George Warren "Barney" Schultz (August 15, 1926 – September 6, 2015) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. He was a

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This chan ...

-throwing

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the Major Leagues for all or parts of seven seasons between 1955 and 1965 for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

. In October 1966 he was briefly reactivated by the Cardinals so that he could receive a Major League pension. Born in

Beverly, New Jersey Beverly is a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 2,577,right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

, stood tall and weighed . Schultz was signed by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

in 1944 after playing at

Burlington City High School Burlington City High School is a six-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in seventh through twelfth grade in Burlington, in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Cit ...

. Throughout much of his career, Schultz lived in Beverly with his wife and children, working in the off season as a carpenter and haberdasher. Schultz was strictly a relief pitcher, appearing in 227 games without any starts. He was an early specialist in the

. He had two good years with the Cubs, then was traded to the Cardinals where he had his best season, 1964, with 14 saves (a significant quantity in those days) and a 1.64 earned run average. Probably his most visible moment was in Game 3 of the

1964 World Series The 1964 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1964 season. The 61st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the Amer ...

, in which he gave up a game-winning home run to

Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...

in the nationally televised Saturday game. However, he had been credited with a save in Game 1, and the Cardinals ultimately won the Series in seven games. Cardinals' utility catcher

Bob Uecker Robert George Uecker ( ; born January 26, 1934) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and current sportscaster, comedian, and actor. Facetiously dubbed "Mr. Baseball" by TV talk show host Johnny Carson, Uecker has served as a ...

was sometimes called upon to catch when Schultz was brought in to pitch. It was from that experience that Uecker drew some of his material when joking about the difficulties of catching the knuckleball. In between, Schultz played winter ball in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

for the

Gavilanes de Maracaibo The Gavilanes de Maracaibo was a Venezuelan professional baseball club based in Maracaibo, the capital city of Zulia state. The team was founded by the brothers and ballplayers Ernesto Aparicio and Luis Aparicio, Sr., and debuted in the extinct Z ...

club of the Western Professional Baseball League, where he won seven consecutive strikeout titles from 1954 through 1960. After his playing career ended, Schultz was the Cardinals' roving minor league pitching instructor from 1967 to 1970 and Major League pitching coach from 1971 to 1975. He was a member of the Chicago Cubs' coaching staff in 1977. Schultz was a resident of Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey, where his home was filled with memorabilia of his baseball career. Schultz is a member of the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame. He died on September 6, 2015, the 50th anniversary of his final MLB game.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schultz, Barney 1926 births 2015 deaths Baseball players from New Jersey Bradford Blue Wings players Charleston Senators players Chicago Cubs coaches Chicago Cubs players Chicago Cubs scouts Columbus Red Birds players Denver Bears players Des Moines Bruins players Detroit Tigers players Gavilanes de Maracaibo players Hagerstown Owls players Hollywood Stars players Houston Buffaloes players Houston Buffs players Jacksonville Suns players Macon Peaches players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball pitching coaches Omaha Cardinals players People from Beverly, New Jersey People from Edgewater Park, New Jersey Rock Hill Chiefs players St. Louis Cardinals coaches St. Louis Cardinals players Schenectady Blue Jays players Sportspeople from the Delaware Valley Terre Haute Phillies players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Wilmington Blue Rocks (1940–1952) players

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