{"id":180411,"date":"2025-08-27T18:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T18:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180411\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T18:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T18:43:12","slug":"boy-what-a-life-a-visit-with-bobby-shantz-mlbs-oldest-living-mvp-as-he-nears-his-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180411\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Boy, what a life\u2019: A visit with Bobby Shantz, MLB\u2019s oldest living MVP, as he nears his 100th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMBLER, Pa. \u2014 They are boldface names with swagger to spare. An October titan with his own candy bar. A high-kicking lefty with his first name on his back. A mustachioed closer who pointed at his victims. Depression-era champions. Steroid-era sluggers. A base-stealing savant who called himself the greatest of all time.<\/p>\n

Reggie, Vida, Eck. Grove and Foxx. Canseco, Giambi, Tejada. Rickey. All of them played for the Athletics and won the American League Most Valuable Player award. All of them, and one more.<\/p>\n

You will find him in his living-room easy chair in the Philadelphia suburbs, right where he\u2019s lived for seven decades. Bobby Shantz turns 100 years old on Sept. 26. He is trim and tan with a shock of light blond hair, a bad hip, achy knees and a sense of wonder at the heights that a 5-foot-6 dreamer from Pottstown, Pa., could reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoy, I tell you, I really don\u2019t know,\u201d said Shantz, who was 24-7 with a 2.48 ERA for the Philadelphia A\u2019s in 1952, when he beat out a trio of Yankees \u2014 Allie Reynolds, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra \u2014 for the MVP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up, I never thought I ever had a chance to be a big-league baseball pitcher. I thought I might have a chance in the minor leagues, maybe, but I didn\u2019t realize that I had enough stuff to be in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it turned out awful nice, I\u2019ll tell you that \u2014 16 years. You know, I lasted more than I thought I would. Boy, what a life. I really enjoyed every minute of it. Even when I was horseshit, I still liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shantz is the second-oldest living MLB player, after Bill Greason<\/a>, who turns 101 on Sept. 3 and pitched in 11 games for the Birmingham Black Barons and St. Louis Cardinals. Shantz lives with his wife, Shirley \u2014 they met in Nebraska in 1948, his only minor-league season \u2014 and a caregiver visits daily.<\/p>\n

The Shantzes have four children, Robert Jr., Teddy, Danny and Kathy, and one of them is always at home to help their parents. Photos of the Shantzes\u2019 three grandchildren and a great grandchild decorate the living room, and a friendly rescue dog, Jake, never strays far.<\/p>\n

One morning in August, the mailman dropped off the usual assortment of autograph requests: a baseball, a photo, a dozen or more cards. A light day, Shantz Jr. said. His father signs everything<\/a>, perhaps 200 items a week, with a penmanship that is still precise \u2014 and right-handed. Pitching was the only thing Shantz did as a lefty.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayed golf right-handed, hit right-handed, wrote right-handed,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t do anything left-handed, I don\u2019t think. I don\u2019t know how in the hell I got to pitch left-handed, I really don\u2019t. I\u2019m glad I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1952 season was by far Shantz\u2019s best, by modern metrics (an MLB-best 8.8 bWAR) and those at the time. He led the AL in victories, strikeout-to-walk rate and twirled 27 complete games \u2014 including one that went 14 innings<\/a>. He even struck out the side in the All-Star Game at his home park: Whitey Lockman, Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial.<\/p>\n

Shantz did not win the Cy Young Award in 1952, for a very good reason \u2014 the honor had not been created. But his success landed him on \u201cThe Ed Sullivan Show,\u201d (Shantz was nervous, but a $500 appearance fee took care of that)\u00a0 and his size made the story even better. In Shantz\u2019s considerable lifetime, no other pitcher standing 5-feet-6 or shorter has thrown 200 innings in a season, as Shantz did three times.<\/p>\n

