JUPITER, Fla. • Third-base coach Jose Oquendo, on the Cardinals’ big-league staff since 1999, has been in a St. Louis spring training camp every year since 1985. “But I’m not close to Red Schoendienst yet,” he said.
Then again, no one else is close to the Hall of Famer, who attended his first Cardinals camp as a big-league player in 1945 and who will be on hand again this year starting Tuesday.
“They’ve got a tradition that they always keep one of those old-timer coaches,” said the 52-year-old Oquendo.
For a long time, there was George Kissell, former coach and player development guru, who is the father of the Cardinal Way to play baseball.