Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, on the other end of the telephone, paused and said, softly, “Oh, man, gee,” when told of the death of former Cardinals teammate Joe Garagiola at age 90. “He and I were about the only ones left from that 1946 World Series team,” Schoendienst said.
Now, it is Schoendienst, 93 and in good health, after the death of Garagiola in Phoenix on Wednesday afternoon. Garagiola had been in poor health for at least several months.
Schoendienst and Garagiola were teammates from 1946-1951 before Garagiola was traded to Pittsburgh, but Schoendienst recalled a morning in 1942 when Schoendienst, from Germantown, Ill.