Hall of Fame
Bill Virdon was born in Hazel Park, Mich., grew up in West Plains, Mo. and now lives in Springfield. Bill played basketball at Drury (1949) before embarking on a major league baseball career which includes an impressive 12-year career as a player and an equally impressive 14-year career as a manager. In 1950, at the age of 18, Bill signed with the New York Yankees but was traded four years later to the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1955 he was named the National League's Rookie-of-the-Year after hitting .281 for the Cardinals with 17 home runs and 68 runs-batted-in. He played the final 133 games of the 1956 season as a member of the Pittsburg Pirates where he hit .334 in 133 games. He finished his playing career as a Pirate in 1968. During that time he helped the Pirates win the 1960 World Series (4-3 over the Yankees) and he won the Golden Glove award in 1962 for center fielders. Bill had 12-year career totals of 1,596 hits, 502 runs-batted-in and 1,583 games played. Bill managed at the major league level for 14 years and has the unique honor of being named Manager-of-the-Year in both the American League (Yankees, 1974) and in the National League (Astros, 1980). He was inducted into the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 1987.
