Boston.RedSox.MLB.com

By Ian Browne / MLB.com

Rich Gedman finished his Major League career with 88 homers and 382 RBIs. (Courtesy Red Sox)

The former Red Sox catcher (1980-90) and New England native has spent the last seven years coaching at the high school level.

His work at Belmont Hill -- a school located no more than about a half-hour drive from Fenway Park -- started with just baseball. But for the last two years, he has coached the kids year-round, adding in football and hockey to the sport he knows best.

Gedman isn't a head coach. At Belmont Hill, teaching classes is a requirement to be the coach. But he enjoys his work as an assistant. He certainly has plenty of helpful instruction and knowledge to pass down.

"It's fun being around the game and being around the kids," said the 43-year-old Gedman. "You get a chance to talk to them about competing and see them develop. After they leave me and go to the next coach, you can see how they're doing."

The best thing about Gedman's high school coaching gig is that it's given him ample time to spend with wife Sherry and watch his kids grow up. His oldest son, Michael, will be 16 in February. Matthew is 14. Daughter Marissa is 10.

If Gedman stays on the Belmont Hill coaching staff for much longer, he will inevitably start coaching some of the teams his children play on. Michael stands a chance to make the varsity this spring.

As much as he loves his kids, coaching them isn't something he's particularly comfortable with.

With that in mind, Gedman has taken a job to be the third-base coach for the North Shore Spirit of the independently affiliated Northeast League, beginning in May. It will be his first professional coaching job.

"My boys are getting into high school, my daughter is almost finished with grammar school," said Gedman. "I've been around here a long time. Part of me says I need to go out and do something."

This job will be a good trial run for Gedman.

"It's not like the minor leagues, where you have 140 games, or 162 in the Majors," Gedman said. "This is 90 to 92, plus playoffs."

And yes, he acknowledges, it could well be the first step back toward the Major Leagues.

"If you're a baseball coach, getting back to the Major Leagues is your goal," said Gedman, who finished his Major League career with 88 homers and 382 RBIs.

But he isn't lining himself up for a managing position.

"I would see myself more as a coach," Gedman said. "I'm not the leader of the band, I'm part of the puzzle. The leader of the band has to be too organized and is watching out for 25 guys. I've spent a lot of time with coaches."

Gedman is intrigued by the opportunity to start on the ground floor with the Spirit, a franchise entering its first season. They will play their home games in Lynn, Mass.

"It was hard to turn down," Gedman said. "It's fresh, it's new."

As for stuff that isn't so new, Gedman looks back fondly at his career. Especially the fact he was able to play all but two seasons with the Red Sox.

"As time goes by, you get a chance to reflect," said Gedman. "The more and more I'm away from the Major Leagues, there becomes a deeper appreciation. [Being from] the Boston area and getting an opportunity to play for the Red Sox -- it was just an amazing opportunity. I don't know how and why it happened. You were so focused to what you were you doing ... you become kind of numb to what's going on around you."

When Gedman broke in with the Red Sox, he was forced to help fill a void created by the departure of fellow New Englander Carlton Fisk. By 1985, he was an American League All-Star, hitting .295 with 18 homers and 80 RBIs.

Though he didn't quite reach those numbers the next season, Gedman made the All-Star team again.

And the Red Sox went all the way to the World Series in that 1986 season before losing in epic fashion to the Mets. One of the pivotal plays in Boston's undoing was a Bob Stanley wild pitch in the 10th inning of Game 6 that squirted past Gedman and tied the game. That play was overshadowed, of course, by the Mookie Wilson grounder that scooted through Bill Buckner's legs.

Dwight Evans and Gedman struck back-to-back homers in Game 7 that staked the Sox to a 3-0 lead. That lead was gone by the sixth inning, and so was Boston's bid to end a championship drought that currently stands at 84 years.

Gedman didn't know it at the time, but his career would never be the same after '86. A contract squabble followed that winter, with Gedman finally coming back to the Red Sox on May 1, 1987.

Because of injuries and a decline in play, he would never reach 10 homers, 50 RBIs or 100 games in a season again. He spent his final two seasons (1991 and '92) with the Cardinals.

Looking back years later, Gedman still doesn't know why his play dropped off. But he's at peace with it.

"Sure, you get banged up and bruised, but I was never taught to make excuses, Gedman said. "What I would do is take the heat for it. I wish I could have played better than I did [after '86]. For whatever reason, I didn't. I can't tell you why. I know when it ended, I loved the game just as much as when I started. For some reason, I just didn't play as well. It was probably more mental than anything else. I started to doubt myself.

"Honestly and truly, I would have a wonderful career if I spent one day in the Major Leagues. I had a chance to play professional baseball for 17 years, and I was in the Majors for 12. Everybody has their highs and lows. I wish some of the results could have been better, but it wasn't from a lack of effort."

Being in the heart of Red Sox nation, Gedman still keeps tabs on his former team.

"I follow it through my kids," he said. "They like to watch and talk about it. I try to let them tell me what they see. I don't want to tell them, 'This is what's really happening.' From time to time, we'll go to beach and my son will leave and I'll say, 'Where are you going?' He says, 'I'm going to watch the Red Sox.' So I'll go with him."

After all, the game is still in his blood.

Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com. He can be reached at Ian.Browne@mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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