The Shortstop From Kalamazoo: The Life and Times of Neil Berry

Neil Berry grew up on Walter Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan across the street from the city dump. The city filled in this dump when Berry was still young and in its place built the Upjohn Park athletic fields. This was a fortunate turn of events for Neil who was able to start watching and admiring the older boys who played on those fields. As he grew into a young man, he was able to spend many hours practicing in these fields. By the late 1930s Neil was a sports sensation playing left halfback in football for Kalamazoo Central High School and shortstop for the American Legion and Sutherland Paper Co. baseball teams.After a year at Western State Teachers College (now Western Michigan University) on a sports scholarship, Neil signed with the Detroit Tigers. He played one season of minor league ball before volunteering to serve his country in World War II. After the war and two seasons of AAA ball, Neil Berry made it to the majors. The Shortstop From Kalamazoo started the 1948 season as the Detroit Tigers starting shortstop.Neil Berry is not a household name even among the most ardent Detroit Tiger fans but Neil played with or against many of the greatest players in the game; Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Hal Newhouser, and Don Larsen, to name a few.Through the ups and downs of his seven year Major League Baseball career, Neil Berry witnessed from the bench or the playing field many unique or one time events in the history of the sport. Neil was playing shortstop when the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues, Eddie Gaedel, made the only plate appearance of his short (pun intended) career. Neil witnessed a teammate throw a no hitter in his first major league start and another teammate set a record with 12 consecutive hits. Neil's favorite game forced the first playoff game in the history of the American League.Neil and I met in October, 2013 and continued to meet almost every week until he passed away in August, 2016. He shared his stories with me and allowed me to record those stories for this book.Neil's wife Gloria had dutifully collected every word the press ever wrote about Neil and pasted those articles and pictures in three large scrapbooks. Those scrapbooks also allowed me to tell Neil's story from the perspective of the sportswriters of the time.