Ermer played in the minor leagues from 1942 to 1951, losing three seasons (1943–1945) to wartime military service. Most of Ermer\'s 60-plus-year career in baseball was spent as an employee of the Minnesota Twins and its predecessor franchise (before 1961), the Washington Senators. His only major league game as a player, on September 26, 1947, came with Washington; he was hitless in three at bats against Bill McCahan of the Philadelphia Athletics at Griffith Stadium, and handled seven fielding chances flawlessly as a second baseman. Washington won the game, 4–3.\n', '

Ermer also played and managed in the club\'s farm system, handling Senators/Twins farm clubs over five different decades, beginning with the Charlotte Hornets in 1947 and ending with the Toledo Mud Hens in 1985. He also served as a skipper in the minor league systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees, and in 1958 won The Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year award while with the Birmingham Barons, then a farm team of the Detroit Tigers. His minor league teams won championships in 1947 and 1958.\n', '

On June 9, 1967, Ermer was promoted from the Twins\' Triple-A affiliate, the Denver Bears of the Pacific Coast League, to replace Minnesota manager Sam Mele. Under Ermer, the Twins won 66 of 112 games and jumped into a four-team American League pennant race (with the Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox) that went down to the season\'s final weekend. Needing only one win in two games at Boston\'s Fenway Park to clinch a tie for the championship, the Twins lost both contests to the Red Sox, who became improbable league champions.\n', '

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