Dal Maxvill

A native of the St. Louis suburb of Granite City, Illinois, Maxvill played baseball in high school, then attended Washington University where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. He signed his first professional baseball contract in 1960 with the hometown St. Louis Cardinals.[1]

Maxvill appeared in 1,423 regular-season games for the Cardinals (1962–72), Oakland Athletics (1972–73; 1974–75) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1973–74). He batted and threw right-handed. He batted .217 with six home runs in 3,989 plate appearances over his 14-year major league career.[2]

Maxvill's best season with the bat was 1968 with the Cardinals. He set career highs in batting average (.253), on-base percentage (.329), and slugging percentage (.298). He also received his only Most Valuable Player award votes (finishing in twentieth place) and won his only Gold Glove.[2]

Maxvill holds the National League record for fewest hits for a batter playing in at least 150 games. He had 80 hits in 1970 in 399 at-bats in 152 games, just barely over the Mendoza line at .201. (The Sporting News Baseball Record, 2007, p. 19)

After batting .221 in 105 games during the first ​4 ¹⁄₂ months of the campaign, he was acquired by the Oakland Athletics from the Cardinals for minor-league third baseman Joe Lindsey on August 30, 1972.[3] The deal occurring one day prior to the waiver trade deadline meant that he was eligible to be on the A's roster for its postseason run. Minor-league catcher Gene Dusan was also sent to the Cardinals to complete the transaction two months later on October 27.[4]

Maxvill appeared in five World Series - three (1964, 1967 and 1968) with the Cardinals and two (1972 and 1974) with the Athletics. In the 1964 Series, which the Cardinals took from the New York Yankees in seven games, Maxvill caught Bobby Richardson's pop-up for the final out in the seventh game. In the 1968 Series, which the Cardinals lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games, Maxvill went a record 0-for-22 at the plate. His overall World Series batting record was 7-for-61, a .115 percentage. Both of those figures are record Series lows for a position player. However, Maxvill was impeccable defensively in the postseason, handling 88 chances in four World Series and 14 chances in two league championship series without a miscue.

After his playing career ended, Maxvill served as a coach with the A's, Cardinals, New York Mets and Atlanta Braves (where he served on Joe Torre's staff). After the 1984 season, he became general manager of the Cardinals, spending a decade as the Cardinals' top baseball executive, and the team won two more National League pennants in 1985 and 1987.

The 1987 season was the last time one of Maxvill's teams made the playoffs. The Cardinals finished above .500 in 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1993, but their highest ranking was second place.[5] Longtime owner and president August "Gussie" Busch died in September 1989 and Anheuser-Busch took over operations of the team.[6]

Changes within the top levels in the organization continued to the point that most remnants of the Busch era turned over. The next season, longtime manager Whitey Herzog resigned and Torre was hired in his place.[7][8] However, the brewery did not appear as invested as Busch in making the Cardinals a winning team and began looking to sell the team. As a result, after new president Mark Lamping was hired in 1994, he sought to make changes to attempt to build a winner.[9] Three weeks after Lamping's hire, he fired Maxvill.[10] The next year, Anheuser-Busch sold the team to an investment group led by Fred Hanser, Drew Baur and William DeWitt, Jr.[11] At this point, Maxvill pursued no further baseball opportunities, citing the desire to spend more time with his family.[1]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• Dal Maxvill at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
• Dal Maxvill Oral History Interview - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection