Kenneth Jerry Adair (December 17, 1936 – May 31, 1987) was an American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

second baseman,

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

with the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

and the Kansas City Royals between 1958 and 1970. Adair spent one season in Japan playing for the Hankyu Braves / Orix BlueWave. He batted and threw right-handed, stood tall and weighed .

Early life

Adair was born in

Sand Springs, Oklahoma Sand Springs is a city in Osage, Creek and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A western suburb of Tulsa, it is located predominantly in Tulsa County. The population was 19,874 in the 2020 U. S. Census, an increase of 5.1 percent from ...

, and graduated from

Charles Page High School Charles Page High School is a high school in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, Sand Springs, Oklahoma, United States, named after the philanthropist Charles Page. It is the only public High school (North America), high school in Sand Springs. History Char ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

and basketball (under

Hank Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri S ...

) at

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. Adair also played one year in a work/play program for the McPherson (Kansas) BJs in the Ban Johnson League. That year McPherson went to the National Ban Johnson League tournament finals played in Wichita. He pitched many games as well as playing the infield.

Baltimore Orioles

Adair was signed by the

out of

on September 2, 1958 for a $40,000 bonus. He made his

debut with the club that day against the Washington Senators, coming into the game in the bottom of the 8th inning as a defensive replacement for shortstop Chuck Oertel. He did not get an at bat in the game. Adair's first big league at bat came on September 5 against the

. After drawing a walk and scoring in the 8th inning, Adair reached base again in the ninth inning on a fielder's choice. He picked up his first big league hit (a single to left field) in a 3–2 Orioles win over the visiting

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

on September 21. That season, he hit .105 (2-for-19) in 11 games with the Orioles, primarily playing shortstop. He hit .314 (11-for-35) in 12 games in 1959 and went 1-for-5 (.200) in 3 games in 1960. Adair's first full season in the big leagues came in 1961 with the Orioles, hitting .264 with 9 home runs and 37 RBI in 133 games. Although the majority of his time was spent at second base, he also played some shortstop and third base that year. Once, during the 1964 season, he was struck in the mouth by a bad throw during the first game of a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. The resulting laceration required 11 stitches, but Adair was back in the park in uniform in time to play the entire second game. In 1965, 28-year-old Adair hit .259 with 7 home runs and a career-high 66 RBI in 157 games with the Orioles. He was among

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

leaders with 157 games (8th in the AL), 582 at bats (10th in the AL), 26 doubles (7th in the AL), 115 singles (10th in the AL) and 6 sacrifice flies (8th in the AL). As a result, Adair finished 17th in the AL MVP vote that was won by

Zoilo Versalles Zoilo Casanova Versalles Rodriguez (; December 18, 1939 – June 9, 1995), nicknamed "Zorro", was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played as a shortstop in Major League Baseball, most notably for the Minnesota Twins. He was the catalyst wh ...

of the Minnesota Twins.

Chicago White Sox

On June 13, 1966, Adair was traded by the Orioles with minor leaguer John Riddle to the

for Eddie Fisher.

Boston Red Sox

On June 2, 1967, Adair was traded by the White Sox to the

for

Don McMahon Donald John McMahon (January 4, 1930 – July 22, 1987) was a right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was signed by the Boston Braves before the 1950 season. He played for the Milwaukee Braves (1957 ...

and minor leaguer Rob Snow. Adair played well down the stretch with the Red Sox, hitting .291 with 3 homers and 26 RBI in 89 games, rounding out his season stats to .271 with 3 HR and 35 RBI in 117 games. With his pennant push performance at the plate, coupled with stellar defensive play, Adair finished 15th in the AL MVP balloting. Teammate Carl Yastrzemski won the award that year after claiming the elusive triple crown.

Kansas City Royals

Adair was taken by the Kansas City Royals with the 51st pick of the

1968 MLB expansion draft The 1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft was conducted to stock up the rosters of four expansion teams in Major League Baseball created via the 1969 Major League Baseball expansion and which would begin play in the 1969 season. The expans ...

. In the Royals' inaugural season of 1969, the 32-year-old Adair hit .250 with 5 home runs and 48 RBI in 126 games. In 1970, Adair hit just .148 (4-for-27) before being abruptly released on May 5 as he was about to board a plane to make a road trip to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

with the team. Adair had spent much of spring training that year with his six-year-old daughter, Tammy, who had terminal cancer and eventually died and claimed the Royals let him go without taking the family's problems into consideration. Royals General Manager

Cedric Tallis Cedric Nelson Tallis (July 29, 1914 – May 8, 1991) was an American executive in Major League Baseball who served as the first general manager of the expansion Kansas City Royals and later played an important role in the New York Yankees' dynasty ...

defended the team's decision to release Adair saying "We just felt he couldn't help the club".

Legacy

While having only a .254 career batting average, he was considered a good clutch hitter (Carl Yastrzemski wrote in his autobiography ''Baseball, The Wall, and Me'' "That man was one of the coolest clutch hitters I had seen"). However, his greatest strength was his defensive ability. Adair set then-major league records for single-season fielding percentage (.994) and fewest errors (5) in 1964, and followed that up by leading the league in fielding percentage again in 1965. He also set a record for consecutive errorless games by a second baseman (89), and consecutive chances handled without an error (458) from July 22, 1964 through May 6, 1965. In addition, he was considered a "gamer" who would often play when injured. After leaving Major League Baseball, Adair played in Japan for a year, and later coached for the Oakland Athletics (1972–74) and the California Angels (1975), working under his former Oriole teammate and manager in Boston Dick Williams. Adair died of liver cancer on May 31, 1987 in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, at the age of 50.Cancer claims Jerry Adair
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adair, Jerry 1936 births 1987 deaths Amarillo Gold Sox players American expatriate baseball players in Japan American men's basketball players Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from Oklahoma Boston Red Sox players California Angels coaches Chicago White Sox players Deaths from cancer in Oklahoma Deaths from liver cancer Hankyu Braves players Kansas City Royals players Major League Baseball first base coaches Major League Baseball second basemen Miami Marlins (IL) players Oakland Athletics coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball players People from Sand Springs, Oklahoma Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Williston Oilers players Oklahoma State Cowboys baseball players