RIP Whitey Herzog

[DanT]

He was a great manager. He got criticized sometimes for his choice to go to relievers in certain situations in high-stakes games and favoring "platoon" match-ups (bringing in a right-handed pitcher against a left-handed batter and vice-versa). He brought me great joy when I was working as a food vendor at game 7 of the 1985 World Series and on three separate occasions he brought in a right-handed reliever to face the right-handed Steve Balboni. Balboni was an oddball, because he was anti-platoon that year: his .802 OPS as a right-hander batter against a right-handed pitcher was 30% better than the league overall in that situation; whereas as a right-handed batter against a left-handed pitcher his .733 OPS was 1% worse! With each of the first two relievers, Balboni added to the Royals win probability. First, with the bases loaded in the 3rd inning, he drove in a run with a single to make the score 3-0 and increasing the win probability to 94% from 89%. Then, in the 5th, after Sundberg led off with a single, Balboni got a single on the new righty reliever, bringing our win probability to 99%. We ended up scoring 6 that inning to make the score 11-0, the eventual final score.