Jerry Gardner

Gerald Wickham Gardner

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.

• Born November 28, 1920 in Clifton, CO USA
• Died October 12, 2006 in Los Alamitos, CA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Jerry Gardner had a lifelong professional baseball career that spanned from the 1930's until his death at 85 in 2006. He played in the minors for at least fifteen years, managed in the minors, then went on to scout for over 35 years.

Jerry's first full year in baseball was 1939, when he played for the Albuquerque Cardinals. He hit .227 with 3 HR and 62 RBI. Returning to Albuquerque, he improved to .253 in 1940 with six homers and 79 RBI. In 1941, he briefly was with the Sacramento Solons and the Pocatello Cardinals (.225, 1 HR, 13 RBI) but spent most of the year with the Fresno Cardinals, hitting .207 with six homers and 54 RBI. He returned to Fresno in '42 and batted .222 with 2 HR and 20 RBI. He also made stops that year with the Decatur Commodores (.273, 0 RBI) and the Houston Buffaloes (.244, 5 RBI).

Gardner missed the 1943-1945 seasons, presumably due to World War II. He played less than 10 games in 1946 for the Miami Sun Sox.

In 1947, Gardner hit .258/~.331/.425 with the Anaheim Valencias, with a career-high 82 RBI. He batted .424 in brief action for the 1948 San Bernardino Valencias, but was primarily with the Wenatchee Chiefs, hitting .223 with 15 HR (tying his career-high, set in 1947) and driving in 53. He did not play much for the 1949 Tacoma Tigers, hitting .284 with 14 RBI.

Jerry was the player-manager of the 1950 Mayfield Clothiers and batted .281/~.431/.434. He scored 91 times in 105 games, drawing 87 walks and stealing 16 bases for the pennant-winners. In 1951, he hit .268 with 14 HR and 61 RBI for Mayfield.

In 1952, Gardner was player-manager of the Burlington-Graham Pirates. They finished last and he hit .195/~.301/.258 in 76 games in the field. He moved on to the 1953 Visalia Stars as player-manager for a middle-of-the-pack outfit. He batted .199/~.315/.316 that season.

During 1954, Jerry was on the Phoenix Stars and hit .286 with 12 HR and 58 RBI. In 1955, he batted .293 with one homer and 18 RBI for Phoenix. He hit .287 with 3 HR and 12 RBI for the Douglas Copper Kings in 1956 and also had his second brief stint in the Pacific Coast League, this time with the Hollywood Stars, going 1 for 7 with two walks and a strikeout. This was the end of his playing career.

He scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates, signing Barry Bonds, then moved on to the Atlanta Braves as West Coast scouting director and finished his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He was honored as Scout of the Year (1994, West Coast) by the Professional Baseball Scouts of America.

He was born in Colorado, but moved to Long Beach, CA at the age of two and lived there for the rest of his life.

Sources include Pat Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database, 1951, 1953 and 1954 Baseball Guides and DMB or SBS seasons designed by Stephen Davis and Tom O'Toole

Year-by-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
1947	Anaheim Valencias	Sunset League		2nd	none	League Champs	replaced Jack Rothrock
1948	Anaheim/San Bernardino Valencias	Sunset League		--	none		replaced by Claude "Bob" Williams June 25
1950	Mayfield Clothiers	KITTY League	73-45	1st	Pittsburgh Pirates	League Champs
1951	Mayfield Clothiers	KITTY League	66-53	3rd	Pittsburgh Pirates	Lost in 1st round
1952	Burlington-Graham Pirates	Carolina League	45-92	8th	Pittsburgh Pirates
1953	Visalia Stars	California League	67-73	5th	Hollywood Stars
1954	Phoenix Stars	Arizona-Texas League	93-47	1st	none	none League Champs
1955	Phoenix Stars	Arizona-Mexico League	80-59	3rd	Pittsburgh Pirates	none
1956	Douglas Copper Kings	Arizona-Mexico League	73-58	2nd	Pittsburgh Pirates