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American baseball player and manager (1917–2001)

Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "the Good Kid", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a shortstop on the Cleveland Indians, and managed four teams for 15 seasons including 10 seasons as a player manager. He was also a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs and in college was a dual sport athlete in baseball and basketball, earning All American honors in basketball for the University of Illinois. Boudreau was an All Star for seven seasons. In 1948, Boudreau won the American League Most Valuable Player Award and managed the Cleveland Indians to the World Series title. He won the 1944 American League (AL) batting title (.327), and led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947. He led AL shortstops in fielding eight times. Boudreau still holds the MLB record for hitting the most consecutive doubles in a game (four), set on July 14, 1946. In 1970, Boudreau was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and his No. 5 was retired by the Indians that same year.

Boudreau was born in Harvey, Illinois, the son of Birdie (Henry) and Louis Boudreau. His father was of French Canadian ancestry, his mother was Jewish, and both of his maternal grandparents were observant Orthodox Jews with whom when he was young he celebrated Passover seders. He was raised Catholic by his father after his parents divorced. He graduated from Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, where he led the "Flying Clouds" to three straight Illinois high school championship games, winning in 1933 and finishing as runner up in 1934 and 1935.

Boudreau is credited with inventing the infield shift, which came to be known colloquially as the "Boudreau shift." Because slugging Red Sox superstar Ted Williams was a dead pull hitter, he moved most of his Cleveland Indian fielders to the right of second base against the Splendid Splinter, leaving only the third baseman and left fielder to the left of second but also very close to second base, far to the right of their normal positions. With characteristic stubborn pride, Williams refused the obvious advice from teammates to hit or bunt to left against the Boudreau shift, but great hitter that he was, not changing his approach against the shift didn't affect his hitting very much. Boudreau later admitted that the shift was more about "psyching out" Williams rather than playing him to pull. "I always considered the Boudreau shift a psychological, rather than a tactical" ploy, he declared in his autobiography Player Manager.

Boudreau did play by play for Cub games in 1958–59 before switching roles with manager "Jolly Cholly" Charlie Grimm in 1960. But after only one season as Cubs manager, Boudreau returned to the radio booth and remained there until 1987. He also did radio play by play for the Chicago Bulls in 1966–1968 and worked on Chicago Blackhawks games for WGN radio and television as well. The presence of a Hall of Fame announcer affected at least one game. On June 23, 1976, the Cubs were two runs behind at home in the fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates at home when the umpires called the game on account of darkness (since there were no lights at Wrigley Field until 1988), announcing that the game would be resumed at the same point the next day as was normally the case in those days. But Boudreau knew the rules better than anyone else in the park, it turned out, for he went down quickly to the clubhouse and pointed out to the umpires that a game that was not yet an official game could not be treated as a suspended game (i. e., it had not gone five innings, or four and a half with the home team leading, as neither was the case), and as such had to be replayed from the first pitch (as was then the rule in a rain out). The umpires called the National League office, found Boudreau was correct, and removed the two run Cubs deficit.

Boudreau was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970 with 77.33% of the vote. That same year, his uniform number 5 was retired by the Cleveland Indians (he wore number 4 with the Red Sox). In 1973, the city of Cleveland renamed a street bordering Cleveland Municipal Stadium after Boudreau. In 1992, Boudreau's number 5 jersey was retired by the Illinois Fighting Illini baseball program. Boudreau is only one of three Illinois Fighting Illini athletes to have their number retired; the other two athletes being Illinois Fighting Illini football players Red Grange and Dick Butkus.

Boudreau married Della DeRuiter in 1938, and together they had four children. His daughter Sharyn married Denny McLain, a former star pitcher with the Detroit Tigers who was the last 30 game winner in the major leagues (31–6 for the world champion 1968 Detroit Tigers). Boudreau had a home in Frankfort, Illinois, for many years. He died on August 10, 2001, due to cardiac arrest at St. James Medical Center in Olympia Fields, Illinois. He was 84. He received a Catholic funeral and his body was interred in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.