One of baseball's great tragedies occurred on July 24, 1948. On that day, the Duluth Dukes, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, were en route from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to St. Cloud, Minnesota when their team bus became involved in a head-on collision. George Treadwell, the Duluth manager who had been driving the bus, was killed. So were four of his players. In his playing days, Treadwell had been a catcher, and was good enough to have been on the Braves' spring roster in 1931.
Several other players were severely injured in the accident. One was Bernie Gerl, also a catcher, who was badly burned. Prior to the accident, he was a fairly good prospect for making the big league team. According to Gerl's obit, following his injuries the Cards turned their attention to developing a catcher named Joe Garagiola. However, Garagiola's record suggests that he already had a head start on Gerl with both major league experience and a better minor league record than Bernie.
Bernie died yesterday (Nov. 7) at the ripe old age of 94. He was the last surviving member of the Duluth team involved in the horrible bus crash.
The photo shows Bernie after he returned to the Duluth Dukes in 1952. It's from the Sioux Falls (SD) Argus-Leader of August 28, 1953 and accompanies an article about Bernie. The article was one of a series introducing visiting players who came to town to play the Sioux Falls team.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=gerl--001ber