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Those Who Died That Others Might Be Free

 

Nay Hernandez

Date and Place of Birth: October 12, 1919 San Diego, CA
Date and Place of Death: March 22, 1945 Germany
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Outfield
Rank: Private
Military Unit: 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division US Army
Area Served: European Theater of Operations

Nay Hernandez was San Diego's opening day left fielder in his rookie season in 1944. At the end of the year he was in the Army. By the following spring he was dead.

Manuel "Nay" Hernandez was born on October 12, 1919 in San Diego, California. The Hernandez clan consisted of seven sisters and five brothers - Nay and his twin sister, Margaret, were among the youngest. While growing up, times were hard. Money was short but the family had baseball. "Our whole family played ball," remembers Nay's sister Tina Hernandez. "We had our own Hernandez team and we'd play everybody. My sisters were good too, but Nay was the best." ¹

Hernandez first began to be noticed as a ballplayer with the San Diego High School team during the late 1930s. He was all-state for three years. "They were going to go to Japan [to play baseball]," recalled his son, Manual Jr. "But they didn't go because they knew the war was coming." ²

"Everyday after school he'd go practice," says Tina Hernandez. "My mother would ask where he was and Nay was always practicing baseball." ³

After graduation in 1938 he went on to star in the local industrial league with the Rohr Aircraft team. San Diego's manager, George Detore, spotted the 5-foot-9 outfielder and offered him a contract to play in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). "They paid him $250 a month," says Manuel Jr.⁴

Hernandez joined the Padres for spring training in 1944, playing against powerhouse military and defense plant teams and earning himself a spot on the whittled down team roster. On opening day, Hernandez was in left field for San Diego. He would later move across to center field. "He could run like a deer," says Joe Valenzuela, also a rookie with the Padres in 1944. ⁵

"I remember my Uncle Chapo would put me on his shoulders and jump over the seats to go down to the field [at Lane Field]," remembers Manuel Jr. "I was a little guy and it scared me, but my dad would come to the fence. He'd hand me over the fence. My dad would hug me and hand me back to my uncle!" ⁶

Defensively, Hernandez was sensational. "I remember him running for a long fly ball at Lane Field," recalls Tina Hernandez. "He caught it leaping over the fence, but he hung on to it." ⁷

But he had trouble hitting PCL pitching and posted a lowly .207 batting average in the 30 games he played that year.

In October 1944, Hernandez was drafted by the Army. He left his young wife, Lucy, and son, Manuel Jr, and headed for basic training. "My last memory of my dad was when he went into the Army," Manuel Jr recalls. "I was at the gate and he told me to take good care of my mother." ⁸

Not long after Hernandez got into the service the Germans made their last major offensive in Europe - soon to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. America put all their available troops into the European campaign and, just three months after joining the Army, Private Hernandez was in Germany with the 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division.

March was a hectic time for the division. The Germans were, by now, in full retreat, the 94th in full chase. Roads were jammed with German prisoners, towns and villages a maze of white flags. ⁹

Around March 20, 1945, the 376th Infantry were called upon to capture the industrial city of Ludwigshafen, one of Germany's prize chemical producing centers. During the street fighting against concealed anti-tank guns and cellar strongholds, Private Manuel "Nay" Hernandez lost his life. ¹⁰ Less than eight weeks later Germany surrendered.

Hernandez was buried at the United States Military Cemetery in Luxembourg with full military honors. Three years later his body was returned to his hometown. On August 16, 1948, final rites for Private Hernandez were conducted at the First Nazarene Church in San Diego. His body now rests in Greenwood Memorial Park. ¹¹

There is a rather unusual but pleasant postscript to this story. In February 1996, the San Diego Padres were contacted by Tara McCauley. She was hoping to find her father and all she knew was that her grandfather had played for the San Diego Padres many years before. "Even the Padres didn't know what happened to him," recalls baseball historian Bill Swank. "He was 4F because of a heart murmur, but when the local draft board learned he was playing baseball, they drafted him into the Army. His teammates didn't know what happened to him.

 

"In subsequent programs [scorecards], the team listed all former players in military service during the war years. His name was never on the list." ¹²

 

Swank began the search for Nay Hernandez's son, Manuel Jr and when he tracked him down and mentioned Tara's name, he exclaimed, "She's my daughter!" ¹³

Tara's grandmother had taken the child away for Manuel Jr shortly after she was born. He never had contact with her again. It was an emotional reunion between father and long-lost daughter. "Because of baseball, my father found my daughter for me!" says Manuel Jr. ¹⁴ The 1996 Memorial Day reunion made the front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

 

In July 2007, Bill Swank was joined by Manuel Hernandez' sister, Tina Hernandez, on an English-Spanish radio program about Mexicans who played for the San Diego Padres during the 1940s and 50s.

 

 

Special thanks to Bill Swank for all his help with this biography and the photos.

 

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Notes

1 The Pacific Coast League Padres - Lane Field: The Early Years 1936-1946 Vol 1, Ray Brandes and Bill Swank 1997
2 ibid.
3 ibid.
4 ibid.
5 ibid.
6 ibid.
7 ibid.
8 ibid.
9 On The Way: The Story of the 94th Infantry Division, 1945
10 ibid.
11 San Diego Union, August 15, 1948

12 Correspondence with Bill Swank, July 2007
13 The Pacific Coast League Padres - Lane Field: The Early Years 1936-1946 Vol 1, Ray Brandes and Bill Swank 1997
14 ibid.

 

Added July 15, 2006. Updated July 19, 2007.

 

Copyright © 2007 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.