Major League Baseball Player. Catcher Jesse Gonder played high school baseball with future major leaguers Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson. Signed by the Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent in 1955, he spent 5 seasons in the minors. Before the 1960 Season he was sent from Cincinnati to the New York Yankees. He made his debut in the majors on September 23, 1960. He appeared in 7 games for the Yanks that season. He appeared in another 15 games for New York in 1961. 1962 would be a special year for him none the less, as he led the Pacific Coast League in hitting and RBI. He was traded back to the Reds for Marshall Bridges on December 15, 1961. He only appeared in 4 games in 1962. After appearing in 31 games for the Reds, he was traded on July 1, 1963 to the New York Mets for Charlie Neal and Sammy Taylor. Gonder, who was slow and had defensive deficiencies behind the plate, still managed to parlay his decent hitting into an 8 year career. He appeared in a career high 131 games for the Mets in 1964, which proved to be his only full season behind the plate. Traded to the Milwaukee Braves for Gary Kolb on July 21, 1965, he was used mostly as a pinch hitter for the rest of his career. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Braves in the 1965 rule V draft. He appeared in 59 games in 1966 and 22 games in 1967 to round out his major league career. Gonder settled in Oakland, CA when he played in the PCL, and after his retirement drove a bus for the Golden Gate Transit company for 20 years, retiring in the mid 1990s. Over the course of his career Jesse Gonder accrued a lifetime batting average .251 in 395 league games. He smacked 26 home runs and drove in 94 RBI in 876 ABs.