Harry Baumgartner

Harry Baumgartner was a relief pitcher who appeared in nine games for the 1920 Detroit Tigers.

Harry Edward Baumgartner was born October 8, 1892, in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, on the Alabama border, west of Chattanooga. (Baseball Reference gives him a birthdate of October 6, but his draft card, his death certificate, and his headstone all say October 8.) His father, Niklaus, emigrated from Switzerland as a child, while his mother, Nannie, was a Tennessee native. In the 1900 census the family is living on Laurel Avenue in South Pittsburg; Niklaus is a grocery merchant. Seven-year-old Harry is the second of four children.

In the 1910 census the family is at a non-specified location in South Pittsburg, in a home that they own. Niklaus owns and operates an ice plant, assisted by Nannie and oldest child 20-year-old George; 17-year-old Harry and his now six younger siblings are not employed. Nannie, however, passed away in 1912.

At some point after this Harry spent two years in the Navy as a seaman; all I can say for sure is that the two years were over before the 1915 baseball season, which he spent with the Winston-Salem Twins of the Class D North Carolina State League. He had a 16-16 record in 303 innings in 39 games, with 155 strikeouts and 105 walks.

Harry signed a contract with Winston-Salem for 1916, and went to spring training with them, but apparently didn’t play during the regular season. He disappears until June 5, 1917, when he filled out his draft card. This is where the fact that he had been in the Navy for two years comes from; it also shows his home as Bridgeport, Alabama, his occupation as farmer, employed by his father, and his appearance as medium height, medium build, dark brown eyes and brown hair.

At some time after this Harry went back into the military and fought in the war. He reemerges in January 1920, when the census finds him living alone in an apartment at 207 Cedar Avenue in South Pittsburg, working as a machinist in a garage. Once baseball season began he was pitching for a team in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the independent Delta League. I didn’t find any stats for him there, but he must have been doing awfully well, since on August 4 he was signed by the Detroit Tigers. At the time it was reported that he would join the Tigers at the end of the month, but on August 11 the Detroit Times said:

Harry Baumgartner, a right-handed pitcher purchased from the Clarksburg [sic], Miss., club may report to the Tigers this week. The club needs him and Clarksburg [sic] has been asked to send him along now. He is likely to be put to work on the eastern trip.

I don’t know exactly when Harry reported, but he didn’t get into a game for Detroit until September 6. He relieved Howard Ehmke and pitched the bottom of the eighth in a 6-2 loss to the White Sox in Chicago—about three weeks before news of the Black Sox scandal broke; the first batter he faced was Swede Risberg, who flied out. That was the first game of a doubleheader, and Harry pitched in the second game as well, coming in to start the bottom of the eighth again, but this time he had a 4-2 lead, gave up the tying runs, and lost the game in the tenth.

Harry made five more relief appearances in September and two in October; his best outing was a scoreless 4 1/3 inning stint in a loss to the Browns at home on September 23, in which he faced one more than the minimum number of hitters. In his nine games for the Tigers he had a 4.00 ERA in 18 innings, striking out seven and walking six.

In January 1921 it was announced that the Tigers were sending Harry to Omaha of the Class A Western League. He did more starting than relieving there. On May 2 the Council Bluffs Evening Nonpareil included the interesting aside: “Baumgartner has no love for pitching on Sundays, but consented to go into the box because of the lack of other mound material.” In June he missed some time after a dispute with his manager, as the Evening Nonpareil reported on June 29:

BAUMGARTNER PUTS ON A “COME-BACK”

OMAHA HURLER SHUTS OUT ST. JOE AFTER BEING FINED—SCORE, 2 to 0.

OMAHA, Neb., June 28.—Pitcher Harry Baumgartner “came back” today to show the fans that he was not a sorehead but a real winner—for did not Umpire Daley on announcing the batteries call him “Mister Baumgartner” and did he not shut out the Josies by a score of 2 to 0.

He came back stronger than the fans participated [sic].

Last week Harry and Manager Burch had a few words on the field regarding a pinch hitter. The hurler was fined $25. He got sore, took off his uniform and announced to the wide world that he was through with the Burch Rods.

