Red Schoendienst played 19 major league seasons, collecting 2,449 career hits and 10 All-Star nods before hanging up his cleats in the summer of 1963. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veteran’s Committee in 1989.
Schoendienst spent 15 of his 19 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and can still be spotted at Busch Stadium from time to time, hitting baseballs with a fungo bat to practicing infielders. He turned 88 years old in February.
In an attempt to help the Cardinals snap their seven-game losing streak on Saturday night, a few players donned knee-high striped socks. Matt Holliday was among the participants but had trouble initially finding pants short enough to properly expose the high socks. So, according to B.J. Rains of FOX Sports Midwest, he grabbed a pair belonging to Schoendienst.
Let the legend begin.
Holliday belted a towering go-ahead home run to deep center field in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Cardinals a 5-4 lead over Kansas City. That score would hold and would keep St. Louis within a game of the NL Central-leading Brewers.
Holliday is now 5-for-9 with two homers, three runs scored, three walks and four RBI since returning from a two-week stay on the disabled list. You can bet he’ll be wearing Red’s pants again on Sunday afternoon.
