Today's Happy Baseball Birthday is former big league first baseman Gordy Coleman.
Gordon Calvin Coleman was born on July 5, 1934, in Rockville, Maryland.
Gordy went to Richard Montgomery High School, were he lettered in baseball, basketball, and football.
Gordy went on to play baseball and football at Duke University, and was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a free agent in 1953.
Gordy played minor league baseball in the Indians system before serving in the United States Army in 1957-58.
In 1959 Coleman returned to the minors, playing for the Indians affiliate in Mobile, Alabama.
With the Bears in '59 Coleman won the Southern Association Triple Crown, batting .353, with 30 home runs and 110 RBI.
Gordy Coleman made his big league debut for the Tribe on September 18, 1959, smacking a triple off the Kansas City Athletics Bob Grimm for his first big league hit.
Before the 1960 season Coleman was traded, along with Billy Martin, to the Cincinnati Reds.
Coleman would play the next 767 games of his big league career with the Reds.
The 6'3'' first baseman was a mainstay with Cincinnati from 1960-67, compiling a terrific .990 fielding percentage, handling 5,393 chances.
Coleman hit .271 with the Reds, collecting 642 base hits, with 102 doubles and 98 home runs, with 385 RBI, scoring 277 runs.
Gordy played his final game in the big leagues, for the Reds, on May 3, 1967.
After his playing career Gordy worked in the Reds front office, and on Reds TV broadcasts from 1990 until his death in 1994, from a heart attack, at age 59.
Gordy Coleman is in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
It's a honor to wish a Happy Baseball Birthday to Gordy Coleman.
PLAY BALL!
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