Don Himsl had plenty of conversations with his father while growing up, but not many that revolved around baseball or Vedie Himsl's considerable accomplishments in the game.
"If I had questions, he'd answer them," his son recalled. "But he didn't talk about it much at all. He was a really quiet person who didn't talk very much about himself in any way. He was never one to toot his own horn."
Himsl's modesty notwithstanding, the 1938 Saint John's University graduate certainly had plenty to trumpet – beginning back in the small town of Plevna, Mont., where he was raised as the fourth of six children.
According to
an online article on the Society for American Baseball Research website, his father Victor owned the town's lumber yard, implement dealership and bank, as well as representing the area in the state legislature.
Vedie (real name Avitus) made a name for himself playing for the local town team, as well as in high school athletics where he was a four-year letterwinner in football and basketball – leading the basketball team to 23 consecutive home victories beginning in 1931.
"As a sophomore forward for the Cossacks, after a road trip through snowdrifts that took three hours to travel the 18 miles, Vedie scored 19 of Plevna's 39 points in the first half against Ismay," the SABR article states.
All that was just a prelude to what he would achieve during his time at SJU. After arriving on campus in the fall of 1934, Himsl went on to star in basketball (
front row, first on left) and baseball – earning All-MIAC honors and serving as team captain in both sports.
It was on the diamond where he really excelled, leading the Johnnies to back-to-back MIAC titles in 1936 and '37 (he did not play as a senior in 1938 after signing a pro contract).
As a junior, he batted over .500 and dominated on the mound, striking out 20 batters and allowing just four hits in nine innings of work in a 12-0 victory over Augsburg in Collegeville – still a single-game school strikeout record.
"The tall Johnny right-hander issued only two walks and was never in trouble," reported
The Record, the SJU student newspaper, which ran an accompanying editorial cartoon depicting Himsl's mastery of opposing batters.
At Saint John's, Himsl also met classmates who became his friends for life. That group included future U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, a senior standout during Himsl's freshman season in 1935.
"He loved Saint John's," said Himsl's son Don, a 1981 SJU graduate. "It was a very important time in his life and he looked back on it fondly. When I was going there, he came up a couple of times to visit and hang out with the guys he knew. He always enjoyed being back there."
The support Himsl enjoyed on campus continued even after he signed with the Cleveland Indians organization and was playing for the St. Paul Saints (
second row, third from left) of the American Association. He spent four seasons with the Saints (1939-42) and compiled a 51-52 pitching record.
During his first season with the club, around 400 fans from Central Minnesota boarded trains to the Twin Cities to be on hand for "Vedie Himsl Day." They saw their favorite player throw a four-hitter and belt a home run as the Saints beat the Toledo Mud Hens, 4-1.
But his career was halted by military service in the Navy during World War II and he never reached the big leagues – at least not as a player.
Himsl spent the 1950s as a minor league coach and scout in the Chicago Cubs organization. He was promoted to the parent club in 1960, serving as a coach the next four seasons. That's how he came to play a key part in one of the more unique experiments in Major League Baseball history.
During the 1961 season, Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley elected to replace the role of a traditional manager with what became known as a "College of Coaches." Under the system, a platoon of coaches alternated through the organization, including serving fixed time periods as "head coach" of the big league club.
Himsl was first up in the rotation, going 5-6 over the Cubs' first 11 games before departing to manage the Triple-A team in Wenatchee, Washington. He returned on May 12 and lasted another 18 games before ceding the reins again.
"It was something new," Himsl told
the Chicago Tribune for a feature story in 1991. "I don't know why people thought it wouldn't work. They were crucifying it from the beginning.
''From a won-loss standpoint, it didn't work. But I don't know if that's a true criterion. When you look back, the club didn't do any worse or any better the years before the experiment and in the years after that.''
The experience certainly didn't hurt Himsl's standing in the organization. He continued on with the Cubs for more than two decades, retiring in 1985 as director of scouting. He continued to work for the organization off and on during the years that followed.
"A lot of our summer vacations were spent on the road," Don Himsl recalled, "going to minor league games all over the country. I really enjoyed being out there with him."
Himsl died in March of 2004, just 18 days shy of his 87th birthday. His son said the traits that made him successful never ebbed.
"My Dad was a hard-worker in everything he did, from his days as a player through the end of his life," Don said. "He was competitive, but he was a sportsman. He was the kind of guy who would compete very hard all the way, then congratulate whomever the winner might be.
"He just had a fantastic work ethic."
