Lou Boudreau

Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001) was known by several nicknames—“Old Shufflefoot,” “Handsome Lou,” and “the Good Kid”—over a career that spanned 15 seasons as a Major League Baseball player and another 15 as a manager. He spent most of his playing time at shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, but also managed four different clubs, including a decade-long stretch as a player-manager. After his playing days, he worked as a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs. In college at the University of Illinois, he excelled in both baseball and basketball, earning All-American honors on the hardwood.

Boudreau made the All-Star team seven times. His standout year came in 1948, when he won the American League Most Valuable Player Award and led the Cleveland Indians to a World Series championship as their player-manager. He claimed the AL batting title in 1944 with a .327 average, and led the league in doubles three times (1941, 1944, and 1947). Defensively, he topped AL shortstops in fielding eight times. He still holds the MLB record for hitting four consecutive doubles in a single game, a feat he accomplished on July 14, 1946. Over the entire 1940s, no player collected more hits than Boudreau’s 1,578.

In 1970, Boudreau was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Cleveland Indians retired his No. 5 jersey that same year.

Born in Harvey, Illinois, to Birdie (Henry) and Louis Boudreau, his father was of French-Canadian descent and his mother was Jewish. As a child, he celebrated Passover seders with his maternal grandparents, both observant Orthodox Jews. After his parents divorced, he was raised Catholic by his father. He attended Thornton Township High School in Harvey, where he led the “Flying Clouds” to three straight Illinois high school championship games, winning the title in 1933 and finishing as runner-up in 1934 and 1935.

At the University of Illinois, Boudreau joined the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and served as captain of both the basketball and baseball teams. During the 1936–37 seasons, he guided each Fighting Illini team to a Big Ten Conference championship. The following basketball season, he was named an NCAA Men’s Basketball All-American. While still in college, Cleveland Indians general manager Cy Slapnicka paid him an undisclosed sum to agree to play for the Indians after graduation, which led the Big Ten to rule him ineligible for collegiate sports.

During his senior year, he played professional basketball for the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans of the National Basketball League. Despite his pro baseball commitments, he earned a Bachelor of Science in education from Illinois in 1940 and worked as the Illinois freshman basketball coach for the 1939 and 1940 teams. He later served as an assistant coach for the 1941–42 Illinois basketball team and helped recruit future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Andy Phillip.

Boudreau made his major league debut on September 9, 1938, at age 21, playing third base for the Cleveland Indians. In 1939, manager Ossie Vitt told him he would have to shift from third to shortstop because Ken Keltner had the third base job locked down. In 1940, his first full season as a starter, he batted .295 with 46 doubles and 101 RBIs, earning his first of five consecutive All-Star selections (the 1945 game was canceled due to wartime travel restrictions, and no All-Stars were named). In 1941, he played a key role in ending Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak: after two tough stops by Keltner at third, Boudreau snagged a bad-hop grounder barehanded and started a double play to retire DiMaggio at first. That season, Boudreau hit a modest .257 but led the league with 45 doubles.

After the 1941 season, Indians owner Alva Bradley promoted manager Roger Peckinpaugh to general manager and named the 25-year-old Boudreau player-manager. Boudreau continued in that dual role through World War II—basketball had strained his ankles, leading to arthritis that classified him as 4-F and kept him out of military service. In 1944, he turned 134 double plays, the most ever by a player-manager in MLB history. When Bill Veeck bought the Indians in 1947, Boudreau approached him about renewing the player-manager arrangement, though both had mixed feelings; Boudreau said he would rather be traded than only play shortstop.

Rumors of a trade for Vern Stephens of the St. Louis Browns in 1947 only rallied fans to Boudreau’s side. In 1948, Boudreau hit .355, and Cleveland won the AL pennant and the World Series—the franchise’s first championship in 28 years and only its second ever. Veeck and Boudreau publicly acknowledged each other’s contributions to the team’s success.

After the 1950 season, the Indians released Boudreau as both player and manager. He signed with the Boston Red Sox, playing full-time in 1951, then became player-manager in 1952 and managed from the bench in 1953–54. In 1955, he became the first manager of the Kansas City Athletics after their move from Philadelphia, but was fired after 104 games in 1957 and replaced by Harry Craft. His final managerial role came with the Chicago Cubs in 1960.

Boudreau is credited with inventing the infield shift, known as the “Boudreau shift,” used against Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, who was a dead-pull hitter.