Richard Leo "Rich" Gedman (born
September 26,
1959) is a
former
Major League Baseball
catcher and left-handed batter who played
with the
Boston Red Sox (1980-90),
Houston Astros (1990-91) and
St. Louis Cardinals (1991-92).
Career
Amateur and minor leagues
A native
of Worcester,
Massachusetts
, Gedman played first
base and pitched at Saint
Peter-Marian High School
and for the Grafton Hill (Worcester) American
Legion program. Not classically athletic, he went undrafted
in the
1977 Major
League Baseball Draft, and was signed as a free agent by the
Red Sox. He was sent to the Instructional League to learn to play
catcher, and progressed steadily up through the Red Sox
minor leagues system. Highlights of
his minor league career included catching the first nine innings of
the
longest game in
the history of professional baseball, a 33 inning affair
between Gedman's
Pawtucket Red Sox
and the
Rochester Red
Wings.
Major leagues
Gedman made his debut for the Sox in September 1980,
pinch-hitting for
Carl Yastrzemski. In 1981, regular Sox
catcher
Carlton Fisk was granted
free-agency and signed with the
Chicago White Sox, leaving the catcher
position open. Gedman shared catching duties with
Gary Allenson, and played well enough to be
named
The
Sporting News Rookie of the Year.
Following a poor 1982, Gedman's hitting improved the next two
seasons under the instruction of Red Sox
hitting coach Walt
Hriniak. He hit a career high 24
home
runs in 1984 and followed with career highs in
batting average (.295) and
RBI (80) in 1985 while throwing out nearly
half of potential
base stealers. In that
season, he became the 16th Red Sox player and only the 6th catcher
since 1900 to
hit for the
cycle.
1986 saw three of the highlights of Gedman's career. On April 29,
he set the
American League record
for
putouts by a catcher with 20, as
Roger Clemens set the major league record for
strikeouts in a nine-innings game against the
Seattle Mariners. On April 30, he had 16
putouts for a total of 36 in two days, which is the most for a
catcher in two consecutive games. Gedman was also selected to the
All-Star Game
that year, to go with his appearance in the 1985 game. But the peak
of his career coincided with one of its lows in the
1986 World Series. In the bottom of the
tenth inning of Game 6, with the Sox leading by one run with two
outs,
Kevin
Mitchell on
third and
Mookie Wilson at bat,
reliever Bob
Stanley threw a pitch that Gedman failed to handle. It was
scored as a
wild pitch, but many
considered it a Gedman
passed ball.
Mitchell came in to score, tying the game. Then, Wilson hit a ball
that went through
first baseman
Bill Buckner's legs to win the game for
the Mets. The Sox went on to lose the deciding game, and the
series.
On January 8, 1987, ten free agents (
Tim
Raines,
Lance Parrish,
Bob Horner,
Andre
Dawson,
Rich Gedman,
Ron
Guidry,
Bob Boone,
Doyle Alexander,
Toby
Harrah and
Gary Roenicke) failed
to meet a midnight deadline and thus were not allowed to re-sign
with their former clubs until May 1 if they were not offered
contracts by new teams. The general lack of interest in the players
became the focus of the Players' Association's first anti-collusion
suit against the owners.
A litany of injuries, holdouts, and inconsistency thereafter
contributed to the waning of Gedman's skills, both offensive and
defensive. In 1989,
Rick Cerone replaced
him as the regular Boston catcher. In 1990, he served as back-up
catcher to
Tony Peña, who was
acquired by the Red Sox during the offseason. In June 7, he was
traded to Houston for a player to be named later.
Gedman was not re-signed by the Astros, and in 1991 he signed with
the Cardinals to back up
Tom Pagnozzi.
After spending
spring training of
1993 with the
Oakland Athletics,
he signed a minor-league contract with the
Yankees, playing the season with their
Triple-A club, the
Columbus
Clippers. When he failed to make a major league roster in 1994,
he retired at age 34.
In his career, Gedman
batted .252
with 88 home runs, 382 RBI, 331
runs, 176
doubles, 12
triples, and three stolen bases in 1033
games. As a catcher, he compiled a .984
fielding percentage with 5274 putouts,
431
assists and 92
errors in 980 games.
Coaching
In 2002, Gedman became a
coach with
the
North Shore Spirit, a team in
the independent Northeast League. He was the Spirit's bench
coach.
In 2005 Gedman became the manager of the
Worcester Tornadoes, in the
Can-Am League. The Tornadoes won the Can-Am
League title in their first year of existence.
Highlights
- Twice All-Star (1985-86)
- The Sporting News' AL Rookie of the Year (1981)
- Selected for the All-Star team by UPI and
The Sporting News (1985)
- Caught Dennis Eckersley's
one-hitter game (September 26, 1980)
- Set two AL records for putouts in a game [20] and in
consecutive games [36] (April 29-30, 1986)
- Hit for the cycle and drove in 7 runs against the Blue Jays (September 18, 1985)
- Reached base in all five at-bats of historic game 5 of the
1986 American
League Championship Series. This included a two-run home run in
the second inning and a hit-by-pitch in the ninth inning that set
up Dave Henderson's dramatic two-out
home run.
Personal life
He is married to Sherry Gedman, and has two sons, Michael and
Matthew, and a daughter, Marissa. Michael was a freshman pitcher
for the
Le Moyne College Dolphins
in early 2007, but when his younger brother Matthew was accepted as
a freshman at
UMass in
both their baseball and
hockey programs
(as an infielder and a goalie), sophomore Michael transferred to
UMass also, and both brothers participated in the 2007 UMass fall
baseball program.
His
daughter Marissa attends Noble and Greenough School
where she participates in field hockey, hockey and
softball. In her 2008 season, she achieved All-League ISL, a
NE Championship, and 16-U National Championship in Ice
Hockey.
References
External links
Wikis
Map
Search