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Kenneth Jerry Adair (December 17, 1936 – May 31, 1987) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB) as a second baseman and shortstop from to , most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles where he was the starting second baseman for five seasons.
Adair was known as one of the best fielding second basemen of his era, setting a Major League record for second basemen when he fielded 458 consecutive chances without an error. He also played for the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals. Adair played his final season as a professional baseball player with the Orix Buffaloes (now known as the Orix Buffaloes) of the NPB. After his playing career, he worked as a coach for several Major League organizations.
Adair was OSU's shortstop in his junior year, with a team leading .438 batting average. He was named to the All-Big Eight team, an OSU first. He was selected to the second team by the American Baseball Coaches Association. In his two years on the team, the Cowboys were 29–9, with Adair hitting .387.
Adair also played one year in a work/play program for the McPherson (Kansas) BJs in the Ban Johnson League. That year, McPherson went to the National Ban Johnson League tournament finals played in Wichita. He pitched many games as well as playing the infield. In one game, while being scouted by coach Greene, he was called on to pitch in relief with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the bases loaded and no outs. Adair struck out the next three batters.
He spent most of the 1959 season with Amarillo Gold Sox, the Orioles affiliate in the Double-A Texas League. He had a .309 batting average in 146 games. When he was called up to the Orioles at the end of the season, Adair hit .314 (11-for-35) in 12 games. He played most of the 1960 season for the Triple-A Miami Marlins, batting .266, and playing principally at shortstop, where he had a .967 fielding percentage. When he was called up to the Orioles at the end of the season, he went 1-for-5 (.200) in 3 games.
Adair's first full season in the big leagues came in 1961 with the Orioles, hitting .264 with 9 home runs and 37 RBIs (runs batted in) in 133 games. Although the majority of his time was spent at second base, he also played some shortstop and third base that year. He had a .987 fielding percentage at second base, and .946 at shortsop. In 1962, his .969 fielding percentage at shortstop was fourth in the league, led by Chicago White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio at .973. In 1963, Adair played in only 109 games, the fewest he played between 1961 and 1966. He hit only .228 with six home runs, but had a .985 fielding percentage at second base. Had he played in enough games, this would have given him the third best percentage among second basemen that year.
In 1964, the Orioles had Aparicio at shortstop (via a 1963 trade), Adair at second base, and Brooks Robinson playing third base. Aparicio led American League shortstops with a .979 fielding percentage, Adair led the league's second basemen with a .994 fielding percentage (making only five errors all year), and Robinson led AL third basemen with a .972 fielding percentage. Orioles first baseman Norm Siebern was third among AL first basemen in fielding percentage. Both Robinson (16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards) and Aparicio (nine Gold Glove Awards) were elected to the Hall of Fame, in large part based on their fielding ability. Aparicio and Adair ultimately played three years together (1963-1965), and are considered one of the top middle infield combinations in baseball history. Their combined fielding percentage during that time was .984.
Once, during the 1964 season, he was struck in the mouth by a bad throw during the first game of a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. The resulting laceration required 11 stitches, but Adair was back in the park in uniform in time to play the entire second game. In 1964, the Orioles finished in third place, two games behind the Yankees for the AL championship.
In 1965, 28-year-old Adair hit .259 with 7 home runs and a career-high 66 RBIs in 157 games with the Orioles. He was among American League leaders with 157 games (8th in the AL), 582 (10th in the AL), 26 doubles (7th in the AL), 115 singles (10th in the AL) and 6 Sacrifice fly (8th in the AL). As a result, Adair finished 17th in the AL MVP vote that was won by Zoilo Versalles of the Minnesota Twins. He again led all AL second basemen in fielding percentage (.985), and Aparicio led all shortstops (.971). Over the course of the 1964 and 1965 seasons, Adair set a Major League record for second basemen when he handled 458 consecutive Total chances without committing an error. His record was broken by Manny Trillo in 1982.
In 1970, Adair hit just .148 (4-for-27) before being abruptly released on May 5 as he was about to board a plane to make a road trip to Baltimore with the team. Adair had spent much of spring training that year with his six-year-old daughter, Tammy, who had terminal cancer and eventually died Jerry Adair loses daughter to cancer and claimed the Royals let him go without taking the family's problems into consideration. Royals General Manager Cedric Tallis defended the team's decision to release Adair, saying "We just felt he couldn't help the club". Adair unhappy with technique Royals used to release him
In 1970, he also played 33 games for the Tulsa Oilers of the Triple-A American Association, in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. He had only 27 at-bats. In 1971, Adair finished his professional career playing 90 games for the Orix Buffaloes in the Pacific League.
Adair's nickname during his major league days was Casper the Friendly Ghost.
The glove Adair used in 1964 is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Adair was inducted into the Sand Springs Sandite Hall of Fame in 1992.
The Jerry Adair Baseball Complex in Sand Springs' River City Parks in Oklahoma was named in honor of Adair.
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