Charles Dallan Maxvill (born February 18, 1939) is an American former

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

, 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 league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(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). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

winners and seven league champions.

Early life

A native of the

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

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 United States census, 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and S ...

, Maxvill played baseball in high school, then attended the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis where he earned a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and played for

Washington University Bears The Washington University Bears are the athletic teams of Washington University in St. Louis, located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Washington University is currently a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the NCAA Di ...

. 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 * Janu ...

with the hometown St. Louis Cardinals.

Playing career

Maxvill appeared in 1,423 regular-season games for the Cardinals (1962–72),

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

(1972–73; 1974–75) and

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

(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. Defensively, Maxvill recorded a .973

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

at shortstop in 1,203 games and .984 fielding percentage at second base in 193 games. In the postseason, he committed no errors in 101 total chances (46 putouts, 55 assists) for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. Maxvill's best season with the bat was

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

with the Cardinals. He set career highs in batting average (.253),

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

(.329), and

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

(.298). He also received his only

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

award votes (finishing in twentieth place) and won his only Gold Glove. In that year's

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

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

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 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

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

The Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' Baseball Record, 2007, p. 19) After batting .221 in 105 games during the first months of the campaign, he was acquired by the

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 Baseball scorekeep ...

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 catc ...

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

Coaching and executive career

In November 1975, Maxvill officially retired from playing baseball. His first coaching job came from Joe Torre who hired him to work as the third base coach for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

in 1978. After the 1978 season, Maxvill resigned to be closer to his St. Louis home and the Cardinals hired him as a coach for the 1979 and 1980 seasons. In 1981, Maxvill worked as a minor league instructor for the Cardinals when new manager Whitey Herzog brought in his own coaches. Torre hired Maxvill again in 1982 when Torre took over the Atlanta Braves. Maxvill worked with Atlanta through the 1984 season. In January 1985, the St. Louis Cardinals came to Maxvill again, this time to serve as general manager over Whitey Herzog. The 1987 season was the last time one of Maxvill's teams made the playoffs. The Cardinals finished above .500 in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, and

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, but their best finish was 2nd place. 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 organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

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 b ...

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 Septem ...

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. 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 20th-century American sportsmen Atlanta Braves coaches Gold Glove Award winners Jacksonville Suns players Living people Major League Baseball general managers Major League Baseball shortstops Major League Baseball third base coaches McKelvey School of Engineering alumni New York Mets coaches Oakland Athletics coaches Oakland Athletics players Sportspeople from Granite City, Illinois Baseball players from Madison County, Illinois Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals coaches St. Louis Cardinals executives St. Louis Cardinals players Washington University Bears baseball players