Modesto sports icon Jerry Streeter dies. ‘He helped me tremendously,’ Joe Rudi says
.JPG "June 10, 1991 File Photo copy scan. Joe Rudi and Jerry Streeter, Joe Rudi Day.")
Jerry Streeter, who played minor league baseball in the 1950s and came home to Modesto for a long coaching and officiating career, died Friday at 87.
Mr. Streeter died of cancer at the Alexander Cohen Hospice House in Hughson.
He coached baseball at Modesto Junior College, including a stint as assistant coach that ended just three years ago, and at Downey High School. He also was a professional baseball scout and infield instructor around the country, and a high school football and basketball referee closer to home.
Among Mr. Streeter’s players at Downey was Joe Rudi, class of 1964, who went on to a 16-year career with the Oakland A’s and two other teams.
“He was just a great mentor,” Rudi said Friday from his home in Mesquite, Nevada. “He helped me tremendously even in my pro years. He said the only way to be better than the other guys out there was to outwork them.”
Rudi, who also has a home in Oregon, was a shortstop at Downey but mostly a left-fielder in the Major Leagues.
Mr. Streeter was still a minor-league baseball player when he started officiating other sports at the high school level in 1954. He would do it until 1987 and became a charter member of the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2010.
“Jerry never once got a complaint as an official,” said Will DeBoard, the section’s assistant commissioner. “He was just a really solid, even-keeled guy, called games right, was exactly the type of person you wanted involved not only in high school sports, but all sports.”
(In the Archives: Jerry Streeter stories: 1956, 1978, 1981, 1982)
He was born Gerald Monroe Streeter on Sept. 19, 1931. He played baseball, football and basketball at Modesto High School, Modesto Junior College and the University of the Pacific.
Mr. Streeter was a second baseman and shortstop for the Sacramento Solons and eight other teams around the country from 1953 to 1958. He reached as high as AAA, a step below the Major Leagues, with Louisville in 1957.
Mr. Streeter taught physical education and coached baseball at Downey from 1959 to 1964. He was a PE instructor at MJC from 1964 to 1991. He was head baseball coach from 1966 to 1983, then volunteered to coach infielders under Bo Aeillo until 2016.
“He was one of the most innovative infield instructors I’ve ever been associated with,” Aeillo said Friday.
Mr. Streeter, in fact, wrote a 1990 book called “Basic Infield Play,” still for sale on Amazon. He taught the skills starting in 1965 for players being evaluated by the Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs and California Angels.
Mr. Streeter also was defensive coach for the MJC football team from 1979 to 1983, including a No. 1 national ranking in 1980.
After his 33 years as a high school referee, he served as commissioner of officials for the Sac-Joaquin Section from 1989 to 1991.
“Jerry knew the rule book inside out, but he also understood the idiosyncrasies of the game,” said Kenn Cunningham, who played baseball at MJC in 1971 and 1972 and later coached there with Mr. Streeter. “He said it’s not a foul (in basketball) unless it places your opponent at a disadvantage.”
Mr. Streeter’s honors also included the Darell Phillips Coaches Award, presented in 2017 at the annual Outstanding Athlete Awards Dinner. He also was a Jay Pattee honoree for public service to the community.
“I’ve had a great time and a great ride,” he said at the time.
He also was a member of the Modesto High Hall of Fame.
A celebration of life will be held Sept. 21, 2 to 5 p.m., at the Masonic Lodge, 800 Rose Avenue, Modesto.
Bee staff writer Julian Lopez contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 5, 2019 at 1:52 PM.
