Charles Dallan Maxvill (born February 18, 1939) is a retired

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

, coach and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). During his career, Maxvill played, coached, or was an executive for four

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

winners and seven league champions.

Early life

A native of the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

suburb of

Granite City, Illinois Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, ...

, Maxvill played baseball in high school, then attended

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. He signed his first professional baseball contract in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

with the hometown

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 ...

Playing career

Maxvill appeared in 1,423 regular-season games for the Cardinals (1962–72), Oakland Athletics (1972–73; 1974–75) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1973–74). He batted and threw right-handed. He batted .217 with six home runs in 3,989 plate appearances over his 14-year major league career. Maxvill's best season with the bat was

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

with the Cardinals. He set career highs in batting average (.253), on-base percentage (.329), and slugging percentage (.298). He also received his only Most Valuable Player award votes (finishing in twentieth place) and won his only

Gold Glove The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

. In the World Series that year (the last of the pre-LCS era), he went 0-for-22, the worst performance in a World Series. It was also the worst hitless streak to start a postseason until 2022. Maxvill holds the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

record for fewest hits for a batter playing in at least 150 games. He had 80 hits in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

in 399 at-bats in 152 games, just barely over the Mendoza line at .201. (''

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'' Baseball Record, 2007, p. 19) After batting .221 in 105 games during the first months of the campaign, he was acquired by the Oakland Athletics from the Cardinals for minor-league

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

Joe Lindsey on August 30, 1972. The deal occurring one day prior to the waiver trade deadline meant that he was eligible to be on the A's roster for its postseason run. Minor-league

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

Gene Dusan was also sent to the Cardinals to complete the transaction two months later on October 27.

Coaching and executive career

The 1987 season was the last time one of Maxvill's teams made the playoffs. The Cardinals finished above .500 in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, 1992, and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, but their best finish was 2nd place. Longtime owner and president August "Gussie" Busch died in September 1989 and

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...

took over operations of the team. Changes within the top levels in the organization continued to the point that most remnants of the Busch era turned over. The next season, longtime

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Whitey Herzog resigned and Torre was hired in his place. However, the

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

did not appear as invested as Busch in making the Cardinals a winning team and began looking to sell the team. As a result, after new president

Mark Lamping Mark Lamping is the current team president of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was formerly CEO of the MetLife Stadium. Prior to his stint in New York, he was president of the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team, a post he held from Septembe ...

was hired in 1994, he sought to make changes to attempt to build a winner. Three weeks after Lamping's hire, he fired Maxvill. The next year, Anheuser-Busch sold the team to an investment group led by Fred Hanser, Drew Baur and William DeWitt, Jr. At this point, Maxvill pursued no further baseball opportunities, citing the desire to spend more time with his family.

References

External links

Dal Maxvill
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Dal Maxvill Oral History Interview - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxvill, Dal 1939 births Atlanta Braves coaches baseball players from Illinois Gold Glove Award winners Jacksonville Suns players living people Major League Baseball executives Major League Baseball general managers Major League Baseball shortstops Major League Baseball third base coaches New York Mets coaches Oakland Athletics coaches Oakland Athletics players people from Granite City, Illinois Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals coaches St. Louis Cardinals executives St. Louis Cardinals players Washington University Bears baseball players Washington University in St. Louis alumni