Joe Gerhardt

Joe Gerhardt
Second baseman
Born: (1855-02-14)February 14, 1855 Washington, D.C.
Died: March 11, 1922(1922-03-11) (aged 67) Middletown, Orange County, New York
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 1, 1873, for the Washington Nationals
Last MLB appearance
April 29, 1891, for the Louisville Colonels
MLB statistics
Batting average	.227
Home runs	7
Runs batted in	382
Teams
As player Washington Blue Legs (1873) Baltimore Canaries (1874) New York Mutuals (1875) Louisville Grays (1876–1877) Cincinnati Reds (1878–1879) Detroit Wolverines (1881) Louisville Eclipse (1883–1884) New York Giants (1885–1887) New York Metropolitans (1887) Brooklyn Gladiators (1890) St. Louis Browns (1890) Louisville Colonels (1891) As manager Louisville Eclipse (1883) St. Louis Browns (1890)

John Joseph "Joe" Gerhardt (February 14, 1855 – March 11, 1922), also known as "Move 'Em Up Joe", was an American professional baseball player whose career spanned from 1873 to 1893. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as a second baseman, for 11 different major league clubs.

Gerhardt was born in 1855 in Washington, D.C. His father, Joseph Gerhardt, was an immigrant from Prussia who was in the restaurant business and was a Colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His mother, Dorah, was an immigrant from the Hesse Cassel, which is now part of Germany.

Gerhardt played five seasons in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Grays (1876–77), Eclipse (1883–84) and Colonels (1891), and five seasons in New York City for the Mutuals (1875), Giants (1885–87), Metropolitans (1887) and Gladiators (1890). Across all 15 major league seasons, he appeared in 1,078 games, 893 as a second baseman, 85 as a third baseman, 63 as a first baseman, and 33 as a shortstop.

Gerhardt was a weak hitter, compiling a .227 career batting average, but he was known as one of the best defensive second baseman of his era. He twice led his league in assists at any position and regularly ranked among the league leaders in putouts. double plays and fielding percentage by a second baseman between 1877 and 1890. His career range factor of 6.46 remains the highest in major league history for a second baseman. He also ranks eighth among all second basemen in major league history with 558 errors at second base. In a 1922 story on Gerhardt, New York sports writer John M. Foster compared Gerhardt to baseball's other great second basemen and concluded: "None had anything on Move Em Up Joe Gerhardt."

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Wikipedia