Career
| Lou Boudreau's number 5 was retired by the Cleveland Indians in 1970. |
Boudreau made his major league debut on September 9, 1938 for the Cleveland Indians, at the age of 21, playing first base in a single game. In 1939, manager Ossie Vitt informed Boudreau, who normally played third base, that he would have to move to shortstop as Ken Keltner already had the regular third base job.
In 1940, his first full year as a starter, he batted .295 with 46 doubles and 101 RBI. He was also selected to play in his first All Star Game.
Boudreau helped make history in 1941 as a key figure in stopping the 56-game hitting streak by Joe DiMaggio. After Ken Keltner made two fine stops at third base earlier in the game, Boudreau snagged a bad hop grounder at short barehanded and started a double play to retire DiMaggio. He finished the season with a .257 batting average and a league leading 45 doubles. He also turned 134 double plays in 1944, the most ever by a player-manager in Major League history.
After the season, owner Alva Bradley promoted manager Roger Peckinpaugh to general manager and appointed Boudreau as the player-manager. Boudreau was 25 years old. Boudreau managed the Indians throughout World War II. Playing basketball had put a strain on Boudreau's ankles which later developed arthritis and he was classified 4-F and thus, ineligible for military service. Upon assuming ownership in 1947, Bill Veeck, after being approached by Boudreau, renewed the player-manager agreement with mixed feelings on both sides. Although the results were personally contentious, they did win the World Series in 1948, Cleveland's first championship in 28 years, and both Boudreau and Veeck were public in admitting the other's role in the success.
Relieved of his Cleveland managerial duties following the 1950 season, he was released as a player by Cleveland and signed with the Boston Red Sox, playing full-time in 1951 and becoming the team's player-manager in 1952 and as manager in 1953 and 1954. He became the first manager of the Kansas City Athletics in 1955, after their move from Philadelphia. He was fired after 104 games in 1957, replaced by Harry Craft. He served as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in 1960.
Through 2010, he was third all-time in career hits (behind Shawn Green), fourth in batting average (behind Buddy Myer), and fifth in RBIs (behind Sid Gordon) among Jewish major league baseball players.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970 with 77.33% of the vote. The same year, Boudreau had his number (5) retired by the Cleveland Indians.
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