Barney Schultz

George Warren "Barney" Schultz (born August 15, 1926, in Beverly, New Jersey) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He was a knuckleball pitcher in the Major Leagues for all or parts of seven seasons between 1955 and 1965 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago Cubs. In October 1966 he was briefly reactivated by the Cardinals so that he could receive a Major League pension.

He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1944 after playing at Burlington City High School. Throughout much of his career, Schultz lived in Beverly with his wife and children, working in the off season as a carpenter and haberdasher.

Schultz was strictly a relief pitcher, appearing in 227 games overall without any starts. He was an early specialist in the knuckleball. He had two good years with the Cubs, then was traded to the Cardinals where he had his best season, 1964, with 14 saves (a significant quantity in those days) and a 1.64 earned run average. Probably his most visible moment was a negative, in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series, in which he gave up a game-winning home run to Mickey Mantle in the nationally-televised Saturday game. However, he had been credited with a save in Game 1, and the Cardinals ultimately won the Series in 7 games.

Cardinals' utility catcher Bob Uecker was sometimes called upon to catch when Schultz was brought in to pitch. It was from that experience that he drew some of his material when joking about the difficulties of catching the knuckler.

After his playing career ended, Schultz was the Cardinals' roving minor league pitching instructor from 1967 to 1970 and Major League pitching coach from 1971 to 1975. He was a member of the Chicago Cubs' coaching staff in 1977.

Schultz is a resident of Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey, where his home is filled with memorabilia of his baseball career.

Schultz is a member of the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame.

1. ^ Staff. "Catching up with ...... Burlington City's Barney Schultz", Burlington County Times, June 12, 2005. Accessed May 22, 2012. "Schultz was one of three Burlington High baseball teammates from the 1940s to go on to play major-league ball. Eddie Miksis, who died in April at age 78, played 14 seasons as a utility infielder. Sam Calderone was a reserve catcher for the New York Giants and Milwaukee Braves in the early 1950s."
2. ^ Staff. "Schultz Is Cardinal Hero With Three Innings of Effective Relief Pitching; MOUND JOB CAPS 20 YEARS' EFFORT Schultz, Who Has Played on 20 Teams in 13 Leagues, Is Praised by Keane", The New York Times, October 8, 1964. Accessed June 13, 2012. "Applied to the career of George Warren (Barney) Schultz, the 38-year-old relief pitcher, it is both simply descriptive and the moral of the story.... He was born in Beverly, NJ, which is in the Philadelphia area, and still lives there with his wife and four children."
3. ^ Misselhorn, Lou. "Catching up with ...... Burlington City's Barney Schultz", Burlington County Times, June 12, 2005. Accessed February 3, 2013. "George Warren 'Barney' Schultz keeps some of his professional baseball keepsakes on display behind a television at his Edgewater Park home."
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