A Tribute to Danny Litwhiler

By Jim Joanos

Danny Litwhiler

Daniel Webster 'Danny' Litwhiler passed away in September. Litwhiler was Florida State's head baseball coach from 1955 to 1963. It was during that time period that FSU first became a baseball powerhouse when they first qualified for National Collegiate Athletic Association's post season competition and went to their first three College World Series.

Litwhiler, was born in Ringtown, Pennsylvania, in 1916. While in college at Bloomsburg State Teacher's College (now named Bloomsburg University) in 1934, he began to play professional minor league baseball during summers. After obtaining his college degree, he began high school teaching during the school year and continued playing baseball during the summers. Despite a serious knee injury he made it to the major leagues, first with the Philadelphia Phillies. When World War II began Litwhiler tried to enter military service but was turned down because of the bad knee. Consequently, he was able to continue playing for the Phillies. In 1942, he made the National League All-Star team. In 1942 season Litwhiler became the first major league baseball player to play every game of an entire season without making a single error.

In 1943, Litwhiler was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals where he played in left field in an outfield in which Stan Musial played in right field. With Litwhiler in the outfield, the Cardinals made it to consecutive World Series in 1943 and 44, winning the latter one. Litwhiler was allowed to enter the Army where he served until the war's end.

After the war, Litwhiler was discharged from the Army and went back to major league baseball and continued to play until 1951, first with the St. Louis Cardinals, then the Boston Braves, and finally the Cincinnati Reds. Finally his injuries caught up with him and he retired from the major leagues. Thereafter, he turned to managing minor league teams, which he did until he got the FSU head coach's job.

When Litwhiler came to Tallahassee in 1955, the baseball job at FSU was not what it is today. There were no assistant baseball coaches on the payroll. The pay was low and the facilities were primitive. All travel was done by bus. They took sandwiches to eat on the way.

While at FSU, he became well known in the baseball world as an innovator. He sought better ways to improve baseball programs. Among his creations at FSU, he developed a substance that included Fuller's earth which he called "diamond dust" which was very effective in drying and restoring baseballs on rainy days. He also developed another Fuller's earth substance that he called "diamond grit" which could be spread over wet spots in the infield and cause them to dry quickly so as to avoid game delays and postponements. For pitchers, Litwhiler developed a large unbreakable mirror whereby they could see themselves pitch and improve their form and style of pitching. Along with one of his students and team members, Ron Fraser, he developed a bat that would assist in learning to bunt. To assist his infielders, Litwhiler took a catcher's mitt and added stuffing to it so that it had a flat pocket. Because of the flat surface, balls hit to an infielder would bounce off the glove so that the infielder would be taught to "stay with it and still make the play" despite not being able to initially field the ball cleanly.

Five members of Litwhiler's first team at FSU (1955) would later be inducted into FSU's Sports Hall of Fame. They included Fraser, Dick Howser, Lee Corso (also football), Tony Avitable, and Ham Wernke (also basketball).

Beginning with the 1956 season, seven of the last eight of Litwhiler's FSU teams played in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's post season play going to the District Three Playoffs on each of those occasions. On three occasions, 1957, 1962, and 1963 the FSU team won the District Championship and competed in the College World Series. Four of Litwhiler's players became the first FSU first-team baseball All-Americans. They were Howser, Buddy Teagle, Mike Augustine, Ken Suarez and Woody Woodward. Howser, Suarez, and Woodward became FSU's first major league baseball players. When Litwhiler left FSU after the 1963 College World Series, FSU's baseball program was among the country's elite. Thanks to the outstanding coaches and players who followed, the program has retained that status to this day.

Litwhiler continued his innovations after he left FSU. While coaching at Michigan State, he developed the "JUGS GUN" which today is used throughout baseball to measure the speed of pitched baseballs. Also while at Michigan State he developed a "heavy ball system" to help players throw the ball faster. After seventeen years at Michigan State, he retired from college coaching but did not give up baseball or his innovations. As a consultant and batting coach in the Cincinnati Reds minor league farm system, he developed a device to help young batters learn to keep both hands on the bat while at the plate. He also created something he called the "Lit-Picker" for collecting and picking up scattered baseballs following practices to speed things up.

Litwhiler spent the last seventeen or so years, retired, in Trinity, a town in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. On occasion, he taught a course on the history of baseball at nearby Eckerd College. He made frequent trips to Tallahassee for athletic events and reunions. He will be greatly missed by the FSU sports community.