Baseball Career
Sherry attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and signed with the Dodgers while they were still in their original home of Brooklyn in 1950. His brothers, George and Larry Sherry, were pitchers in professional baseball. Larry had a successful MLB career as a relief pitcher and was the Most Valuable Player of the 1959 World Series; he was Norm's teammate from 1959 through 1962.
A right-handed hitter, Norm Sherry spent seven years working his way through the Dodger farm system, and another two in military service. By the time Norm reached the Dodgers, in 1959 for a two-game "cup of coffee," he was 28 years of age and the team was based in Los Angeles.
Sherry made the team as second-string backstop (behind John Roseboro) from 1960 through 1962. Early in that tenure, Sherry took aside the prodigal Koufax – who was struggling to become a consistent winner in the majors despite a blazing fastball and one of the best curveballs of all time – and convinced him to take something off his fastball to get better control. The results were astounding: despite finger and arm miseries, Koufax dominated the National League from 1962 through his 1966 swan song, winning three Cy Young Awards and leading the Dodgers to three NL championships and world titles in 1963 and 1965.
As for Sherry, he batted .283 with 8 home runs in a part-time role in 1960, but his statistics suffered as he sat on the bench, or in the bullpen, in 1961–62.
His average plummeted to .256 (1961), and then to .182 (1962).
The Dodgers sold his contract to the lowly New York Mets on October 11, 1962, to afford Sherry more playing time, but he batted only .136 in a career-high 63 games played (and 147 at-bats) in New York in 1963, and his major league playing career ended.
All told, in 194 games over all or part of 5 seasons, Sherry batted .215 with 18 home runs, and .288 with runners in scoring position.
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