A conversation with George Warren “Barney” Schultz is punctuated by the congenial 88-year-old’s easy laughter and warm smiles. After just a few minutes, it’s clear the retired Major League Baseball pitcher has lived a fulfilling life.
Fulfilling, however, does not mean it was always easy.
Taking the pitching mound as a St. Louis Cardinal four times to face the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series, for instance, was probably a bit nerve-wracking. Deciding to leave the Chicago Cubs franchise to take a coaching job in Japan was most likely a tough decision.
But for Barney, those types of things do not rank as too difficult.
The hardest time, Barney said, is right now, simply because he’s apart from his wife of 60 years. Frances Schultz was admitted to the hospital at the end of December and is now recuperating at a rehabilitation facility.
“I feel lost without her,” Barney said, explaining that his visits are limited since he is confined to a wheelchair. “Right now is the hardest part of my life.”
The Schultzes will be celebrating 61 years of marriage on Friday, Feb. 20. Now residents of Brightview Senior Living, their story begins not far from the Mt. Laurel assisted living community, when Barney went with some friends to a Sunday dance in 1951.
It was Frances’ looks that first caught Barney’s attention, he said with a grin, and he sent a friend to meet her and see if she could cut up the dance floor. She must have measured up, because Barney ended up giving Frances and her girlfriend a ride home that night, and they were together from there on out.
Marriage proposals are often elaborate affairs, but sometimes a simple proposal is bursting with romance just the same. Such is the case with the Schultzes.
“I said to her one day, ‘If you marry me, I’ll marry you,’” Barney said with a smile. “She was ready. I was ready.”
The couple married on Feb. 20, 1954, although they made up their mind awhile beforehand. Barney’s baseball schedule was difficult, he said, and it pushed back the wedding date.
Barney was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies straight out of high school in ’44, spending many years in the minors before playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers in the majors. After his 1966 retirement, he coached until 1982.
Frances was a baseball fan long before she met Barney, making their relationship that much more of a perfect match for the New Jersey natives.
“She still can’t wait for baseball season to come around,” Barney said.
Once married, the Schultzes settled in Edgewater Park. They had one daughter and two sons, and their family has since expanded to include six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
“And they are all beautiful children,” Barney said. “We’re very lucky.”
Once school let out for the summer, Frances would pack up the children and they would join Barney wherever he was playing ball.
“They lived all over the country. They went to the baseball games,” Barney said. “I always had a home for them wherever I was playing.”
Being away from his family for much of the year was not an easy task, but Barney said his marriage didn’t suffer. There’s no big secret to reaching a milestone 61 years of marriage; you just need to be fair, Barney said.
“It’s 50/50. You give in to her, and she gives in to you,” he said. “You’re going to have your differences, but when you go to bed at night and kiss goodnight, that’s all forgotten.”
With a shining World Series ring on his finger and impressive baseball memorabilia on the walls of his room — hung up by his children’s insistence — it’s clear Barney is proud of his days on the pitching mound.
But when he talks about Frances, it’s clear his marriage and family is his №1 source of pride.
“Everything is a favorite memory — the whole 60 years,” Barney said. “It’s been a wonderful life.”
