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George W. Schultz; pitcher helped defeat '64 Phils on way to Series

George W. Schultz, of Cinnaminson, a St. Louis Cardinals knuckleball reliever known as "Barney," posted a 1.64 earned run average in 30 regular-season games for his 1964 World Series champs - breaking the hearts of Phillies fans along the way.

George “Barney” Schultz played for the Series-champ Cardinals.
George “Barney” Schultz played for the Series-champ Cardinals.Read more

George W. Schultz, of Cinnaminson, a St. Louis Cardinals knuckleball reliever known as "Barney," posted a 1.64 earned run average in 30 regular-season games for his 1964 World Series champs - breaking the hearts of Phillies fans along the way.

On Sunday, Sept. 6, Mr. Schultz, 89, died at Lourdes Medical Center in Willingboro of complications from a heart attack.

"He was an important part of our family and he will be missed," Ron Watermon, vice president of communications for the Cardinals, said.

"He was very important as part of the team, particularly in 1964, when we made that amazing run for the world championship."

During the Phillies' 10-game losing streak that cost them the 1964 National League pennant, the Cards swept all three September games from those visitors.

"Schultz saved two of the games," John Stahl wrote for the website of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Phillies manager Gene Mauch was not impressed.

"Eleven saves in two months. That's more than Schultz had in his whole big-league career," Stahl wrote of Mauch's reaction. "He never saw the day he could get us out before."

(Actually, before the Cards promoted him back to their major-league roster on July 31, 1964, Mr. Schultz had saved 19 games in six seasons, including for the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs.)

In the last 60 games of the Cardinals' 1964 season, Stahl wrote, "Barney appeared 30 times, all in relief, winning once and saving 14 games as the Cardinals rushed past Mauch's Phillies and captured the National League pennant."

"After Barney's successful appearance in Game One of the 1964 World Series, Cardinals manager Johnny Keane declared, 'Without him, we wouldn't be here.' "

In Game One of the Series, played in St. Louis, the 38-year-old "pitched three effective innings in relief of Ray Sadecki as the Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees, 9-5," Stahl wrote.

In Game Two at Yankee Stadium, Mr. Schultz "entered the 1-1 game in the ninth inning.

"On Schultz's first pitch of the inning, Mickey Mantle blasted a game-winning home run," Stahl wrote. "The towering homer reached the third tier of the right-field stands. Mantle later listed the home run as one of the top five thrills of his baseball career."

The Cards won the '64 Series in seven games.

Mr. Schultz ended his eight-season major-league pitching career in 1965, with the Cardinals, in the year he turned 39.

After working as a minor-league pitching instructor for the Cards, Mr. Schultz was the major-league team's pitching coach from 1971 to 1975, then the pitching coach for the Cubs in 1977 and a coach in Japan, before retiring from pro ball in 1982.

In 1988, he was inducted into the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame, his daughter, Barbara, said.

Mr. Schultz lived in Edgewater Park for 50 years, before moving to Mount Laurel in 2010 and to Cinnaminson this past June, she said.

Born in Beverly, Mr. Schultz graduated from Burlington High School in 1944, where he was a starting pitcher but only "fiddled with the knuckleball, using it as a change of pace when he was well ahead in the count," Stahl wrote.

Arm problems kept him in the minor leagues until at 29 he joined the Cardinals for the 1955 season. He was with the Tigers in 1959 and with the Cubs from 1961 into 1963, before being traded back to the Cards that year.

Then came 1964.

In retirement, his daughter said, he golfed in celebrity tournaments until he was in his early 80s.

Besides his daughter, Mr. Schultz is survived by his wife, Frances, sons George Jr. and Paul, six grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was a lifelong member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Beverly, his daughter said. No services are planned.

Donations may be sent to www.jesusthegoodshepherd.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.pagefuneralhome.com.