But the call of the diamond was too strong for Harry to stay away any length of time—especially when Omaha lost to St. Joseph by the score of 10 to 4. He would rather see Omaha beaten by the “Thoity-toid Street Sluggers” than the Josies. So last night the pipe of peace was smoked and Harry “came back.”

An August 21 article in the Omaha World-Herald on the off-season lives of the members of the team included:

Pitcher Harry Baumgartner 28, was born in South Pittsburg, Tenn., and has played professional ball three years. He was with Detroit last year, for six weeks. In the winter he says he does “odds and ends.” He spent two years in the navy and pitched for a team there. His father is in the cold storage business. He came to Omaha from Detroit.

On August 27 Harry, AWOL from Omaha again, pitched a shutout for the town of Corning in the championship game of the southwestern Iowa semipro tournament in Council Bluffs. On September 11 he pitched another game for Omaha before the season ended; he wound up with a 10-9 record in 143 innings in 28 games.

Harry returned to Omaha for 1922. From the Victoria (Texas) Advocate, April 13:

OMAHA WON THE OPENING CONTEST

Jim Hunt, local amateur wireless operator, last night succeeded in carrying on a conversation with Pitcher Harry Baumgartner, of the Omaha, Nebraska, Western League Baseball Team, which did its spring training in this city this year. Among other things, Mr. Baumgartner informed young Hunt that the Omaha team had succeeded in winning the opening game of the season by defeating the Oklahoma City Club 10 to 3, at Oklahoma City.

Static conditions were ideal for wireless telephone messages last night, according to the local operator. The voice of the Omaha pitcher was very distinct and the local operator had no difficulty in carrying on the conversation with him.

Pitcher Baumgartner stated that he would seek out a wireless telephone this (Thursday) evening for the purpose of informing Victorians of the outcome of today’s game and Jim Hunt will be on the job to catch the message, providing there are no disturbances in the atmosphere and the elements behave themselves.

Harry only pitched in six games for Omaha in 1922, allowing 23 hits, 14 walks and 14 runs in 11 innings, and was let go.

He caught on as player-manager for a semipro team in Missouri Valley, Iowa, not far from Omaha, and with his new team he returned to the southwestern Iowa tournament that he had won for Cornish the year before. On September 3, during a semifinal game against Hamburg, Harry inserted four ringers into the game, as described in the Omaha World-Herald in 1928:

Hamburg and Missouri Valley were engaged in a desperate 2-to-2 struggle, the game was in its fifth inning and the spectators were eagerly following every move. Then onto the playing field dashed Heinie Manush (now with the St. Louis Browns); Babe Herman (now with Brooklyn); Dick O’Connor and an infielder name [sic] Bates. All boldly wore their Western league uniforms.

A roar went up from the stands as the four reported to Manager Harry Baumgartner and were at once assigned to various positions on the Missouri Valley team. The Hamburg outfit protested in vain, and the game went on, with the fans, more or less neutral up to this point, backing Hamburg with lusty vocal encouragement…

The next day Missouri Valley lost the championship game to Corning, 8-4. From the September 5 Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil:

Harry Baumgartner, pitcher and manager of the Missouri Valley aggregation, was a badly depressed ball player shortly before the game began, for he realized that only by the rarest streak of luck could his team triumph over the champions of 1921. Because of the presence of Shortstop “Gyp” Haley, captain of the Corning team, in the champions’ lineup, Harry was barred, and so were all other players in organized baseball. Haley has been suspended from the ranks of organized baseball for five years, and Manager Burch of the Omaha Western league club, who still “owns” Baumgartner, declared he would blacklist the Missouri Valley manager if he played in a game against Haley. Outfielder “Watson,” who was really Dick O’Connor of the Omaha club, also was barred, and Baumgartner’s prospects for borrowing a pitcher from the Burch Rods went glimmering. Baumgartner wanted Dan Tipple and might have secured him, but for Haley’s presence. Cy Williams, and Joe Robinson, star players with Corning, jumped the Sioux City club, have not yet been blacklisted.

