Dal Maxvill

Charles Dallan Maxvill (born February 18, 1939) is a retired shortstop, coach and general manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). During his career, Maxvill played, coached, or was an executive for four World Series winners and seven league champions.

Dal Maxvill
Maxvill in 1965
Shortstop
Born: (1939-02-18) February 18, 1939
Granite City, Illinois, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
June 10, 1962, for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB appearance
September 28, 1975, for the Oakland Athletics
MLB statistics
Batting average.217
Home runs6
Runs batted in252
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Early life

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

Playing career

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] In the World Series that year (the last of the pre-LCS era), he went 0-for-22, the worst performance in a World Series. It was also the worst hitless streak to start a postseason until 2022. [3][4]

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.[5] 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.[6]

Coaching and executive career

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 best finish was 2nd place.[7] Longtime owner and president August "Gussie" Busch died in September 1989 and Anheuser-Busch took over operations of the team.[8]

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.[9][10] 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.[11] Three weeks after Lamping's hire, he fired Maxvill.[12] The next year, Anheuser-Busch sold the team to an investment group led by Fred Hanser, Drew Baur and William DeWitt, Jr.[13] At this point, Maxvill pursued no further baseball opportunities, citing the desire to spend more time with his family.[1]

References
  1. Leichenger, Alex (November 7, 2013). "For former Cardinal Dal Maxvill, decades in baseball started at Wash. U." Washington University Student Life. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  2. "Dal Maxvill statistics and history". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  3. Donovan, Loretta. "Dal Maxvill – Society for American Baseball Research". Archived from the original on 2021-11-26. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  4. @ESPNStatsInfo (October 21, 2022). "Jose Altuve is now 0-for-23 this postseason. That breaks a tie with Dal Maxvill, who went 0-for-22 for the Cardinals in the 1968 World Series, for the longest hitless streak to begin a postseason in MLB history. (h/t @EliasSports)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. "A's Obtain Dal Maxvill," The Associated Press (AP), Thursday, August 31, 1972. Archived October 29, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved October 26, 2020
  6. "Personalities: Texas Gets Carty". The New York Times. 28 October 1972. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  7. "St. Louis Cardinals team history & encyclopedia". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  8. Cart, Julie (September 30, 1989). "Patriarch of Cardinals is dead at 90: August A. Busch, jr., beer baron, bought baseball team in '53". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2013-10-24. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
  9. Holbreich, Curt (July 7, 1990). "A dismayed Herzog quits as manager of the Cardinals". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
  10. "Joe Torre returning 'home' to Cardinals". Los Angeles Times. August 1, 1990. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
  11. "Transactions". The Baltimore Sun. August 20, 1990. Archived from the original on 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
  12. "Cardinals fire GM Maxvill". Chicago Tribune. September 22, 1994. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  13. "AB Sell Cardinals". The New York Times. December 23, 1995. Archived from the original on May 20, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.