Auburn Chamber of Commece | 61st Annual Meeting

Guest Speaker:
RICH GEDMAN HITTING COACH for the Worcester Red Sox.  

 Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Rich Gedman, who grew up around the corner from Polar Park on Lafayette Street in Worcester, MA, was the first hitting coach in WooSox history in 2021 and returns for his third year with his hometown team in 2023.  This will also mark his 9^th season as Red Sox Triple-A hitting coach (dating back to Pawtucket in 2015) which is easily the longest tenure of any Red Sox Triple-A hitting coach in franchise history.
 
Last season Worcester batters were 15^th in the 20-team league with their .246 average and their 181 homeruns ranked 7^th best.  In his two seasons with the WooSox, “Geddy” has helped players such as Triston Casas, Franchy Cordero, Jarren Duran, Ronaldo Hernandez, Yairo Munoz, and Connor Wong produce fine offensive seasons.
 
Gedman was elected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame (Class of 2020 along with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez) and was officially enshrined prior to a game at Fenway Park during the 2022 season.
 
Rich began his professional baseball career in 1977 when he was signed by Boston as a non-drafted free agent out of St. Peter-Marian High School in Worcester. He played 13 major league seasons with the Red Sox (1980-90), Astros (1990), and Cardinals (1991-92), batting .252 with 88 home runs in 1,033 games. He was named an American League All-Star in 1985 and 1986 and on April 29, 1986 he caught Roger Clemens’ 20-strikeout performance against the Mariners.
 
Gedman ranks fourth in club history in games caught (858) behind only Jason Varitek, Carlton Fisk, and Sammy Walton. In 2012 he was one of 40 players recognized on the All-Fenway Park Team.
 
“Geddy” has been a hitting coach in the Red Sox minor league system since 2011 when he worked for the Lowell Spinners (short-season A).  In 2012 he served in that same role for the Salem Red Sox (high-A), and in 2013 & 2014 he was Portland’s hitting coach.  His coaching career began as bench coach for the North Shore Spirit of the Can-Am Independent League before he became manager of the Worcester Tornadoes in that same league from 2005-2010. 

Gedman played for Boston for 11 seasons from 1980-1990.  In 906 career games with the Red Sox he hit .259 with 83 HR & 356 RBI. His best years came in 1985 (.295/18/80) and 1986 (.258/16/65).  During that 1986 post-season Rich played in all 14 of Boston’s playoff games hitting .357 with a HR in the ALCS vs. California and adding a homer in the World Series vs. the Mets. 

“Geddy” played for the PawSox in 1980 (batting .236 with 11 HR in 111 games).  He also played for the PawSox for 25 games in 1981 (going 1-for-3 during The Longest Game in Baseball History in April of that year) and had a brief injury rehab assignment with Pawtucket during the 1988 season. 

Rich and his wife Sherry currently live in Framingham, MA and have three grown children: Michael, Marissa (a professional hockey player), and Matt (a former infielder in the Red Sox system who played for Salem in 2013 and 2014).