Former major league infielder
Neil Berry passed away on Wednesday (August 23, 2016). He was 94.
Berry was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and attended the same high school as Derek Jeter. He was offered a contract by the St. Louis Cardinals, but turned them down to sign with the Tigers in 1942. After his debut season, in which he hit .231, Neil spent the next three seasons in the military. He returned to the Tigers system in 1946 and had two solid years with the AAA Buffalo Bisons, hitting .286 in 1946 and .299 in 1947. In '47, he hit the only home run of his professional career. It came against the Syracuse Chiefs on September 21 during the International League playoffs.
Neil spent the next 5 years with the Detroit Tigers. He was mostly used as an infield back-up, but was the primary second baseman for Detroit in 1949, appearing at the position in 95 games. In spring training in 1950, manager Red Rolfe expressed that Neil might win the starting shortstop job because of the speed he offered over incumbent Johnny Lipon. But Lipon's bat (he hit .293 that year) kept him in the starting lineup and Neil only played in 39 games. Berry continued as an infield back-up in 1951 and 1952, but his average dropped below .230 both years. So Neil was traded to the St. Louis Browns for outfielder Jake Crawford.
Although Neil's hitting improved in St. Louis, the Chicago White Sox got him on a waiver claim for the last month of the season. In February of 1954, the White Sox traded Neil to the Baltimore Orioles (who, the year before, had been the Browns). Johnny Lipon was one of the players headed the other way in the deal. Neil's stay in Baltimore was brief. After appearing in 5 games, the O's sent him to the Yankees for Jim Brideweser, and Neil finished out the season in the minors, retiring at season's end. He took a stab at managing in the Tigers farm system but, after one year of that (1958), Neil hung up his spikes for the last time, returning to Kalamazoo where he worked in sporting goods and carpentry.
The two Kalamazoo Central High School shortstops, Neil Berry and Derek Jeter, did meet on one occasion. Jeter,
according to Berry, blew him off.
"I said, 'Well, you son of a bitch. Up your giggy.' To myself, I said that; I didn't say that to him." Berry continued on to say,
"Jeter's a damn good ballplayer", but he also had the good fortune to play for the Yankees when they were winning.
"If you don't win, you aren't worth a poop."
A site search didn't turn up either of the images below, nor were they previously posted at Baseball-Birthdays. The Tigers image was posted to eBay by andy1921, while the Browns image is one of Kyle's.