Fred Zahner

Fred Zahner was a catcher for the Louisville Colonels in 1894 and 1895.

Frederick Joseph Zahner was born June 5, 1870, in Louisville, to Louis Frederick Zahner, who emigrated from Germany as a child, and Josephine, born in Indiana to German immigrants. In the 1873 Louisville city directory Louis is listed as a shoemaker for Shaw & Cimiotti, living at 302 Rowan. In the 1880 census the family lives at 513 Bank Street in Louisville; Louis, 38, “works in shoe factory,” Josephine is 36, sister Mary is 15 and was born in Indiana like her mother, and Fred is seven. A younger brother, Joseph, would be born in 1873.

In the 1887 city directory Fred, turning 17 that year, has his own listing as a clerk for the Jefferson, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. He is shown as a boarder at his parents’ house, 1241 W Jefferson, and Louis has gone into partnership as a shoe manufacturer, Zahner & Berle being located at 222 7^th.

The first reference I found to Fred as a baseball player was in the August 13, 1892, Frankfort Roundabout, where he is called one of “the finest players in the Louisville City League.” On April 22, 1893, Sporting Life reported: “Cincinnati tried a young catcher from Louisville named Zahner in an exhibition game. He caught well enough, but his throwing was not up to the mark.” The same publication, on August 26, mentioned that he was catching for the Lexington independent town team, with an aside that he was with Atlanta in 1892—but I found no other evidence of that. The 1893 Louisville directory shows him as a clerk, still boarding with his parents but now at 926 W Jefferson, while Zahner & Berle has moved to 239 6^th.

In the January 6, 1894, Sporting Life, their Louisville correspondent reported: “Catcher Fred Zahner is considering several offers from the Western League. Grim says that Zahner, when he gets steadied down in a fast company, is going to prove a star.”

Fred actually signed with the Charleston Seagulls of the Class B Southern Association. He played some catcher and a little outfield in 26 games before being let go in early June, as reported by the Sporting Life Louisville correspondent on June 16:

Zahner has been released; there was no fault to find with his catching, but we had Jocko Fields, and he is a whole team in himself, and Zahner could not play in the field. We are all sorry to see him go, but the club could not carry so many men.

By the time that saw print Fred had already been picked up by the Mobile Bluebirds of the same league, debuting with them on June 11. From the June 23 Sporting Life:

Wells has signed Zahner, the Charleston catcher whom Beard recently released. He caught an elegant game to-day and made two slashing hits. Nashville sent in his name to President Nicklin, but they are too late by several days.

Between the June 27 game and the June 29 game, the Mobile team relocated to Atlanta. In July, though, after playing in 14 games for Mobile/Atlanta (hitting .219 in 146 Southern Association at-bats), Fred was signed by his hometown Louisville Colonels of the National League, “as extra catcher and utility man.” He made his debut on July 23, at home against Cincinnati. He got into 14 games the rest of the way, ten at catcher, two in the outfield, one at first and one at shortstop. He made four errors in his one (12-inning) game at short, for a .636 fielding percentage, while behind the plate he made eight errors in 62 innings for a .778 mark. At bat he hit .204/.250/.245 in 49 at-bats. The September 8 Sporting Life included the observation “Zahner, the young Louisville player is a most promising catcher,” while the same issue included a quote from Louisville team president Stuckey: “Zahner seems to be too light for the big League. A year’s experience in the Southern League would do him good.” From the next week’s issue:

[Louisville teammate Pat] Flaherty says Manager Barnie is in love with Fred Zahner. “When we was playing in N’ York,” said Pat, “Zahner was behind the bat a-digging ‘em out o’ the ground and a-pulling ‘em out o’ the sky. Pitcher was wild, see. Johnny Ward says to me, ‘That man’ll be a star next year. He only needs a little training.’ That’s right, too.”

The 1894 Louisville directory still listed Fred as a clerk boarding with his parents, but the address changed once again, to 724 6^th. The December 15 Sporting Life mentioned that Fred was “acting as an indoor base ball umpire at Louisville, where that game is doing better than the outdoor game.”

The Louisville report in the March 2, 1895, Sporting Life said that:

Fred Zahner, the Louisville catcher, has been farmed out to Atlanta. He will be recalled if his services are needed. It is thought one year more in the minor league will fit him permanently for big League company.

