Lou Boudreau

At 84 years old, Lou Boudreau has this physical status:

Louis Boudreau (nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot," "Handsome Lou" or "The Good Kid"; 1917-1999 – August 10, 2001) was an American professional baseball player and manager.

He played for 15 seasons, mainly as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, and he also served as a player-manager for five seasons, including ten seasons as a player-manager.

He was also a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs, and in college, he was a dual sport athlete in baseball and basketball for the University of Illinois. Boudreau was an All-Star for seven seasons.

In 1948, Boudreau received the American League Most Valuable Player Award and coached the Cleveland Indians to the World Series Championship.

He captured the 44 American League (AL) batting title (3.27) and led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947.

He was the leader of eight different AL shortstops in fielding.

Boudreau now holds the MLB record for winning the most consecutive doubles in a game (four), which was set on July 14, 1946. In 1970, Boudreau was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a member.

Early life

Boudreau was born in Harvey, Illinois, the son of Birdie (Henry) and Louis Boudreau. His father was of French ancestry, his mother was Jewish, and both of his maternal grandparents, who were Orthodox Jews, with whom he celebrated Passover seders when he was young. Since his parents divorced, he was raised Catholic by his father. He attended Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, where he coached the "Flying Clouds" to three straight Illinois high school championship games, winning in 1933 and 1935 and finishing runner up in 1934 and 1935.

Later life and honors

In 1970, Boudreau was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 77.3 percent of the vote. His uniform number 5 was withheld by the Cleveland Indians the previous year (he wore number 4 with the Red Sox). After Boudreau's death, the city of Cleveland renamed a street bordering Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1973. After Boudreau, Boudreau Drive in Urbana, Illinois, has been named.

The Cleveland Indians established The Lou Boudreau Award in 1990, which is given every year to the organization's Minor League Player of the Year. The Illinois Fighting Illini baseball program cut Boudreau's number 5 jersey in 1992. Boudreau is only one of three Illinois Fighting Illini football players to have their number retired; the other two Illinois Fighting Illini football players, Red Grange and Dick Butkus, are the only two Illinois Fighting Illini football players to have their number retired;

Personal life

In 1938, Boudreau married Della DeRuiter, and the family had four children together. Sharyn's daughter married Denny McLain, a former Detroit Tigers pitcher who was the last 30-game winner in the major leagues (31–6 for the world champion 1968 Detroit Tigers).

For many years, Boudreau owned a home in Frankfort, Illinois. He died in Olympia Fields, Illinois, on August 10, 2001, as a result of heart arrest. He was 84 years old at the time. He was blessed with a Catholic funeral and his body was laid to rest in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.

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Professional baseball career

In his first game, Boudreau made his major league debut for the Cleveland Indians at 21 on September 9, 1938 as a third baseman in his first appearance. Ossie Vitt, India's 39-year-old manager, warned him that he would have to transfer from his regular third base position to shortstop, since Ken Keltner, the slugger, had the regular third base position.

He batted.295 with 46 doubles and 101 RBI in his first full year as a starter and was selected for the All-Star Game for the first time in five years (MLB cancelled the 1945 game due to war-time travel restrictions and did not mention All-Stars).

In 1941, Boudreau was a major figure in breaking Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Boudreau snagged a bad-hop grounder to short barehanded and started a double play retiring DiMaggio at first after two spectacular stops by Keltner at third base on hard ground balls earlier in the game. He ended the season with a modest.257 batting average, but he had a league-leading 45 doubles.

Owner Alva Bradley promoted Indians manager Roger Peckinpaugh to general manager and named the 25-year-old Boudreau player-manager after the 1941 season. Boudreau served and captained the Indians during World War II (playing basketball put a strain on Boudreau's ankles that later became arthritis, making him ineligible for military service). In 1944, Boudreau produced 134 double plays, the most by a player-manager in MLB history. Bill Veeck, who was approached by Boudreauau, revived the player-manager deal with mixed feelings on both directions when he bought the Indians in 1947. In 1948, Boudreau hit.355 in 1948; Cleveland captured the AL pennant and the World Series for the first time in Indian history; and only the second in Indian history, with Veeck and Boudreau publicly acknowledging each other's participation in the team's triumph.

Following the 1950 season, Boudreau was released by the Indians as both player and manager. He joined the Boston Red Sox full-time in 1951, rising to player-manager in 1952 and then managing from the bench in 1953–54. After the Kansas City Athletics' move from Philadelphia to a 104 games in 1957, he became the first manager of the Kansas City Athletics in 1955, eventually being fired after 104 games were played and replaced by Harry Craft. In 1960, he last ruled the Chicago Cubs.

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