Lou Boudreau

Book excerpt: The autobiography of a baseball great. Lou Boudreau is considered one of the most extraordinary men in baseball history. He was a player-manager, an All Star, an MVP, a World Series–winner, and a Hall of Famer. But that only scratches the surface of “The Good Kid.” In Lou Boudreau: Covering All the Bases, hear from his own words the personal story of a boy from Harvey, Illinois, and how he took the sport of baseball my storm. In 1942, at only twenty-four years of age and with less than three full seasons in the major leagues, Boudreau was named as the team’s next manager. He took the role seriously, and made sure to always lead by example. Lou also shares stories of playing with and managing Cleveland’s first African American players, Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, and of winning the 1944 American League Batting Championship with a hit in his final at bat of the season. But the highlight of Lou’s career came in 1948, when he used his bat, glove, and coaching skills to lead the Indians to a World Series victory, while becoming the only player-manager ever to win the American League MVP award. Retiring as a ballplayer in 1952, Boudreau coached for eight more seasons before finally walking away from the field in 1960. He then began his second career as a broadcaster, and was the “Voice of the Chicago Cubs” for almost thirty years. On August 10, 2001, Lou Boudreau passed away at the age of eighty-four. Enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, “The Good Kid” will always be remembered for what he did both on and off the field. As former teammate and Hall of Famer Bob Feller once said, “He was a great manager, teammate, and friend. There is not a more gracious man than Lou Boudreau.”