Jerry Coleman was a former professional
baseball player, a retired
Marine officer, and a long-time baseball announcer for the
San Diego Padres. Born in
San Jose,
California, Coleman played for the
New York Yankees during the 1940s and 1950s. During that time, he was also a Marine fighter pilot and saw combat action in both
World War II and the
Korean War, the only professional baseball player to do so. After his baseball career ended, Coleman worked at a number of different jobs, but eventually landed in sports broadcasting. • Career as a baseball player. Coleman's career as a player for the Yankees began in 1949 when he batted .275 and won the
Associated Press Rookie of the Year award. Coleman played
second base,
shortstop, and
third base during a nine-year career that included six
World Series appearances, including the 1950 World Series where Coleman won the
World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Coleman was also selected as an
All Star in 1950. His final game as a baseball player was on September 29, 1957. • War time experiences. Coleman was the only baseball player to see action in both World War II, where he flew 57 combat missions, and in the Korean War, where he flew 63 missions. After his tour of duty in Korea, Coleman returned to the Yankees but remained in the Marine reserves until 1964, eventually reaching the rank of
lieutenant colonel. In the book, Coleman claimed that the years he spent in the Marines were the most important part of his life, eclipsing his career as a baseball player. • Broadcasting career. After retiring as a player, Coleman worked for the Yankees as a personnel director, but eventually left that job in 1960 and, at the advice of his friend
Howard Cosell, began his career as broadcaster for
CBS where he announced the
Major League Baseball Game of the Week. After several years of network broadcasting, Coleman returned to the Yankees as a broadcaster in 1963 and remained with the team until 1970 when he returned to his native California and began work as a sports broadcaster for
KTLA TV in
Los Angeles. In 1973, he left that position and began broadcasting for the Padres, a position he was still holding as of 2013. In 2005, Coleman was enshrined in the baseball
Hall of Fame when he was given the
Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. He chose Goldstein as his collaborator because of Goldstein's experience writing about both sports and the military. On January 5, 2014, Coleman died at the age of 89 as a result of complications from head injuries sustained during a fall in December 2013. ==Reviews==