1942, 1946

Andy Gilbert was born on July 18, 1914, in Bradenville, Pennsylvania and raduated from Derry Township High School. He played semipro ball in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in 1936. He started in professional baseball, signed by the Red Sox while playing in Jenkins, Kentucky in 1937.

Red Sox assigned Andy to their farm club at Canton in the Class-C Middle Atlantic League. In May, Canton sent him to Mansfield, Ohio, to get more experience at Class D in the Ohio State League. 

In 1938, he played for Danville in the Class-D Bi-State League and played for the Clarksdale Red Sox in the Class-C Cotton States League during 1939.

Class-B ball proved more of a challenge, when he played for the 1940 Rocky Mount Red Sox (Piedmont League). He missed five weeks during the course of the season due to back surgery, apparently caused by tripping over a sprinkler in the outfield.

He played for Scranton for most of 1941 and at the very end of the season, he appeared in five games for the Louisville Colonels. In 1942, he played 153 games with Louisville, both at first base and in the outfield

He had his major-league debut for the Red Sox in September 1942, in Chicago, as a late-inning replacement in center field. He played in six games in September.

Andy then he served in the Army, starting in 1943 at Fort Meade, then stationed at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis and in the Army Air Corps at Geiger Field, Spokane. He served in the Air Corps until his January 1946, discharge at Patterson Field.

In 1946, the Red Sox played him some at third base and in right field during spring training and he made the team out of spring training. The '46 Sox proved to be a juggernaut, boasting a 20-3 record, the day Andy was sent down to Louisville in May. He had appeared in two games, as a late-inning center field replacement in April and as a pinch-runner in May against the St. Louis Browns. He couldn’t have known it at the time, but they were his last two games in the major leagues. His record shows him with a career .083, with the one base hit and one RBI from 1942.

Louisville sent him to Toledo in December and he spent 1947 with Toledo and then Minneapolis, where he also played in 1948 and 1949. Minneapolis was in the New York Giants system, and Gilbert spent the next 30-plus years working in the Giants’ system. He managed Giants teams in Muskogee, Danville, Johnstown, and Muskogee again through 1957. The last time he appeared in more than one game as a player was 1955 in Danville. 

He had a lengthy stint from 1958 through 1965 managing the Springfield, Massachusetts, Giants. Springfield had won the pennant in 1959 and 1961 and Andy was voted manager of the year in 1961. Then it was Waterbury for 1966 and 1967, and Amarillo for 1968 through 1971, with first-place finishes in ’69 and ’71.

In 1972, he returned to the major leagues as a coach for the San Francisco Giants, the first two years in the bullpen and the second two years as bench coach.

Back to minor-league work with Fresno, and then two-year stints in succession with Waterbury again, Shreveport, and Savannah. After the 1982 campaign with Savannah, the 67-year-old left managing.

Andy had made his permanent home in Derry, Pennsylvania after leaving baseball. He took a position as assistant coach at St. Vincent College, and was active with the Latrobe Little League. 

Andy Gilbert had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and passed away after a massive pulmonary thrombosis and acute respiratory failure, on August 29, 1992, at age 78.