Ermer leaves many memories for a longtime baseball fan

Ray Deering
Commentary

    I have a heavy heart this morning. The man whom I idolized from the first day I ever saw a professional baseball game in Chattanooga is no longer with us.
    My baseball world will never be the same. Cal Ermer is dead.
    The former manager of the Minnesota Twins, the Lookouts and a myriad of minor league teams died Saturday at the age of 85. Ermer was active in professional baseball as a player, coach, manager and scout from 1942 until his retirement after the 2008 season. He was a revered baseball figure. But for me, he was simply my friend.
    I saw him last in the press box at AT&T Field a few weeks ago. Suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, he had difficulty communicating. He looked fragile in his wheelchair, but his smile was as warm as ever. He was watching a baseball game, and he was content.
    In early June I invited him to lunch. I was accompanied by a recent University of Tennessee at Chattanooga graduate who is an ardent baseball fan. We picked up Ermer at his assisted care facility and took him to his favorite restaurant. Although he had a difficult time with conversation, having lunch with a former major league manager was a thrill for my young friend. As it turned out, it was a real blessing for me. Ermer and I never had the chance to break bread again.
Ermer was a stern but fair taskmaster on the field, but he was gentle and magnanimous in his daily dealings with others. He would aggressively confront an indolent player or argue vehemently with an umpire, but he also would stand for hours on end serving the homeless at the Community Kitchen.
    His Minnesota Twins lost the 1967 American League pennant by one game in a heartbreaking defeat by Boston when Twins star pitcher Jim Kaat, a former Lookout, popped an elbow in the fourth inning of the crucial game. Ermer came that close to managing in the World Series.
    One of my favorite photographs in my study is an autographed picture of Ermer in his Twins uniform with former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
    In October 2006, I invited Ermer to my house for dinner to watch his Twins in the playoffs against Oakland. Although he was disappointed in the outcome of the game, he perked up when the television camera spotted Harmon Killebrew in the stands.
    “That’s my boy,” Ermer exclaimed. Ermer managed the Hall of Famer when he played with the Lookouts in the 1950s and again in Minnesota. Killebrew credits Ermer with teaching him the strike zone while with the Lookouts.
    “He was swinging wildly at pitches out of the zone,” Ermer once told me. “So I told him to go down to the bullpen every night while the pitcher was warming up. He would take his stance and call the pitch. The catcher would tell him if he was right. He did that for two weeks and learned the zone.
    “Killebrew called me up right after he was inducted into the Hall of Fame and thanked me for helping him in his career. That meant a lot to me.”
    I first saw Ermer in the early days of the 1952 Lookouts season. I was a 9-year-old kid and my father was introducing me to baseball. On my first night at Engel Stadium, Ermer became engaged in a vociferous argument with an umpire. I thought it was the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. Ermer was good and the umpire was bad. The lesson was that simple, and I never forgot it.
    As I grew up, I watched him manage many games for the Lookouts in the ’50s. I admired the energy he brought to the game and respected the way he supported his players. Honestly, he was one of my heroes.
    When I was asked to contribute columns to the Times Free Press after I had retired from a career in education, the first person I wanted to interview was Cal Ermer. We seemed to hit it off right away and became friends.
    By that time he had become a true baseball raconteur. He had hundreds of stories to tell, and I loved listening. I’m so happy that the last story I heard him tell involved his great friend, the late Ellis Clary.
    I just wish I could hear them all again. Rest in peace, Skipper.
    E-mail Ray Deering at
rpd272@gmail.com