Player Development
After his playing career ended, Herzog rejoined the Athletics for two seasons, as a scout in 1964 and a coach in 1965.
The next seven years were spent with the New York Mets, first as the third-base coach for manager Wes Westrum in 1966. Herzog made his mark with the club as its director of player development for the next six campaigns. Under his watch, the Mets produced young talent that either became part of the nucleus of its World Series teams in 1969 and 1973 or eventually had successful major league careers. Among them were Gary Gentry, Wayne Garrett, Jon Matlack, John Milner, Amos Otis and Ken Singleton. Herzog was a candidate to become the Mets' manager after the death of Gil Hodges prior to the 1972 season, but was passed over in favor of first-base coach Yogi Berra by chairman of the board M. Donald Grant.
Read more about this topic: Whitey Herzog
Famous quotes containing the words player and/or development:
“The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)