[4] In 1939, at age 16, he dropped out of school to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, a major public works employment program within President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

This strong start earned him a promotion to the double-A International League's (IL) Rochester Red Wings, where he batted .337 in 136 games with 21 doubles, six home runs (HR) and 20 stolen bases (SB).

His .337 average was the league's best; he won the IL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and gained visibility as a top prospect.

He was drafted mid-season into the U.S. Army,[5][7] but received a medical discharge on January 1, 1945, due to his eye injury and sustained trauma incurred while shooting bazookas.

but as the Cardinals had Marty Marion, who had won the National League's (NL) MVP Award in 1944, as their shortstop, St. Louis assigned Schoendienst to be their left fielder.

With sure hands and quick reflexes, he led the National League's second basemen for seven seasons and handled 320 consecutive chances without an error in 1950.

In that season's All-Star Game, he won the contest for the National League with a home run in the top of the 14th inning.

[9] In a trade that was extremely unpopular with Cardinals fans and his best friend Stan Musial, Schoendienst, along with Jackie Brandt, Bill Sarni, Dick Littlefield and Bobby Stephenson, was sent to the New York Giants for Alvin Dark, Whitey Lockman, Ray Katt and Don Liddle on June 14, 1956.

[10][11] The following season, the Giants traded Schoendienst to the Milwaukee Braves for Bobby Thomson, Ray Crone, and Danny O'Connell.

His defensive statistics as a second baseman included 4,616 putouts, 5,243 assists, 1,368 double plays, and 170 errors in 10,029 total chances for a .983 fielding average.

The Cardinals repeated as champions of the National League in 1968 (the last year without divisions), but the Detroit Tigers beat them in seven games to win the World Series.

For the rest of Schoendienst's tenure of managing a team now entrenched in the National League East, the Cardinals won ninety games just once (1971) and did not reach the postseason again, although they finished second three times in a four-year span (1971-1974).

At the time of his death, Schoendienst lived in Town and Country, Missouri, a western suburb of St. Louis,[27] and had served 67 of his 76 years in baseball with the Cardinals.

[28] In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Schoendienst as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army during World War II.