Jerald Lee Schoonmaker (December 14, 1933 – March 18, 2018) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player. An

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

, Schoonmaker was signed to a $30,000 bonus contract by the Washington Senators of

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), ...

in 1955 after a standout career at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. However, his career was hampered by the Bonus Rule, which compelled him to spend his first two years as a professional on the Washington roster. Then, after his only

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

season, he sustained a career-ending eye injury in December 1958. Schoonmaker threw and batted right-handed, stood and weighed . A three-sport (

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

) athlete in his hometown of

Lebanon, Missouri Lebanon is a city in and the county seat of Laclede County in Missouri. The population was 14,474 at the time of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Laclede County. The Lebanon Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Laclede County. Hi ...

, Schoonmaker batted close to .400 in his junior season at Missouri (when the Tigers won the

NCAA Division I Baseball Championship The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is held each year from May through June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the eight-team Men's College World Series at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebr ...

) and captained the baseball team during his senior season. He won a silver medal with the United States team at the

1955 Pan American Games The 1955 Pan American Games opened on March 12, 1955, in the University Stadium (now Olympic Stadium) in Mexico City, Mexico, in front of a capacity crowd of 100,000 spectators. A total number of 2,583 athletes from 22 nations marched in review ...

. After signing with Washington, he appeared in 20 games for the Senators in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

46 times; then, after spending 1956 serving in the U.S. military, he spent his mandatory second year,

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

, on the Senator roster, playing in 30 contests but registering only 23 at-bats. In 1958, Washington was finally permitted to send Schoonmaker to the minor leagues for much-needed experience, but he batted only .222 in 139 games, most of them with the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and pla ...

of the Class A

Sally League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

. That offseason, he underwent surgery after an errant sliver of metal injured his left eye while he was working at a construction job. His vision compromised, he retired from professional baseball at the age of 25. All told, Schoonmaker registered nine

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

in 69 MLB at bats, including one

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

and one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

. His homer was surrendered by

Steve Gromek Stephen Joseph Gromek (January 15, 1920 – March 12, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 17 seasons in the American League with the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. In 447 career games, Gromek ...

of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

on July 23, 1955. Schoonmaker died March 18, 2018.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoonmaker, Jerry 1933 births 2018 deaths All-American college baseball players Baseball players from Missouri Charlotte Hornets (baseball) players Chattanooga Lookouts players Major League Baseball outfielders Missouri Tigers baseball players People from Lebanon, Missouri People from Webster County, Missouri Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Baseball players at the 1955 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1955 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in baseball

See also

References

External links