John Boland Schuerholz Jr. (; born October 1, 1940) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

front office The front office is the part of a company that comes in contact with clients, such as the marketing, sales, and service departments. The term has more specific meaning in different industries. Types General offices The function of front office ...

executive. He was the general manager 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 (A ...

's Atlanta Braves from 1990 to 2007, and then served as the Braves president for a decade from 2007 until 2016. Before joining Atlanta, he spent 22 years with the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

organization, including nine (1982–1990) as the club's

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 ...

. Among the teams he built are the 1985 Royals and 1995 Braves, both World Series champions. His teams have also won their division 16 times, including 14 consecutive times in Atlanta. During his time with the Braves, they won five National League pennants and played in nine National League Championship series. He was inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

in 2017.

Personal life

Schuerholz was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, the son of John Schuerholz Sr., who played in the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

minor league system from 1937 to 1940. He is a graduate of the

Baltimore City College Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...

High School,

Towson University Towson University (TU or Towson) is a public university in Towson, Maryland. Founded in 1866 as Maryland's first training school for teachers, Towson University is a part of the University System of Maryland. Since its founding, the university h ...

and Loyola University. While at Towson, Schuerholz applied for officer candidate school and was rejected, as he was partially deaf. Before his career in baseball, Schuerholz was a teacher at North Point Junior High in Baltimore. Upon leaving his teaching job, he was drafted by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

to serve in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. After entering Major League Baseball with the Baltimore Orioles, Schuerholz joined the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 20 ...

. He donated $250,000 to Towson in 1999. This money was used to upgrade the school's baseball facility, which was named after Schuerholz. Schuerholz's son, Jonathan Schuerholz, was selected by Atlanta in the eighth round of the

2002 MLB draft The 2002 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft, was held on June 4 and 5. It is featured in Michael Lewis' 2003 book ''Moneyball''. First round selections Supplemental first round compensation selections * * ...

and played in the minor leagues until 2007. Jonathan retired from baseball in August 2007 to go back to

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest ...

to complete his business degree. The younger Schuerholz, who finished his six-year career in the minor leagues with a .223 batting average, was named manager of the

Rome Braves The Rome Braves are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They are located in Rome, Georgia, and play their home games at AdventHealth Stadium. From 2003 to 2020, the team serve ...

(Atlanta's Class-A minor league affiliate) in 2014. After the season, Jonathan was reassigned to the Braves front office to serve as an assistant player-development director.

Career

The Baltimore Orioles hired Schuerholz in 1966 as a result of a letter Schuerholz wrote to team owner

Jerold Hoffberger Jerold Charles Hoffberger (April 7, 1919 – April 9, 1999) was an American businessman. He was president of the National Brewing Company from 1946 to 1973. He was also part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles of the American League from 1954 to 1965 ...

. Schuerholz worked under Frank Cashen, Harry Dalton, and

Lou Gorman James Gerald "Lou" Gorman (February 18, 1929 – April 1, 2011) was an American baseball executive, and the former general manager of the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. He spent more than three decades in baseball op ...

. In 1969, Major League Baseball expanded to Kansas City. Gorman and Schuerholz left for the Royals. Schuerholz was named general manager of the Royals during the 1981 offseason, and became

's youngest general manager at the time. Schuerholz built a strong relationship with Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, but left the team as it began to struggle. He joined the Braves in 1990, succeeding Bobby Cox who returned to the dugout to manage the team. The duo of Schuerholz and Cox produced an unprecedented run of success for the franchise, highlighted by the 1995 World Series Championship. On October 11, 2007, Schuerholz resigned as the Atlanta Braves general manager, but was promoted to club president, replacing

Terry McGuirk Terry McGuirk is the chairman of Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves. Since graduating from Middlebury College in 1973, McGuirk has also been with Turner Broadcasting System, where he served as CEO from 1996 to 2001 and now serves as vice chairm ...

. Schuerholz's top assistant

Frank Wren Franklin E. Wren (born March 17, 1958) is an American front office executive in Major League Baseball. He began his baseball career as a minor league player for the Montreal Expos and later joined the team as an executive. Wren moved to the Florid ...

was named the general manager. When Schuerholz stepped down as club president in March 2016, his duties were split between Derek Schiller, as president of business, and Mike Plant, as president of development. Schuerholz has sent many assistants to general manager positions around the league, including Wren and Braves former GM

John Coppolella John Coppolella (born July 28, 1978) is a former American baseball front office executive who served as the general manager of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2015 through 2017. Coppolella resigned as general manager of the ...

. Dayton Moore, the Braves' former Director of Scouting and assistant GM under Schuerholz, has been GM of the

since 2006, when he replaced

Allard Baird Allard Baird (; born November 8, 1961) is an American professional baseball executive, most recently serving as the vice president and assistant general manager for scouting and player development for the New York Mets until November 6, 2020. Curr ...

. In 2006, Schuerholz published a book, ''Built To Win'', which chronicled his tenure with the Braves and some of his most important moves as a GM. Included in his book is a trade the Braves almost made with the Pirates in 1992. Had the deal gone through the Braves would have sent pitcher Alejandro Pena and outfielder

Keith Mitchell Keith Claudius Mitchell (born 12 November 1946) is a Grenadian politician who served as Prime Minister of Grenada from 1995 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2022. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Grenadian history, holding the office for more ...

to the Pirates in exchange for

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Gian ...

. On December 4, 2016, Schuerholz was elected to the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball ...

. He was formally inducted on July 30, 2017.

Awards and honors

In 2019, Schuerholz was named a Georgia Trustee by the

Georgia Historical Society The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and tau ...

, in conjunction with the Office of the

Governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legis ...

, to recognize accomplishments and community service that reflect the ideals of the founding body of

Trustees Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

, which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752.

References

External links

John Schuerholz analysis from RealGM
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schuerholz, John 1940 births Atlanta Braves executives Loyola University Maryland alumni Kansas City Royals executives Living people Major League Baseball executives Major League Baseball farm directors Major League Baseball general managers Major League Baseball team presidents National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees People from Atlanta Sportspeople from Baltimore Towson Tigers men's soccer players Towson Tigers baseball players Baltimore City College alumni United States Army reservists Association footballers not categorized by position Association football players not categorized by nationality