“He’s no talk, all action.”

“Silent George” Hendrick had a personal policy of not talking to the press and generally not participating in activities that ballplayers needed to do beyond playing baseball. Often this was to the chagrin of coaches and owners, like Ray Croc elucidated during Hendrick’s time with the Padres. But those same coaches and owners were often placated because George Hendrick’s bat did all the talking.

Hendrick’s entire career in baseball demonstrates that correct coaching and mentoring can make all the difference in a player’s development.

The Joe Rudi Effect

Hendrick’s career started out with him kicking around the Oakland farm system in Iowa, notably in Burlington and Des Moines. As we see in many of our profiles, his numbers on the farm were extremely good and he, perhaps to a detriment, drew comparisons to Reggie Jackson and other players of the day. He debuted with the Athletics in 1971.

Hendrick’s teammate Joe Rudi was a well-regarded positive influence. Hendrick stated, “Everything you see him doing on a field, you know he developed through hard work. If I were starting a new team and had a chance to pick any player in baseball, the first guy I’d choose is Joe Rudi – that’s how much I think of him as a player and a person.”

His first home runs came in 1972 in his second year with Oakland. He hit four on the season and all four were ledgers. Interestingly, for all the power he would eventually display, it took him 46 games before his first home run, which to that point was the latest first home run for a v-Club members. But he wasted no time getting his second as it came the very next day.

LEDGER ONE: May 28, 1972 vs Chicago White Sox

LEDGER TWO: May 29, 1972 (Game 1) at Texas Rangers

LEDGER THREE: June 18, 1972 vs Cleveland Indians

LEDGER FOUR: June 20, 1972 vs Detroit Tigers

His third ledger is also notable as it was to be the only home run he would hit against the Indians his career, mostly because that was his next destination. Even under the wing of hard-working Joe Rudi, Hendrick developed a reputation as the opposite – lazy, loafing, and lackadaisical.

The Judge Effect Counters the Aspromonte Effect

Hendrick’s power numbers really took off when he arrived in Cleveland. He completed the entirety of his American League ledger by second month of the 1974 season.

LEDGER FIVE: April 17, 1973 vs Milwaukee Brewers

LEDGER SIX: April 29, 1973 at California Angels

LEDGER SEVEN: May 4, 1973 vs Oakland Athletics

LEDGER EIGHT: May 21, 1973 vs New York Yankees

LEDGER NINE: June 3, 1973 at Kansas City Royals

LEDGER TEN: July 12, 1973 (Game 2) at Minnesota Twins

LEDGER ELEVEN: April 19, 1974 at Boston Red Sox

LEDGER TWELVE: May 11, 1974 vs Baltimore Orioles

The first half of his time in Cleveland was spent under manager Ken Aspromonte. You may remember that name from the Graig Nettles profile. In that case, Aspromonte was framed as a “bad guy” taking plate appearances away from Nettles when he faced left-handed pitchers (even though the stats didn’t fully bear out that decision). In Hendrick’s case there were both issues with his playing style and recovery from an injury. Ultimately, the two did not get along.

Frank Robinson replaced Aspromonte for the second half of Hendrick’s tenure in Cleveland and George’s attitude shifted for the better. Like a few other v-Club personalities, there was often a stark difference in how players reacted to their managers. Managers who could figure out the motivations of a player often extracted better play and better attitude. However, this often didn’t move up to the levels of ownership. After four seasons in Cleveland, Hendrick was traded to San Diego.

The Eric Rasmussen Effect

Hendrick’s 1977 season saw both the continuation of Hendrick’s power hitting but also friction with ownership (see the aforementioned attitude of Padres owner Ray Croc). As for ledgers, he had plenty in 1977 and added one more in 1978.

LEDGER THIRTEEN: April 18, 1977 at Atlanta Braves

LEDGER FOURTEEN: April 27, 1977 vs Los Angeles Dodgers

LEDGER FIFTEEN: May 28, 1977 vs Houston Astros

LEDGER SIXTEEN: May 30, 1977 (Game 1) at San Francisco Giants

His home run against the Giants was placed in a niche sub-genre of ledger home runs hit by members – those hit against a pitcher in their only career start. Terry Cornutt was the starter that day and one-time-starter Tom Simpson gave up a ledger to Preston Ward 24 years prior.