Tournament officials are considering the adaptation of a rule to cover situations like this, and also the bringing in of Western league players while a game is in progress, such as Missouri Valley did on Sunday. Next year’s tournament may provide that a team must play the same lineup it has been using for a month previous to the tourney, with the possible exception of one or two players.

From the Daily Nonpareil, May 27, 1923:

BAUMGARTNER WILL RUN A TEAM AGAIN

EX-MANAGER OF MISSOURI VALLEY BACK AND IS EAGER TO MEET CORNING.

Harry Baumgartner, former Burchrod and manager of Missouri Valley’s semipro club last year, paid a call to the officers of the Council Bluffs Athletic association Saturday. Baumgartner has just secured his unconditional release from organized baseball and is contemplating managing a semipro club in this vicinity again this year. He started the season in the Cotton States league in Mississippi.

Baumgartner requested the officials of the Athletic association to reserve him a place in the Southwestern Iowa tournament which will be held the latter part of August. While he did not know what town he would be representing, Harry is determined to have an entry and requested that his team be matched with Corning for the opening game.

With his release from organized baseball Baumgartner is free to pitch against any outlaws and he declares that he will strike “Jip” Haley and Robinson out every time they come to bat against him this year. “No more sitting on the bench and watching my team go down to defeat like last year,” says Harry.

An article a few days later in the Omaha World-Herald said that the Cotton States League team that Harry had been with was Laurel, and that he was released because “his arm ‘wouldn’t come around into shape.’” At any rate, the day after the Daily Nonpareil article ran Harry was already making his 1923 debut as manager and starting pitcher back with the Missouri Valley team. Missouri Valley did play in the big SW Iowa tournament, but Corning won for the third straight year. However, Harry would have bigger problems, as the Nonpareil reported on February 6, 1924:

HARRY BAUMGARTNER HAS THE ERYSIPELAS

Special to The Nonpareil.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Feb. 6.—Harry Baumgartner, manager of the Missouri Valley baseball team and former pitcher for the Omaha league team, is in a very serious condition with erysipelas and meningitis. His father came from Tennessee to be with him. Two nurses attend him and legion boys are also assisting in his care. His host of friends hope he may win the hard battle he is fighting.

Harry did win his hard battle, and he returned to Missouri Valley as manager and pitcher. However, in July he left to join the Mason City team in the Minnesota-Iowa League, which was either a semi-pro league or an independent professional league not part of organized baseball. An August 10 article in the Nonpareil about the upcoming SW Iowa tournament mentioned that Corning and Missouri Valley would not be there, and that “Reports have it that Baumgartner plans to secure leave of absence [from Mason City] in order to take part in the tournament with a team not yet decided.” He did pitch for Modale in the tournament, but he lost the opening game and they were eliminated. (Sioux City Stockyards won the tournament.) I don’t know whether Harry went back to Mason City; there was a mention of him pitching for Modale on September 7, after the tournament, against Corn State Serum. From the Nonpareil of October 12:

POPULAR COUPLE MARRIED

Miss Myrna Miller and Harry Baumgartner of Missouri Valley.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Ia., Oct. 11.—Miss Myrna Miller and Harry Baumgartner were united in marriage Thursday evening [the 9^th] at 9:30 by the Rev. Victor Johnson, pastor of the Christian church at the home of the bride’s parents.

The bride is the handsome and talented daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.M. Miller and is decidedly popular. She has taken an active part in the social life of the younger set. Mr. Baumgartner is perhaps the best known young man in the county and has a splendid reputation as a good citizen.

They will make their home here, where Mr. Baumgartner will continue as manager of the Sinclair oil station.

For 1925 Harry was back in organized baseball, with the Jackson Senators of the Cotton States League, Class D. He had a 5-3 record in ten games, with a freakishly low total of 18 strikeouts in 79 innings, before being released on May 23 to make room for the team’s player-manager returning to the active roster. A Sporting News item said that he had been sold to Atlanta of the Southern Association, but if he did pitch at all for Atlanta it was for less than the 45 innings required to show up in the league statistics. He did finish the season with the Jonesboro (Arkansas) Buffaloes of the Class D Tri-State League, where he had a 10-1 record in 12 games, allowing just 22 walks, and 21 strikeouts, in 94 innings.