Sporting Life New York correspondent, March 16:

So Zahner has been “farmed” out. Last year when the Louisville collection was here Zahner appeared to be the only one of the new men who showed up better than an amateur.

Atlanta correspondent, March 23:

I noticed in last week’s “Life” where it is reported that Fred Zahner, the ex-Louisville catcher, has been farmed out to Atlanta. This is incorrect, for much as Knowles would like to have him on his team, he has no room for him, having two first-class catchers signed, with no need for another. Knowles was offered the services of Zahner, but for this reason had to decline. Now, here’s a rattling good catcher, hard hitter and most desirable acquisition to any club South needing a valuable man in the points, and the club which signs him will be glad of it before the dog days set in.

Louisville ended up keeping Fred. On May 18 the Sporting Life Louisville correspondent reported: “Zahner has been doing a good deal of the catching lately, and from the way he has done his work will likely take his regular turn behind the bat, as his hitting has been good and no fault is found with his catching.” In the same issue, the New York correspondent opined: “Manager McCloskey displayed good judgment in wisely reconsidering his intention to “farm out” catcher Zahner. Keep your weather eye on this youngster.”

The June 15 Sporting Life included the report that “Catcher Zahner, of Louisville, has just begun playing after being laid up with a split finger. Despite this fact he does good work.” But in the same issue the Louisville correspondent wrote:

The team seems to need catchers quite as bad as pitchers, neither Walsh nor Zahner being up to League standard.

There are many who think Zahner has in him the making of an ideal short stop, and that with a little practice he would make a permanent good man in that position for the team.

The June 29 Louisville report includes:

Both the catchers are unfit for work, and have been for the last two weeks. O’Brien is barely able to be out of bed, and is suffering from some of Griffin’s brutality. Zahner writes that he has had to have four stitches taken in his back.

That same issue it was reported that Louisville had signed two new catchers, and in the next week’s issue it was reported that the Grand Rapids Gold Bugs of the Class A Western League had signed Fred. The Gold Bugs’ box scores show him catching 11 games in 11 days, but the July 20 Sporting Life reported that “The Grand Rapids Club have released catcher Zahner, who is ill, and secured catcher Moran from the Chicago Club.” In that same issue the Grand Rapids correspondent wrote:

Back in the catcher’s box we have the best work seen this season on the team in the work of Zahner, the man gotten from Louisville. He promises to be a winner for us.

Whatever Fred’s illness was, he was back with Louisville. He got into a few games at the end of July and beginning of August, playing what would be his last major league game on August 5. On August 17 it was reported that he had been sent back to the Western League, this time with the Kansas City Blues. From the August 24 Sporting Life Louisville report:

Catcher Zahner has gone to Kansas City, where he will play out the balance of the season. The boy is a good enough catcher, but needs experience and when he learns more of the tricks and turns of the business will be more valuable. His experience with Kansas City will do him good. He is a fixture on the home team, however, and will be retained next year.

In the same issue the Grand Rapids correspondent wrote:

When Zahner came from Louisville, joy was in our hearts because he was a hard worker and a splendid catcher. He conveniently became sick and went back to Louisville. He is now playing with the Kansas Citys.

Fred did play out the balance of the season in Kansas City, backing up the ill-fated Marty Bergen. His Western League totals were 28 games (13 for Grand Rapids, 15 for Kansas City), all at catcher, where his .933 fielding percentage was a big improvement, and at the plate a .274 batting average in 102 at-bats. While with Louisville he hit .224/.321/.286 in the same number of at-bats as in 1894, 49, in 21 games, all at catcher, where he fielded just .824. In October the Colonels signed a new catcher, and it was reported that Fred would likely not be back; meanwhile he appeared on the Kansas City reserve list. The 1895 Louisville directory showed Fred as a clerk with T. Bart Dean, but otherwise his and his father’s information was unchanged.

In February 1896 Fred signed with Dubuque of the Class B Western Association. The May 9 Sporting Life claimed that “Catcher Zahner, of Dubuque, formerly of Louisville, had up to April 30 made a home run in every exhibition and championship game participated in by him since the opening of the season.” I don’t know how many exhibition games there might have been, but from the start of the regular, or championship, season on April 23 through April 30 the only game in which Fred homered was April 28, and he was playing in all of them.

