees might have done better to hold on to Virdon, and maybe avoid the Bronx Zoo.
RIP. I did not realize Mr. Virdon had passed.
Being of a certain age, i very well remember his excellent teams in Houston from 1978-82.
While it is true the 1980 Phillies edged the Astros 3-2 in the 1980 NLCS, it’s doubtful that result would have obtained had JR RICHARD not had a stroke and been struck down in the prime of his career that very year.
Houston started in that series, Ken Borsch, Nolan Ryan, Joe Niekro, Vern Ruhle, & Nolan Ryan, and even with that, got out to a 2-1 lead, and were up by 3 runs in the 8th inning of Game 5.
Now add in JR Richard, and the rotation would be this:
JR Richard, Nolan Ryan, Joe Niekro, JR Richard, Nolan Ryan and possibly you sweep in three games.
Bill Virdon was a terrific manager. He got career years out of everyone on that ball club, and it was a great, great club.
He had bad luck losing JR Richard, who was ideal for a short series, a high strikeout high walk FIP guy. the combo of Richard and Ryan could have won them a World Series.
I for one shall miss him.
Art K