March 15, 1961: Red Comes Home

     According to http://www.baseball-reference.com/ Red Schoendienst inked a deal with the Cardinals on March 15, 1961. The 38-year-old second baseman had parted ways with the club in the Summer of 1956 after spending more than 10 years with the Birds on the Bat across his chest. While researching the deal that put those birds across his chest once again I found stories that had Red signing with the club on March 7th rather than the 15th, however, the deal could have been held up by physicals and things of that nature, so the ink may have dried completely on the 15th. Regardless, the deal made Red a Cardinal once again, and even at the age of 38 he still had spring in his step. The Redbirds skipper Solly Hemus called him "the youngest looking, youngest acting guy on his squad." The article featured with today's fact was published on March 29, 1961. I chose it because it shows that Red was not in it for the money. He could have taken a far more lucrative deal to play with the Angels, but St. Louis was his home, and home was where he wanted to be.

If you would like to learn more about Red's career that has included more than 50 years in St. Louis, I urge you to read his SABR bio here: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1dd15231

Stats of a legend: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schoere01.shtml

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