LEDGER SEVENTEEN: June 14, 1977 vs Chicago Cubs

LEDGER EIGHTEEN: June 18, 1977 vs St. Louis Cardinals

The ledger against the Cardinals was hit off Eric Rasmussen, a name that would be relevant to Hendrick’s career again fairly soon.

LEDGER NINETEEN: July 27, 1977 vs Montreal Expos

LEDGER TWENTY: July 30, 1977 at New York Mets

LEDGER TWENTY-ONE: September 21, 1977 vs Cincinnati Reds

LEDGER TWENTY-TWO: April 28, 1978 at Philadelphia Phillies

1978 presented some challenges to the Padres. Hendrick was not producing in the first month and was caught in an outfield shuffle with Dave Winfield and Oscar Gamble. The Padres chose to move Hendrick on to the Cardinals in one-for-one player trade for the aforementioned Eric Rasmussen.

Before we jet off to St. Louis, here’s an interesting bit of trivia. v26 Club member Graig Nettles and George Hendrick combined to hit 21 ledgers as Padres. The Padres had only existed since 1969. Only two other franchises – original 1901 American League members Detroit and Cleveland – had more combined ledger home runs among v-Club members.

The Whitey Herzog Effect

We often seen a trend where the best years of a Club member’s career are spent in a time where they can’t hit any more ledgers. This mostly the case with the Cardinals as Hendrick collected the two more needed ledgers but spent most of his time in St. Louis as an All-Star and MVP-adjacent quality player. Somehow a ledger against the Pirates had alluded him during his time in San Diego, but he picked that one up as well as one against his former team.

LEDGER TWENTY-THREE: June 27, 1978 (Game 2) at Pittsburgh Pirates

LEDGER TWENTY-FOUR: July 17, 1980 vs San Diego Padres

And wouldn’t you know it, the ledger home run he hit against the Padres was off of Eric Rasmussen. This wouldn’t be the first instance of a member hitting more than one ledger off the same pitcher, and it wasn’t even the first time it was against a pitcher a member was traded for.1 The home run against the Padres also took quite a while, requiring 104 plate appearances over three seasons.

Whitey Herzog became the Cardinals manager midway through Hendrick’s time in St. Louis. Perhaps unknown to Hendrick, Herzog had been a fan before he started in professional baseball. Herzog, a scout with the Mets, had seen Hendrick play in his high school days and claimed he would have been glad for the Mets to sign him had the A’s not drafted him first.

Once in St. Louis, a no-nonsense Herzog observed the same lackluster qualities of play in Hendrick but was able to turn him around. Contrast this to Herzog’s same no-nonsense approach to handling Alex Johnson in Texas where Johnson did not turn it around and was sent packing.

Throughout the bulk of his Cardinals career, Hendrick was maxed out for ledgers. The Mariners and Blue Jays joined the American League in 1977 but Hendrick could not gain membership unless he migrated to the American League. Unhelpfully, the Cardinals traded him to Pittsburgh in 1985.

The SoCal Effect

But later in the 1985 season, Hendrick was on the move again; this time to the Angels. He almost immediately crossed the Mariners off his ledger list hitting a home run in the first game he played against them.

LEDGER TWENTY-FIVE: August 13, 1985 at Seattle Mariners

His last needed home run against the Blue Jays was not nearly so easy to come by. Hendrick’s time in Anaheim was spent as a part time player, so while the number of games and plate appearances required for his Jays ledger were low, the calendar time needed was long. More than two years after his Mariners ledger, in his seventh game and twenty-fifth plate appearance against the Jays, Hendrick finally connected.

LEDGER TWENTY-SIX: September 2, 1987 at Toronto Blue Jays

Hendrick would only hit three more home runs before retiring at the conclusion of the 1988 season. Close calls are nothing new to some v-Club members, even those who were known as power hitters.

Hendrick would not leave baseball altogether. Perhaps it was an apropos, if not somewhat contradictory, move for Hendrick to become a long-time coach for several franchises while being known as a person with not much to say. However, we can see that “good” coaches had positive effect on the play and attitude of George Hendrick. And, George Hendrick, in turn, returned positive effect to those he coached.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

George Hendrick – Society for American Baseball Research

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2006/04/21/he-s-no-talk-all-action/