1952-1959
DICK GERNERT   1B

On September 28, 1928, Dick Gernert was born in Reading, PA. He excelled playing for Northeast Junior High School and later for Reading High School. He also played for the Gregg Post American Legion team in 1944 and 1945, which captured the Pennsylvania State Championship in 1944. He also lettered in football and basketball. Gernert’s overall athletic prowess was such that he won the John Smith Memorial Award as the school’s most outstanding athlete.

This ability earned Gernert an athletic scholarship to Temple University for basketball upon his graduation from high school in 1947. Measuring 6-feet-3 and weighing 210 pounds, Gernert played basketball, end on the football team, and baseball for Temple.

In the spring of 1948, at the end of his freshman year, his baseball ability took him north of the border to Nova Scotia, where he played for the Kentville Wildcats in the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League. The league was then a very strong semipro circuit. Gernert played two summers in the Annapolis Valley town of Kentville and became a local sports hero. 

It was in Nova Scotia, however, that Gernert began to convince many that he had a future in baseball. Although he was not yet 21, he hit a lofty .368 in his two summers in Nova Scotia. During his second summer, in 1949, his team enjoyed a wide margin atop the Central Division of the Nova Scotia League. Kentville went on to win the Central Division playoffs with Gernert hitting .421 in the series. The team then advanced to face Dartmouth, winner of the Halifax and District Division in the Nova Scotia semifinals.

He were asked to try out with the Boston Red Sox the following spring, and was signed to a contract by scout Charlie Wagner, Reading native and former Red Sox pitcher. He started the 1950 season with San Jose, a Red Sox farm team in the Class C California League. After about a month, he was moved up to Scranton in the Class A Eastern League, then for the last month of the minor-league season, he played for the Red Sox’ top farm team, Louisville of the Triple-A American Association. He batted a combined .284, playing first base and hitting eight home runs. Gernert spent all of 1951 with Scranton, where he batted .306 but still hadn’t developed as the power hitter he was expected to become, hitting just nine homers.

When the 1952 season began, manager Lou Boudreau began a “youth movement” bringing up a number of younger players. The 23-year-old Gernert debuted on April 16th. He played sporadically at first, playing in 102 games in his rookie season, sandwiched around 19 games in Louisville mostly in May, batting .243 but hit 19 home runs and drove in 67 runs. 

In 1953, Gernert was named as the starting first baseman for the Red Sox. He ended the season with 21 home runs, tied with Mickey Mantle for seventh in the league. His 88 walks ranked fourth and 82 strikeouts were placed him third. He drove in 71 runs while raising his batting average 10 points (.253) from his rookie season. 

As the 1954 season began, Gernert was celebrating the completion of his bachelor of education degree from Temple. He was also in a battle with a young Boston sports hero, Harry Agganis, for the first-base job. Despite getting on base 12 times in 30 plate appearances, and hitting .300, he just wasn’t getting playing time, so was sent to Louisville, where he continued to struggle, hitting just .161 in 20 games. He was reassigned on loan to Buffalo, the Detroit Tigers International League (AAA) affiliate, where he rebounded to hit .272 with 13 home runs.

When the 1955 season began, Gernert was suffering from the effects of hepatitis. He had lost over 40 pounds and now weighed just 165 pounds. He spent most of that season in Louisville regaining his strength. He ended up hitting .287 with 24 home runs, his career high, and 86 RBIs. He returned to the Red Sox late in the year and managed to get four hits in 20 at-bats. 

At the beginning of spring training in 1956, press reports speculated that as Gernert had used up his minor-league options, he would likely be traded. Within a couple of weeks, however, the press was changing its tune as he delivered some big hits in exhibition games. . He finished the 1956 season with a .291 batting average a .399 on-base percentage, 16 home runs, and 68 RBIs. 

This strong comeback led to him being the Red Sox 1957 Opening Day starter at first base. His season, however, was one of disappointment as his offensive numbers including batting average, power numbers, and on-base percentage all declined. Due to his offensive struggles, he was platooned at first base with Mickey Vernon.

When the 1958 season began, Gernert was once again involved in a struggle for a position. During spring training, manager Pinky Higgins was suggesting that the left-handed hitting Pete Runnels would alternate at first with the right-handed Gernert. Runnels started the season at first and played 42 games at that position before Higgins decided to move Runnels to second, where he played 106 games. Dick played 114 games at first base that year and was able to show that he was more than a one-dimensional player by leading American League first basemen in several defensive categories. He finished the season with 20 home runs and a somewhat lower 69 RBIs, still not up to the promise he’d shown back in 1953. 

The next season proved to be Gernert’s last one in Boston. Newcomer Vic Wertz, acquired from Cleveland in a trade for Jimmy Piersall, started the season at first base and, although the two shared duties throughout the year, by season’s end the Red Sox decided to bank on Wertz for the following year. On November 21, 1959, the Red Sox traded Gernert to the Chicago Cubs for first baseman Jim Marshall and pitcher Dave Hillman.

In 1960, playing for the woeful Cubs, Gernert appeared in just 52 games before being sold to the Detroit Tigers. In 1961, Gernert was traded by Detroit to Cincinnati. The 1961 Reds won 93 games, the National League pennant, and thus a berth in the World Series. Playing in a reserve role for the Reds, Gernert managed 63 at-bats in 40 games and a .302 batting average. 

During the offseason, the Reds made Gernert available in the expansion draft and he was chosen by the Houston Colt 45’s. But after just 10 games in 1962, he was released. He had five hits in 24 at-bats at the time of his release. For the rest of the season, he played with the Tacoma Giants of the Pacific Coast League, putting up very respectable offensive numbers including a batting average of .289 along with 20 homers. 

In 1963 and 1964, Gernert returned to his home town and played with the Reading Red Sox of the Eastern League.

Also in 1964, he began a new career as a junior high school physical education teacher, but by the April, he became involved with baseball again, accepting a position as a scout with the Cincinnati Reds. He held this position until 1969, when he managed the Wytheville Senators, Washington’s team in the rookie Appalachian League. 

During the offseason, the Senators announced that the 41-year-old Gernert would be promoted to take over as manager with the Pittsfield Senators in the Eastern League. This change of duties forced him to seek a leave of absence from his teaching duties at Reading Junior High School, where he also coached the basketball team and refereed. At the end of the season, he told Washington he would not be coming back, deciding instead to return to his teaching duties in the Reading public school system. 

He remained in this position until 1976, when the organization, now the Texas Rangers, hired him as a coach. He held this position until the end of that season, when the Texas organization offered him a new position as a “super scout” which included a raise in pay.

In 1976 the New York Mets hired Gernert as their new director of player personnel. He held this position for three years. He then worked from 1981 to 1985 as a scout and cross-checker for the Rangers. In 1986, he once again went to work with the Mets as an advance scout and held this position until 2000, when at the age of 72 he retired from an active, everyday role in professional baseball.

In 1994, Gernert was inducted into the Reading Baseball Hall of Fame. Gernert and his wife, Patricia, continued to live in Reading, PA until his death at the age of 89 on November 30, 2017.