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Bill Virdon

William Charles Virdon (born June 9, 1931 in Hazel Park, Michigan) is a former outfielder, manager and coach in Major League Baseball. A premier defensive outfielder during his playing days (1955-65) as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates (winning a Gold Glove in 1962), Virdon also had a long tenure in the major leagues as a manager, with the Pirates (1972-73), New York Yankees (1974-75), Houston Astros (1975-82), and Montreal Expos (1983-84). He was the American League Manager of the Year in , his only full season working for the Yankees of George Steinbrenner.

Virdon initially signed with the Yankees, but he never played for the big league club. As a minor league prospect, he was traded to the Cardinals in a multi-player deal before the season for veteran outfielder Enos Slaughter, now a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. After one more year of seasoning in the minors, Virdon joined the Cardinals in and was named National League Rookie of the Year. He was traded to Pittsburgh in May .

A left-handed batter (who threw right-handed), Virdon's career batting average was .267 with 91 home runs during his 1,583-game NL career. He was the starting center fielder on the world champion Pirates, batting .241 in seven World Series games. His ground ball in Game 7 took a bad hop and struck Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat, enabling Virdon to reach base and the Pirates to mount a furious rally in a game (and series) eventually won by Bill Mazeroski's dramatic home run.

As a manager, he led the Pirates to the NL East title, but the Buccos dropped the NLCS to the Cincinnati Reds when Pittsburgh pitcher Bob Moose unleashed a wild pitch in the final inning of Game 5, allowing the winning run to score. His Astros won the NL West championship, but fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in a five-game NLCS. His career managerial record, over all or parts of 13 seasons, was 995-921 (.519). He also served three different terms as a Pirates coach. He has the unusual distinction of having been replaced on two separate occasions by the manager he replaced; in Montreal (Jim Fanning) and in Pittsburgh (Danny Murtaugh).

Currently Bill lives in Springfield, Missouri, and serves as a special outfield instructor for the Pirates during spring training.

Managerial Statistics

Team	Year	Regular Season				Post Season
Team	Year	Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
PIT	1972	96	59	.619	1^st in NL East	2	3	.400	Lost to Cincinnati Reds
PIT	1973	67	69	.493	3^rd in NL East	-	-	-	-
NYY	1974	89	73	.549	2^nd in AL East	-	-	-	-
NYY	1975	53	51	.510	3^rd in AL East	-	-	-	-
HOU	1975	17	17	.500	6^th in NL West	-	-	-	-
HOU	1976	80	82	.494	3^rd in NL West	-	-	-	-
HOU	1977	81	81	.500	3^rd in NL West	-	-	-	-
HOU	1978	74	88	.457	5^th in NL West	-	-	-	-
HOU	1979	89	73	.549	2^nd in NL West	-	-	-	-
HOU	1980	93	70	.571	1^st in NL West	2	3	.400	Lost to Philadelphia Phillies
HOU	1981	61	49	.555	3^rd in NL West	2	3	.400	Lost to Los Angeles Dodgers
HOU	1982	49	62	.441	5^th in NL West	-	-	-	-
MON	1983	82	80	.506	3^rd in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1984	64	67	.489	5^th in NL East	-	-	-	-
Total		995	921	.519		6	9	.400	-