Dal Maxvill Finds a New Position

Red Schoendienst, a St. Louis coach, was not shocked upon learning a former shortstop with a .217 lifetime batting average was becoming Cardinal general manager.

“I played with him and I managed him,” Schoendienst said of Dal Maxvill, whose appointment in late February surprised many. “I’d seen him about two weeks before. I almost said to him, ‘Why don’t you apply?’ ”

Evidently, the evaluation by Schoendienst of Maxvill, 46, as one who “knows baseball” was shared by those in charge of filling the job for the National League club.

Lou Susman, the franchise’s attorney, contacted Maxvill at West Palm Beach, Fla., where Maxvill was already pitching batting practice as a coach for the Atlanta Braves. Three weeks later, after a series of interviews, the ex-player was headed back to St. Louis to rejoin the club for which he performed in 1,205 games.

“Yes, my heart did go hippity-hop,” said Maxvill, who had been prepared for his fourth summer as third-base coach with Atlanta.

“I wanted the job. I wanted to come back to St. Louis. I was very happy to get the call and the opportunity to do it,” he said. “They told me that they were interested in a baseball person with primarily field experience.”

Schoendienst, a former Cards’ manager, said Maxvill’s pleasant manner belies the competitive fire underneath the surface of one who has also always been a keen student of baseball.

“He had points that he’d mention to me when I was managing. He was right in a lot of ways,” Schoendienst said. “He knows the game; he knows the ballplayers. I know he feels he can do the job, or he wouldn’t have asked for the job or he wouldn’t have said yes.”

The former St. Louis pilot also remembers Maxvill as a player who was frequently underrated by opponents and casual observers because of his light bat but never by his team.

“It’s a funny thing, when he played with us we won two pennants . . . well, more than that (three),” Schoendienst said. “I can remember when (second baseman Julian) Javier was hurt in ’64. He didn’t only play well but he hit well.”

Chances are, had not Maxvill made it to the majors, he would have been prepared for an equally demanding career in another field.

Born in Granite City, Ill., where he spent his boyhood across the Mississippi River from the Cards’ current home in Busch Stadium, he attended Washington University in St. Louis. Upon graduating, he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

Success in baseball did not come easily for the athlete, requiring an apprenticeship of four years in the minor leagues before he made his mark in 1964 as Javier’s fill-in during the World Series.

Maxvill, after traded in late 1972 by the Cards to the Oakland A’s, bounced back briefly into the National League with the Pittsburgh Pirates and eventually wound up his playing career with a cameo World Series appearance for Oakland in 1974.

He coached for the A’s and for St. Louis and the New York Mets before joining Atlanta’s staff in 1982.