Buddy Kerr, 84, Giants Shortstop in 1940s
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Buddy Kerr, who died November 7 at 84, was the slick-fielding shortstop for his hometown idols, the New York Giants, between 1943 and 1949.
Kerr led National League shortstops in fielding in 1946, the same year he broke Leo Durocher’s record of 51 straight games without an error. Kerr’s streak continued into the 1947 season, finally topping out at 68 errorless games, a record that held until 1989, when Kevin Elster of the New York Mets broke it with 88.
Kerr was born in Astoria, Queens, and grew up in Washington Heights. Even as a major leaguer, he lived with his parents and took a short subway ride to the Polo Grounds on game days.
After playing minor league ball with the Jersey City Giants, Kerr was called up as a replacement for the injured Dick Bartell in a game against the Phillies on September 8, 1943. His first time up, he hit a home run.
“I was so excited when the ball disappeared into the upper stands at the Polo Grounds that I stumbled and fell rounding first base,” he recalled in a 1950 interview with the Christian Science Monitor.
Kerr was granted a wartime draft deferment to support his family, but even against the depleted pitching ranks, home runs would be a rarity for the light-hitting Kerr. Although the Giants hit a record 221 home runs in 1947, Kerr contributed just seven. His career batting average was .249.
Kerr’s boyhood hero and the Giants’ slugging manager, Mel Ott, was fired as Giants manager in 1948, and the team hired the acerbic Leo Durocher, recently ousted as manager of its cross-town rivals, the Dodgers.
Perhaps it was because Kerr had eclipsed Durocher’s fielding record, but the two never got along. Kerr took a three-day break to arrange his father’s funeral during the 1949 season, and when he returned, Durocher informed him that he had been replaced by Bill Rigney. That December, Kerr, along with Sid Gordon, Willard Marshall, and Red Webb, was traded to the Boston Braves for Alvin Dark and Eddie Stanky. He played two more seasons, then retired in 1951.
Kerr was a manager for many years in the Giants minor league system and later was a scout for the Mets.
John Joseph Kerr
Born November 6, 1922, in Astoria, Queens; died November 7 in a New York hospital after a short illness; survived by his wife, Kathleen, and four children.