Player Hemus batted left-handed and threw right-handed; he stood tall, weighing . When he was traded to the Phillies in May , Hemus wrote a letter to Cardinals owner
Gussie Busch, expressing his pride in being a Cardinal and his gratitude to the baseball club. Nearing the end of his playing career, he was reacquired by the Cardinals on September 29, 1958 — one day after the regular season ended — and named St. Louis'
player-manager by Busch, who admired Hemus' fiery personality and remembered his letter from years before. Hemus took over the Cardinals in time to lead them on an October 1958 "good will" tour of
Hawaii and
Japan. As a player in , Hemus appeared in 24 games — mostly as a
pinch-hitter — before concentrating on his managerial responsibilities. His Cardinals were inconsistent. Hemus' first club lost 15 of its first 20 games and stumbled to a seventh place (71–83) finish in 1959. That was followed by a 15-game improvement (86–68) and a leap to third place in his second season (). His career managing record was 190–192 (.497). He managed the Mets' top
farm club, the
Jacksonville Suns of the
Triple-A International League, in , before leaving baseball and entering the oil business in his adopted home city of
Houston, Texas. During his tenure in Philadelphia, Hemus made history when he was removed for
pinch runner John Kennedy at
Roosevelt Stadium in
Jersey City, New Jersey, during a league game against the
Brooklyn Dodgers on April 22, 1957. It marked the Major League debut of Kennedy, the first
African-American player in the Phillies' history. In 2011, Hall-of-Famer
Bob Gibson indicated that racial prejudice on Hemus' part had intruded on his later role as the Cards' manager when Hemus disparaged both Gibson and teammate
Curt Flood by telling them they were not good enough to make it as Major Leaguers and should try something else. Hemus' replacement, Keane, was a Gibson supporter who had managed the pitcher in the minor leagues. ==Death==