The University of Oklahoma basketball and baseball product spent 8 years in the minors with the Cardinals as insurance to starting 1B Bill White before eventually being given the 1B job to start the 1967 season...But, that lasted only a month before the Cards acquired Orlando Cepeda. Kernek got into 30 big league games between1965-66 batting .259 with 6 RBI in 81 AB.
His story is told even further here
https://retrosimba.com/2012/07/27/ge...ce-bill-white/ (this is an outstanding site for any baseball fan-especially Cardinals fans)
He spent 1968 and 1969 with the White Sox AAA club before closing out his career in 1970 with the Reds AAA team....These photos are from the great Dr. jteee on EBAY