Ed Gerald

Edward Earl Gerald
(Eddie)

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 205 lb.
• High School St. Pauls (NC) High School

• Born July 18, 1970 in Lumberton, NC USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Ed Gerald played in the minor leagues from 1989 to 2005, reaching AA in affiliated ball, and then spending the final 11 seasons of his career in various independent leagues. He was a top high school player in St. Pauls, NC in the late 1980s, but stalled in minor league baseball. He is also known as Eddie Gerald.

Born and raised in North Carolina, he was drafted out of high school by the Kansas City Royals in the 3rd round of the 1989 amateur draft. He began his pro career that same year with the GCL Royals, batting .184 in 61 games, then improved only slightly in 1990 when he finished at .216 in 60 games split between the Gulf Coast League and the Appleton Foxes of the Midwest League. He then spent the next two seasons, 1991 and 1992, back in Appleton, hitting .244 in 101 games the first year and .248 in 123 games the second. He began to flash some power, with 7 homers in 1991 and 12 in 1992, after hitting only 2 over his first two seasons, but overall he was not developing as hoped for a high draft choice.

On February 22, 1993, he was involved in a high-profile major league trade as he accompanied IF Gregg Jefferies to the St. Louis Cardinals in return for OF Felix Jose and IF/OF Craig Wilson. However, his sole season in the Cardinals system was a big disappointment, as he hit just .199 without a single homer in 52 games for the St. Petersburg Cardinals of the Florida State League. The Cards let him go after the season and he signed with the Minnesota Twins. In spite of his checkered record thus far, he was promoted to the AA Nashville Xpress of the Southern League at the start of 1994, and responded with his best season by far, hitting .272 in 112 games with 13 homers and 52 RBIs. But just when it looked like he was a prospect again, he hit just .111 over his first six games with the Twins' new AA farm club in 1995, the Hardware City Rock Cats of the Eastern League, and was released.

He never played again in the affiliated minors after that, but his career was far from over. After being let go by the Twins, he signed with the Aberdeen Pheasants of the Prairie League, just as the independent leagues were starting to boom. He hit .352 in 67 games in that circuit, where he also played the next two seasons. In 1998, he moved up to the Northern League, a higher level indy league, joining the Sioux Falls Canaries, and would remain in that league until the end of the 2003 season, playing for five different teams including Sioux Falls. He never put up eye-popping numbers, but was a reliable hitter who could hit the occasional homer, with seasons of 15 and 17 homers over that span. In his final two professional seasons, in 2004 and 2005, he appeared for four different teams, including a couple of road teams - The Aces in the Northeast League in 2004 and The Grays in the Can-Am Association in 2005. He also hit .267 in 40 games for the Brockton Rox that final season, although it's not clear whether this was before or after toiling with the hapless Grays.

Overall, his pro career lasted 17 seasons and 1,323 games, during which he hit .263 with 179 homers and 769 RBIs.

In 2008, he was named as interim manager of the Shreveport Sports, replacing Terry Bevington who was fired for pulling his team off the field in a fit of anger, thereby incurring a forfeit. The team was in a tailspin as Gerald stepped in, having lost 7 straight, and went on to lose 23 of 27 games under their interim manager.

Year-By-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
2008	Shreveport Sports	American Association	4-23	10th	Independent Leagues		replaced Terry Bevington (22-45) on July 28