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Old 01-12-2018, 04:50 PM   #31906
Merkle923
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 2,153
George Kernek 1965

The other goodie in the Daily News team photo is George Kernek, who is the answer to the extreme trivia question "who was the Cardinals' starting first baseman between Bill White and Orlando Cepeda?"

Kernek was a hoops star at Oklahoma, then enough of a prospect for St. Louis to feel comfortable about trading White during its dismantling of its infield in the off-season of 1965-66. As noted in this bio https://retrosimba.com/2012/07/27/ge...ce-bill-white/ Kernek hurt his knee in Spring Training 1966 and was never the same. The Cards certainly didn't help him by assigning him White's locker and Ken Boyer's number. On May 8th they gave up and were able to pry Orlando Cepeda from the Giants for Ray Sadecki, and all Cepeda did was win the MVP award the next year while leading the Cards to the World's Championship before he was again dealt - this time to Atlanta for soon-to-be St. Louis favorite Joe Torre.

After one more year in the Cards' system, Kernek went to the White Sox even up for another unfulfilled prospect, Jim Hicks, and got about as far as the 1968 team photo before going back to the minors for good.

(It's minor league infielder Dick Littleton to Kernek's right in the team shot)
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