Shantz\u2019s stature had scared off most teams from signing him, but Shantz understood. When a Philadelphia Phillies scout, Jocko Collins, apologized for overlooking him, Shantz said that was OK; he had his doubts, too. After a while, though, Shantz\u2019s talent made his size irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made up for that because he could field probably better than most of the infielders,\u201d said Bobby Richardson, 90, the New York Yankees\u2019 second baseman when Shantz played in New York. \u201c(Casey) Stengel played him in center field<\/a>, if I\u2019m not mistaken, in one game sometime. They didn\u2019t even think about his size because he was so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Shantz was 119-99 with a 3.38 ERA, and helped the Yankees win a championship in 1958. He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Colt .45s, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Phillies, collecting eight Gold Gloves along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll occasionally hear a guy introduce me and say, \u2018He was the best fielding pitcher in baseball,\u2019 and I\u2019ll say, \u2018No, Bobby Shantz was,’\u201d said Jim Kaat, a Hall of Fame lefty with 16 Gold Gloves. \u201cHe didn\u2019t win a Gold Glove until \u201957. Had they given them out starting in \u201950, he would have had 16 or 17 as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaat, 86, grew up in Michigan, the son of a Philadelphia A\u2019s fan. When the A\u2019s played the Chicago White Sox, Kaat would pick up their radio broadcasts across Lake Michigan and listen to Bob Elson describe Shantz\u2019s motion, how he landed on the balls of his feet and could dart in any direction for grounders.<\/p>\n

Traded to the Yankees in 1957, Shantz impressed teammates with his athletic grace, the way he\u2019d glide across the outfield for nifty catches in batting practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just loved to be active, a great competitor,\u201d Richardson, who roomed with Shantz, said from his home in Sumter, S.C. \u201cBobby fit right in with the Yankees. Everybody loved him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe, but back in those early days when I was playing with Bobby, there were no helmets in baseball and we were still traveling on the train. And we had some good times. The food on the train was tremendous \u2014 a dining car between two Pullmans. Not everybody liked it, but I just loved riding along after ball games, looking out at the farms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson was religious, Shantz recalled with a laugh, and would gently remind him not to cuss so much on the mound. He hated to upset Richardson, whom he called his favorite teammate, but, well, Shantz couldn\u2019t help himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a pitcher, you better start cussing,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause sometimes you really need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shantz reached the majors in 1949 and played two years for Connie Mack, who was born during the Civil War, started his playing career in 1886 and managed the A\u2019s for half a century. Mack didn\u2019t like Shantz\u2019s knuckleball, but other than that had little to say to the young lefty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An enlarged newspaper photo of Mack and Shantz hangs on the wall in the basement of his Pennsylvania home. (Tyler Kepner\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n

\u201cConnie Mack never talked to me \u2014 he never said a goddamn thing,\u201d Shantz said. \u201cHe\u2019s sitting on the bench and he wouldn\u2019t say anything to me. I guess he would talk to a couple of coaches, but I\u2019ve never really heard him talk that much. Nice man, though, real nice guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy Dykes took over for Connie Mack and he never shut up. He was always talking. He was like Casey Stengel. He liked to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dykes encouraged Shantz to use the knuckleball, which rounded out a repertoire built around a curve that Ted Williams once called the best in the American League. Only four pitchers struck out Williams more times than Shantz, who fanned him nine times in 66 plate appearances. Williams hit .344 for his career, but just .308 off Shantz.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Ted, that son of a gun,\u201d Shantz said. \u201cProbably my toughest left-handed hitter that I had to get out. It was tough to fool him with that curveball. He knew he was going to get a curveball from me sometime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess on the whole, all the times that I pitched against Ted, I got him out half-decent. But I wouldn\u2019t say I was great, because the son of a gun could hit, man. And he didn\u2019t swing at many curveballs that weren\u2019t strikes. He had to get a strike, you know, and that\u2019s the only way you\u2019re going to get the son of a gun out \u2014 you gotta let him hit the goddamn thing, just hope he doesn\u2019t knock it out of the ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice how Shantz qualified his praise of Williams: he was probably his toughest lefty hitter, he said, but not overall hitter. That, he said, was Roy Sievers, a right-handed slugger for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators and others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In his final season with the Phillies in 1964, Shantz collides with a sliding Hank Aaron at home. (Bettmann \/ Contributor)<\/p>\n

No batter had more runs batted in against Shantz than Sievers, who drove in 17 while hitting .322 with three homers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoddamn Roy Sievers \u2014 you have to mention him?\u201d Shantz said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get that son of a gun out. I don\u2019t know why. I know he was a pretty good hitter, but goddamn, why couldn\u2019t I get him out? He even told me he knew he could hit me. That pisses me off when they tell me they\u2019re goddamn sure they could hit me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shantz said he never chased a repeat of his 1952 success; he simply always believed he would win, no matter how he felt. His career trajectory changed before that miracle year was even finished: batting against Walt Masterson in late September, Shantz took a fastball to his left wrist and broke it.<\/p>\n