In February 1926 it was announced that Jonesboro had traded Harry back to Jackson, for two players. He was their opening day starter, though he lost 5-0. From the July 19 Hattiesburg American:

Harry Baumgartner had another bad day yesterday, and it was very bad. The popular hurler not only lost his game, but he lost his temper also, which is the greater casualty.

If anybody else had been in a pugnacious mood yesterday, Harry might have had company in a fight or two, but the fellows he snapped at seemed willing to “laugh it off,” so peace prevailed.

Of course, Harry was sore when an Alexandria coach fooled him into pitching the ball to the coach, who let it roll to the negro grandstand, thus allowing Bill Pierre to score from first base. But although the folks sympathized with Baumgartner, that’s all they could do about it.

Two days later, though, it seemed like a bigger deal:

BAUMGARTNER IS SUSPENDED

Scott Relieves Jackson Pitcher During Investigation.

Special to the American.

JACKSON, Miss., July 21.—The Jackson baseball club yesterday was officially notified by President Frank A. Scott, of the Vicksburg club, that he had suspended Pitcher Harry Baumgartner, of the Jackson club, for creating a disturbance during a game between the Jackson and Alexandria clubs here last Saturday.

The suspension, it is understood, will continue until a hearing in the matter is held, or through ten days if there is no hearing. The local club is making efforts to have the suspension lifted, so Baumgartner can pitch the opening game at Monroe Thursday.

According to information received here, Umpire Steve Basil made a written report to President Scott about the affair, in which he declared Baumgartner struck Pitcher Ramsey, of the Alexandria club, while Ramsay [the two spellings are used interchangeably in the article] was coaching on third base. It will be recalled that Ramsay fooled Baumgartner into throwing the ball to the negro stand, thus allowing Pierre to score from first base.

Walking toward the club dugout Baumgartner was seen by the fans to step in the coaching box and exchange some remarks to Ramsey. Ramsey was facing the grandstand, and was grinning continuously, even when Baumgartner kiddingly rubbed Ramsey’s face with his gloved hand. Then Baumgartner continued to the dugout.

Had a blow been struck, had even harsh words been exchanged, other players naturally would have rushed forward—but every player remained in his position, and the umpire stayed near the pitcher’s slab, where he remained until Manager Barbare came from the dugout to ask him how come Pierre was allowed to score when ground rules allowed only one base on a ball thrown to the stands.

As a matter of fact hardly one per cent of the fans present knew what it was all about—and Basil himself was looking in a different direction when Baumgartner threw the ball, not knowing what was “on” until somebody later told him.

The suspension was lifted, but a fine stood. That wasn’t the end of Harry’s July troubles, though; from the July 27 American:

BURGLARS ROB JACKSON TEAM

They Enter Rooms of Players While on the Road and Get Away With Valuables

Special to the American.

JACKSON, Miss., July 27.—Burglars entered the rooms of three Jackson ball players during the absence of the team in Louisiana last weekend and stole a watch, four suits of clothes, and a Masonic ring. The theft victims were Harry Baumgartner, Cotton Tatum, Eddie Strelicki, and Rufus Meadows.

Harry finished the season with a 17-13 record in 40 games; Baseball Reference credits him with just 180 innings pitched, which seems unlikely given his other stats, which include 277 hits, 124 runs and 122 walks. And the Cotton States League season ended in time for him to once again pitch in the SW Iowa tournament; this year he won the Class B championship game (previously he had pitched for Class A teams) for Pacific Junction over Macedonia. The next day, before the Class A championship, Harry pitched a game for the Rock Islands of St. Louis, and three days after that he pitched for the Harrison County All-Stars against the Council Bluffs Athletics at the Harrison County Fair at Missouri Valley. And, two days after that, his eventful 1926 continued, as reported in the September 18 Omaha World-Herald:

RIOT AT BALL PARK IN MISSOURI VALLEY WHEN COLORED TEAM PLAYS

200 SPECTATORS IN MIXUP WHEN KLAN FEUD IS FANNED

COLORED BOYS MEANWHILE WATCHING THE “GO” FROM DUGOUT ON SIDELINES.

