Former Cardinals player and manager Solly Hemus, the last big-league manager alive who had managed in the 1950s and the last Cardinals player-manager in 1959, died at age 94 on Monday in Houston. He had been in ill health.
Solomon Joseph Hemus, a 5-foot-9, hard-nosed infielder, had a lifetime batting mark of .273 in an 11-season career with the Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies from 1949-59.
After he was traded to the Phillies in May 1956, Hemus wrote a letter to Cardinals owner Gussie Busch saying how proud he had been to be a Cardinal. After the 1958 season, Busch re-acquired Hemus and named him player/manager.