Dal Maxvill

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Charles Dallan Maxvill (born February 18, 1939 in Granite City, Illinois) is a former shortstop, coach and general manager in Major League Baseball. A graduate of St. Louis' Washington University, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering, Maxvill signed a professional baseball contract in 1960 with the hometown St. Louis Cardinals.

Maxvill appeared in 1,423 regular-season games for the Cardinals (1962-72), Oakland Athletics (1972-73; 1974-75) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1973-74). He batted and threw righthanded.

A smooth fielder but a notoriously weak hitter, Maxvill batted only .217 with 6 home runs over his 14-year major league career, yet he was a slugger in the regular season compared to the post-season. He appeared in four World Series - three (1964, 1967-68) with the Cardinals and one (1974) with the Athletics. All but the '68 Redbirds won the world championship. Perhaps the Cardinals would have fared better in '68 if Maxvill had gotten a key hit here and there... or any hits at all, as he went 0-for-22. His overall World Series batting record was 7-for-61, a .115 percentage. Both of those figures are record lows for a position player.

Although comfortably above the hitting prowess of the legendary Casey Wise, Maxvill does hold the National League record, through the 2006 season, for fewest hits for a batter playing in at least 150 games: 80, achieved in 1970, in 152 games, 399 at-bats, just barely over the Mendoza line at .201. (Sporting News Baseball Record, 2007, p.19)

Cardinals fans of that era sometimes said that when pitching ace Bob Gibson took his turn, Gibson should bat ahead of Maxvill in the lineup, since he was the better hitter. Gibson's career average was only 11 points lower than Maxvill's, and he was much more productive at the plate. Gibson had 24 career home runs in some 2,000 fewer at bats than Maxvill. He also had 144 runs batted in compared with Maxvill's 252, meaning that Gibson had an RBI about every 10th at bat, whereas Maxvill had one about every 14th turn.

After his playing career ended, Maxvill served as a coach with the A's, Cardinals, New York Mets and Atlanta Braves (where he served on Joe Torre's staff). After the 1984 season, he became general manager of the Cardinals, spending a decade as the Cardinals' top baseball executive, and the team won two more National League pennants in 1985 and 1987. He resigned in 1994.

[edit] External links

• Baseball Reference