Batting average .237 Role Baseball player Name Jerry McNertney | Runs batted in 163 Home runs 20 | |
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Gerald Edward McNertney (born August 7, 1936 in Boone, Iowa) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher. He stood 6'1" (185 cm) and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg) in his playing days.
Career
McNertney signed with the Chicago White Sox in 1958 after attending Gilbert High School and Iowa State University. During his first three seasons in minor league baseball, he was a first baseman and outfielder and converted to catcher in his fourth professional season, 1961, while playing for the Charleston White Sox of the Class A South Atlantic League. Despite his late conversion, McNertney developed into a good defensive catcher and made his major league debut at 27 with the White Sox in 1964. He played in 1964 and from 1966 to 1973 for the White Sox, Seattle Pilots, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Pittsburgh Pirates. During his nine-year Major League career, he hit .237, 27 home runs, and 163 runs batted in. McNertney was the regular catcher for the Pilots in 1969—the only year the franchise played in the Pacific Northwest—where he reached career highs in at bats (410), home runs (8) and runs batted in (55). He was the last player to bat in Seattle Pilot history, striking out for the final out of the team's final game on October 2. [1]
After his playing career ended, McNertney was the bullpen coach for the New York Yankees in 1984 and for the Boston Red Sox during the latter half of the 1988 season, after coaching in the Yankees' farm system during the early 1980s.