Former MSU Coach Voted Into Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame
Former longtime Michigan State baseball coach Danny Litwhiler will be one of two inductees into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame later this summer, it was announced on Wednesday.
Litwhiler coached the Spartans from 1964-1982, winning nearly 500 games and taking the Spartans to the NCAA Baseball Tournament three times during his tenure.
Coach Litwhiler pioneered the infield drying agent "Diamond Grit" or "Diamond Dry" as it's sometimes called during his time coaching. He also invented the Jugs radar gun to measure the speed of pitches being thrown.
Before coming to East Lansing, Litwhiler was the head coach at Florida State University. Where he led the Seminoles to three College World Series appearances.
And he played in parts of 12 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Braves, and the Cincinnati Reds from 1940-1951. And he was part of the Cardinals World Series-winning team of 1944, where they beat the cross-town St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) in six games.
Litwhiler will join former Western Michigan University head coach Fred Decker in the Michigan Baseball HOF this summer. Decker coached the Broncos from 1976-2004, winning nearly 800 games in 29 years in Kalamazoo. He led the Broncos to the Mid-American Conference title in 1989 and the school's first berth in the NCAA Tournament since 1967.
Decker, a WMU alum, also played on the last Bronco team to make the College World Series. That occurred in 1963.
Induction ceremonies will be on July 7th at Jackson Field in Lansing before the Lansing Lugnuts game against the Lake County Captains.