Shoulder trouble cost Shantz much of the next few seasons, but in family lore, it\u2019s the Masterson pitch that changed everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI once played softball with a relation of his,\u201d Shantz Jr. said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Well, my uncle was so-and-so and he\u2019s sorry for ruining your dad\u2019s career.\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s nice of him.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Shantz persevered, and in his first year with the Yankees, as a swingman in 1957, his 2.45 ERA led the majors. Shantz pitched three times in that year\u2019s World Series and did it again in 1960, including five innings in the middle of the epic Game 7 in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The Yankees lost Shantz that winter to the expansion Senators, who then traded him to the Pirates. A year later, another expansion team took Shantz: the Colt .45s, who would become the Astros. Shantz pitched the first game in franchise history<\/a>, a complete-game five-hitter over the Cubs before a less-than-capacity crowd of 25,271.<\/p>\n

\u201cWee Bobby Shantz, the Houston Colt .45s jack-in-the-box little lefthander, is a mighty big man in the eyes of the Chicago Cubs,\u201d began a story in the next day\u2019s Houston Chronicle. Another piece called Shantz, \u201cno bigger than a bat boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may live in Ambler, Pa.,\u201d the paper wrote, \u201cbut he\u2019s found a new home here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That new home lasted just two more starts. In early May, Houston dealt Shantz to the Cardinals, who would ship him to the Cubs two years later in the infamous Lou Brock-for-Ernie Broglio trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I understand, he got traded so quick because the trainer wouldn\u2019t give him the cortisone shot,\u201d Shantz Jr. said. \u201cHe was taking a lot of cortisone shots for his pain in his shoulder, and the trainer didn\u2019t want to give him the shots because he was getting too many of them. So they traded him to a team that would give him a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitching, indeed, has always been a painful profession. But when Shantz watches the modern game on television, as he often does, that\u2019s a new standard of strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cChrist, those pitchers \u2014 I can\u2019t believe they throw that hard!\u201d said Shantz, who pitched long before the radar gun. \u201cHurts my goddamn arm just watching them. When I see those guys, I don\u2019t think I threw hard at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hardest-throwing pitcher Shantz faced, he said, was Bob Feller, the Cleveland Hall of Famer who bought two of Shantz\u2019s Gold Glove Awards. (\u201cI think he offered my dad a ton of money for his Most Valuable Player, but he didn\u2019t want to get rid of that,\u201d Shantz Jr. said. \u201cBut since he had eight Gold Gloves, he sold him two.\u201d) Yet Shantz never struck out against Feller, going 4 for 12 off him as part of a respectable .195 career average.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hit a home run,\u201d Shantz said, laughing, of his lone career dinger. \u201cAllie Reynolds. He\u2019d come over to me, I don\u2019t know where the hell I was, but he said, \u2018You little s\u2013\u2013\u2013, how did you hit a goddamn home run off me?\u201d I said, \u2018I was a pretty good hitter.\u2019 He said, \u2018Yeah, you were.\u2019 He was a nice guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Four of Shantz\u2019s eight Gold Gloves remain on display in his home. (Tyler Kepner\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n

Shantz describes nearly everyone as a nice guy \u2014 Brock, Williams, Robin Roberts, Yogi Berra. He was close friends with Curt Simmons, a Cardinals teammate who died in Ambler in 2022. Simmons managed the Limekiln Golf Club with Roberts and would let Shantz play for free.<\/p>\n

After his retirement, following a late-season stint with the star-crossed 1964 Phillies, Shantz operated a bowling alley and a dairy bar in nearby Chalfont, Pa., with Joe Astroth, his catcher with the A\u2019s. Another who caught him with the A\u2019s, Shantz\u2019s younger brother Billy, died at age 66 in 1993.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoddamn smoking,\u201d Shantz said. \u201cHe smoked all the time, and it finally hurt him. Hurt him too much. But he was a good catcher, though. Damn good catcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no special plans for his 100th birthday, Shantz said, and no secrets to share about living so long. He knows he\u2019s lucky and said he still feels good. He cannot travel, and often apologizes, unnecessarily, for things he forgets.<\/p>\n

Some details, naturally, are lost to time. But for one season, the little man in the easy chair was the greatest player in the American League. The feeling never fades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think about it once in a while, I really do,\u201d Bobby Shantz said. \u201cI had a great life. Jesus, great life. Boy, I\u2019d like to do that all over again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to do it all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Bobby Shantz at his home in Ambler, Pa. last week: Tyler Kepner\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMBLER, Pa. \u2014 They are boldface names with swagger to spare. An October titan with his own candy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":180412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2382,1266,2228,5055,2083,62,3692,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-180411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-houston-astros","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york-yankees","11":"tag-oakland-athletics","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115102207861390469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}