The "Another Great Athlete From Lancaster, Pennsylvania" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about another Lancaster County baseball player who recently celebrated his birthday.  Yesterday I posted a story about Bruce Sutter who is the only player from Lancaster County to ever be voted into Major League's Baseball Hall of Fame. Another Lancaster County player, Tom Herr, was a 1974 Hempfield High School graduate where he was a three-sport star.  

Tom Herr jumps high to avoid the Braves' Hubbard as he
completes a double play to kill a Braves' rally.

He played 13 years in the Major Leagues and was part of three St. Louis Cardinals teams that went to the World Series, including the 1982 champion- ship team.  Tom played second base and had his best season in the National League in 1985 when he hit .302 with 110 RBIs.  He finished fifth in the National League Most Valuable Player voting and helped the Cardinals reach the World Series where they lost to the Kansas City Royals in seven games.  That year he played in 159 games, hit .302, had 110 Runs Batted In, had 49 extra-base hits, had a .416 slugging percentage, stole 31 bases, walked 80 times, struck out just 55 times and was voted to the All-Star game.  He played for the St. Louis Cardinals during 10 seasons as well as playing for the Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, San Francisco and the Philadelphia Phillies.  

Tom Herr's Cardinals Baseball Card.

His career stats were: .271 Batting Avg., 1,450 hits, 254 doubles, 41 triples, 28 home runs, 574 RBIs, 53 sac flies, 188 stolen bases, 627 walks and 584 strike outs in 1,514 major league games.  He also had a 9.89 fielding percentage and was an Ozzie Smith's double-play partner with the Cardinals for many years.  My grandson is a Freshman at Hempfield High School this year and will play on the same field that Tom played on years ago.  That was until COVID-19 arrived and ended the baseball season for Caden after only one game.  Besides playing for Hempfield, Tom was the manager for the Professional Lancaster Barnstormers in The Atlantic League.  In 1985 the St. Louis Cardinals played the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.  The series included the infamous blown call by umpire Don Denkinger in Game 6.  Tommy's Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series to advance to the Series and face the Royals.  The Cards took a 3-1 lead in the series before dropping Game 5.  Still had two chances to win, but in game 6 the Cardinals led 1-0 going into the bottom of the ninth.  If they could get three more outs they would have their second World Series Championship in four seasons.  

Tom's card when he played for the Phillies.

The Royals' Jorge Orta led off, hitting a chopper between first and second.  Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark went to his right, fielded the ball and flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell who was covering first.  Denkinger ruled Orta safe, although replays showed otherwise.  The Royals went on to score two runs in the inning to win the game.  Kansas City won the final game and the Series.  Tom said, "I can't blame Jack because in the bigness of the moment he went and fielded the ball to his right."  Tom was playing second base at the time.  "But, if you watch the replay, you'll see me standing right behind him.  It would have been such a routine play for me.  From where I was it was so obvious and such an easy call.  I was actually the first one to get to him (Denkinger) to say, 'How can you call him safe?'"  An argument followed, but since video replay wasn't enacted at that time, the call stood.  It was the only time all season that the Cardinals entered the final inning with the lead and didn't win the game.  Tom believes it was that call that was the start of the road to replay for baseball.  That was the year when Tom had his best statistics, but didn't win the Series to go with the great season.  

Tom Herr as the manager of the Lancaster Barnstormers.

Tom retired after 13 seasons in the Major Leagues.  He began coaching in Lancaster in 2005 and took the team to The Atlantic League Champion- ship the following year.  He managed the Washington Nationals Class A team in 2007 and then returned to the Barnstormers until 2010.  Tom hasn't been involved in baseball since that time.  He still lives in Lancaster with his family which includes his wife and two sons.  Oldest son Aaron was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the first found during the 2001 season, but ended up playing for his dad in Lancaster in 2009.  His other son, Jordan, played for the Barnstormers in 2008 and then was signed by the Chicago White Sox.  Tom turned 63 on April 4th.  But, one of the biggest highlights of the Herr family was playing at Kunkle Field in the New Era Tournament (Now called the LNP Tournament).  Both of Tom's sons say that Kunkle was one of the fields they will never forget in their baseball career.  Funny, since my sons, as well as my grandson this past season, played at Kunkle in the same tournament.  The only one from all of us to win the title was Grandson Caden who won it this past summer went he helped with a homer and a suicide squeeze bunt.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an oridnary guy.