COUPLE CURTAIN RAISERS

Preceding the Big Show There Are Clashes at Home Plate and First Base—Nervy Citizens Stop Battle.

Special to The Nonpareil.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Ia., Sept. 18.—The old klan and anti-klan feeling, prevalent in Missouri Valley for the last several years, is blamed for the near-riot at the baseball game here yesterday between a Negro team from Sioux City and a group of county players. During the height of the disturbance more than 200 persons were on the field, milling about and striking each other with fists, but little attempt was made, after the first encounter, to molest the colored players. Last night four men, two of them ball players, were fined for participating in the affray. None of the colored men were arrested.

The first ill feeling manifested itself in the third inning, when Harry Baumgartner, formerly of this place, but who has been playing baseball in Mississippi this year, struck a Negro player who had run into him at the home plate. The player hit back and there was a lively fight. At length they were separated. Baumgartner was taken from the game and play was resumed. But in the next inning, a white player struck the Negro first baseman after being put out, and then the crowd got into the affray.

During the time the crowd was on the field, according to onlookers, the Negroes stood near their dugout, bats in hand, and were not bothered to any extent. But the crowd seemed to be divided, and there were a good many exchanges of fist blows. It appeared that many grasped opportunition to settle old grudges by walking up to the object of displeasure and striking him. For a time there seemed to be danger of more serious trouble, when J.N. “Sport” Fitzgibbon, gathered a number of fair officials around him and charged into the mob, forcing it from the field.

The game then broke up.

Last night the mayor held court and a dozen or more persons were arrested and given hearings. Four of them pleaded guilty and paid fines. They were Harry Baumgartner, $25 and costs; Jacake, his catcher, $10 and costs; Ira Henry, a farmer, $13.50, and M.J. Haines, $12.50 and costs.

“Milling about and striking each other with fists”—it’s like this was a new concept.

Harry returned to Jackson in 1927, but after losing 10-1 on May 11 he was released; he had had a 2-3 record in six games. Not yet 35 years old, he disappeared from the newspapers after that. He, with Myrna, appeared in the 1927 Jackson city directory, as a “base ball player” living at 430 N Jefferson. In 1929 he pops up in the Tampa, Florida, city directory, as an inspector for the US Immigration Bureau’s Border Patrol Service, living at 2810 Morgan, with Myrna’s name rendered as “Maryland.”

In the 1930 census, taken April 2, Harry and Myrna are in Punta Gorda, Florida, with three children: four-year-old Harriet, two-year-old Mary, and five-month-old Nicholas. Harry is listed as “emigration officer, federal service.” But eight months later, Harry was dead. His death certificate gives the place of death, and his residence, as the US Veterans Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. The doctor had been attending him since August 9. The cause of death was “infection from trophic ulcers,” which he had been suffering from for two months, one day; contributory were “compression spinal cord” (three months) and “psychosis manic depressive” (three months, 25 days). He had been operated on on September 11, which must have been for the spinal cord issue. The Augusta Chronicle ran an obituary on December 4:

EX-BASEBALL STAR DIES IN AUGUSTA

Harry E. Baumgartner, Former Detroit Pitcher Passes Away Here

Harry E. Baumgartner, 38, World war veteran and a former pitcher on the Detroit baseball club about six years ago [ten], died yesterday afternoon at the local infirmary. Funeral services will be held at South Pittsburg, Tennessee.

Mr. Baumgartner, after leaving baseball, became an immigration inspector in the coast guard service. He was brought to the hospital here six months ago.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Myrna Baumgartner, and one son, both of Tennessee.

I don’t know why the daughters don’t get mentioned in the obituary. Harry’s father Niklaus lived until 1950, Myrna 1988, Harriet 1996, Mary 2013, and Nicholas 2018.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbaumh101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baumgha01.shtml