Johnny Reder

John Anthony Reder

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 184 lb.
• High School Durfee High School
• Debut April 16, 1932
• Final Game June 12, 1932
• Born September 24, 1909 in Lublin, Poland
• Died April 12, 1990 in Fall River, MA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Johnny Reder was a first baseman/pitcher six years (1932-1937) - six in the minors and a cup of coffee in the majors. Reder was born on September 24, 1909, in Lublin, Poland. Signed as an amateur free agent, he was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 16, 1932, with the Boston Red Sox. He had 5 hits, 4 runs, 1 double, 3 RBI, 6 walks and 6 strikeouts at (.135/.256/.162) in 17 games and played his final MLB game on June 12th of that year at age 22.

He went to the minors with the Hazleton Mountaineers in the New York-Pennsylvania League (NYP) (1932), the Reading Red Sox (NYP) (1933-1934), Williamsport Grays (NYP) (1935), the Syracuse Stars in the International League (1936-1937) and Williamsport (1937). He moved to the outlaw Quebec Provincial League, playing for the Sherbrooke Braves in 1938 and 1939. He was 6-5 on the mound and hit .318 in 44 at bats in 1938, but slipped to a 3-8 record and a .233 batting average in 1939. Reder was a World War II veteran (BN).

In 1935, his best year in the minors, he had 0 home runs and 40 RBI at .318 and was 8-8 with an ERA of 4.24 as a pitcher. Overall in the minors, he had 4 home runs and 152 RBI and was 33-31 as a pitcher. He died at age 80 in Fall River, MA from arteriosclerotic heart disease on April 12, 1990 and is buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery, in Fall River.

He also played professional soccer with the New York Marksmen (1929-30) and the New York Yankees, who were also called the New Bedford Whalers (1931).

Sources

Principal sources for Johnny Reder include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) and The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Johnny Reder at the SABR Bio Project
• Johnny Reder at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)