Elmer Schoendienst

Elmer Henry Schoendienst

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 165 lb.

• Born September 22, 1925 in Germantown, IL USA
• Died November 18, 2001 in St. Louis, MO USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Infielder Elmer Schoendienst was part of a large baseball family. He was the younger brother of Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst; two other brothers, Joseph Schoendienst and Julius Schoendienst played minor league baseball, while cousin Paul Schoendienst, played and managed in the minors, and Red's son, Kevin Schoendienst, also played in the minors.

Elmer's career ran from 1946 to 1949. He was in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, like Red, his first three seasons, starting off with the Albany Cardinals of the Georgia-Florida League in both 1946 and 1947. He hit .205 in 99 games the first year and improved to .254 in 133 games the second. He did not hit a homer in either season, but had decent doubles power, with 17 and 26 respectively.

In 1948, he was assigned to the Duluth Dukes. On July 24th, the team was struck by tragedy when the team bus, driven by player/manager Red Treadwell, crashed into a truck near St. Paul, MN while driving from Eau Claire, WI to St. Cloud, MN. Both drivers were killed, as were four other players including Gerald Peterson, while 13 players were injured including Elmer and future major leaguer Mel McGaha. Elmer was credited with pulling injured teammate Don Vanderwier from the burning bus, saving his life. Elmer was having a great year with Duluth, batting .327 in 68 games, with his first 2 professional homers. When he returned to action later in the season, it was with the Allentown Cardinals of the Interstate League, for whom he hit .184 in 27 games.

He played one more season, in 1949, with the Muskegon Clippers of the Central League, who were a Chicago White Sox affiliate, after having been drafted in the minor league phase of the 1948 Rule V Draft. He hit .240 in 129 games, with 3 homers and 49 RBIs, and while this was with a Class A team - the highest classification at which he had played thus far - he did not play professionally after that season.

Further Reading

• Dave LeMieux: "Lookback: Muskegon's own baseball Golden Age", Muskegon Chronicle, April 9, 2012. [1]