Kermon Lester Burge (May 17, 1917 – March 1, 1996) was a minor league baseball first baseman and manager whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1950s. He began his career in 1938, playing for the Class-D

New Bern Bears The New Bern Bears were a minor league baseball team based in New Bern, North Carolina. Between 1937 and 1952, with a break during World War II, the Bears teams played exclusively as members of the Coastal Plain League (Class D), Coastal Plain Leag ...

of the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

. He hit .348 with 98 hits, 21 doubles, 22 home runs and a .699 slugging percentage that year, leading the league in slugging percentage and finishing second, behind Bennie Rothstein, in home runs. He split 1939 between the Class-B

Savannah Indians The Savannah Pathfinders was the original name of the American minor league baseball franchise that represented Savannah, Georgia, during the 20th century. While Savannah's minor league teams sported at least ten nicknames during the century, t ...

of the

South Atlantic 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 ...

and the Class-A1

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were Minor League Baseball teams based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. History Atlanta played its first ...

of the

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cl ...

, hitting a combined .286 with 14 home runs and 10 triples in 144 games. He returned to Atlanta again in 1940, hitting .277 with 12 home runs and 82 hits in 88 games. Once more with the Crackers in 1941, Burge batted .311 with 163 hits, 38 home runs, 146 RBI, 331 total bases and a .632 slugging percentage. He led the league in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage and tied

Oris Hockett Oris Leon Hockett (September 29, 1909 – March 23, 1969) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1938–39), Cleveland Indians (1941–44) and Chicago White Sox (1945). Hockett batted left-handed and threw ...

for second, behind

Culley Rikard Culley Rikard (May 9, 1914 – February 25, 2000) was a professional baseball player. He played three seasons in Major League Baseball, 1941, 1942, and 1947, with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League, primarily as an outfielder. Aft ...

, in total bases. He was unanimously voted the Southern Association Most Valuable Player that season. He signed with the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

for 1942 and was a touted prospect. He reported to

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

with a 1-B military draftee classification, but played the whole season for the

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; pi ...

of the Triple-A

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

and hit .250 with 28 home runs and 88 RBI in 152 games. He led the league in home runs and finished third in strikeouts. He was set to be

Dolph Camilli Adolph Louis Camilli (April 23, 1907 – October 21, 1997) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Pl ...

's replacement at first base on the major league team in 1943, but was instead called into service for World War II and did not play professionally again until 1946. He joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

on November 7, 1942. He was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. In 1946, he returned to Montreal in the Dodgers system after leaving the military. Despite missing three years to the service, the Dodgers still had hopes for the first baseman, with team general manager

Branch Rickey Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...

saying he had the makings of a "great hitter." That season, he hit .285 with 15 home runs, 101 RBI and a .401 on-base percentage in 121 games. He tied

Eddie Joost Edwin David Joost (June 5, 1916April 12, 2011) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played as a shortstop in Major League Baseball for all or portions of 17 seasons between 1936 and 1955. In , Joost became the third and la ...

for third in the league in RBI. He played for and managed the Double-A

Fort Worth Cats The Fort Worth Cats was a professional baseball team based in Fort Worth, Texas, in the United States. The Cats were a member of the South Division of the now disbanded United League Baseball, which was not affiliated with Major League Baseball. ...

of the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

– another Dodgers affiliate – in 1947, hitting .279 with seven home runs in 110 games and leading the team to a 95-58 second-place finish. The team lost in the first round of the playoffs. He began 1948 as manager of the Cats, but did not play for the team. Partway through the year, he moved to the Texas League's

Dallas Eagles Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, an unaffiliated team, and hit .319 with nine home runs in 84 games. He also managed the squad for the latter part of the season, replacing

Jimmy Adair James Aubrey Adair (January 25, 1907 – December 9, 1982) was an American baseball infielder, manager and coach. Although he played only briefly in Major League Baseball, as a shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, Adair had a long career as a minor le ...

. In 1949, Burge played for the

Shreveport Sports The Shreveport Sports were a professional Minor League Baseball team based in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the United States. The Sports fielded a team from 1925 to 1935, 1938 to 1942, 1946 to 1957, and 1959 to 1961. They were affiliated with the ...

of the Texas League and hit .294 with 24 home runs in 131 games. He split his final season, 1950, between the Sports and the Class-B

Greensboro Patriots Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

of the

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

, hitting a combined .249 with 13 home runs in 119 games. Overall, Burge played ten seasons in the minor leagues and hit .288 with 182 home runs in 1,181 games. He eclipsed the 20-home run mark four times and the .300 batting average mark thrice.BR Minors page
/ref> Burge was born in

Stokes County, North Carolina Stokes County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,520. Its county seat is Danbury. Stokes County is included in the Winston-Salem, N.C., Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ...

and died in

High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burge, Les 1917 births 1996 deaths New Bern Bears players Savannah Indians players Atlanta Crackers players Montreal Royals players Fort Worth Cats players Dallas Eagles players Shreveport Sports players Greensboro Patriots players People from Stokes County, North Carolina Baseball players from North Carolina United States Army personnel of World War II