Fred did most of the catching for Dubuque until late July, when the league disbanded. There was talk of continuing with four of the original eight teams, but that fell through. As the Dubuque correspondent to Sporting Life reported in the August 8 issue:

…Secretary Skemp wished to have each club put $1000 bond to continue the season. It was a lucky thing they didn’t do it, as further incidents have shown.

The local directors becoming tired of the way Raymond was managing the team, and his continual drinking, released him, and also infielder Tighe, for economical reasons. When Long and Zahner heard this they sent word that they would quit. Then the directors notified President Hickey to blacklist them (Long and Zahner), which was done.

These affairs left the club with but seven men, and after several attempts to secure men from the Rockford Club they had no alternative but to disband…

Long and Zahner were praised too much by the press when they first came here, and that’s what spoiled them. But if they ever appear here again they will get a cold reception.

Fred had played in 72 games for Dubuque, catching all of them with an .874 fielding percentage, and hit .262. Despite the supposed blacklisting he soon got picked up by the Syracuse Stars of the Class A Eastern League, moving up a notch, where he served as backup to Jack Ryan. From the Louisville report in the September 5 Sporting Life:

News has come home that Manager McGunnigle expects to land a new catcher within a few days, but no names are given out as to who the man is. The club certainly needs strength in the catching department. Dexter is a hard worker, but has had too much to do, and evidently feels the effect of it. Catcher Fred Zahner, who is now with Syracuse, but who was formerly with Louisville, is a son of Zahner, of the shoe manufacturing firm of Zahner & Berle, of Louisville. The senior Zahner takes a great deal of interest naturally in Fred’s welfare. He says that when Dubuque disbanded that Manager McGunnigle met Fred in Chicago and tried hard to get him to come to Louisville, but Fred still felt sore over the way he had been treated by Louisville last year, and preferred to go with Harry Raymond to Syracuse, and it is believed that he shows to better advantage this season than he did when he was one of Louisville’s regular catchers. It may be that he is the one Manager McGunnigle is after.

Fred stayed with Syracuse the rest of the season; the Syracuse report in the September 26 Sporting Life said that “Catcher Zahner did fairly good work, but lacked the experience of Ryan.” He got into 20 games for the Stars, catching in 19 of them, hitting .281 in 64 at-bats and finishing last among the league’s catchers with an .880 fielding percentage. In the 1896 Louisville directory he was listed as a ball player, while his, and his father’s, other information stayed the same.

During the off-season Syracuse signed catcher Al Shaw, and there was speculation that Fred was now expendable. From the February 13, 1897, Burlington (Iowa) Hawk Eye:

Catcher Fred Zahner is anxious to get away from the Syracuse club. He is on that team’s reserve list, but he does not think that he has received exactly the proper treatment from them. He has had several chances to better himself, but it seems that the Syracuse people are inclined to act the “dog in the manger.” He says that rather than go back to Syracuse he may retire from the diamond and re-enter business with his brother-in-law, Billy Bosler [sister Mary’s husband, though I found no indication that they were ever in business previously].

A couple weeks later Fred got his release. In April he caught the end of an exhibition game for St. Paul against the Colonels in Louisville as a tryout, but St. Paul manager Charlie Comiskey passed. Eventually Fred signed with the Rochester Brownies, returning to the Eastern League. He didn’t play a lot for the Brownies, doing some catching and filling in a couple games in right field. During a mid-June series in Rochester against Buffalo Fred was released by the Brownies and signed by the Bisons, who were desperate for a catcher. From the Buffalo report in the July 10 Sporting Life:

FRED. ZAHNER

After the disability of Urquhart and of Smith what on earth would we have done without this great catcher? Marvelously agile behind the bat, perfect in sacrificing, he, too, has directly won more than one game by safe base hits, and it is the greatest wonder in the world that Rowe was lucky enough to get such a man at this season of the year. In Dubuque last year he was the club’s mainstay, but in Syracuse and in Rochester he evidently did not suit, for they released him. The only solution seems to be that the Louisville boy’s surroundings in those towns were not satisfactory. Apparently they are congenial here, for Zahner, as honest and good-hearted an appearing fellow as ever lived, goes behind the bat as if he were eager to get there, coaches the pitchers and some of the others (who, by the way, need a little advice some times), and generally puts up a gingery game that is refreshing to see. Averaging up around .300 and .950, and showing himself able to go in every day if necessary Buffalo should hang on to Colonel Z.

The Buffalo correspondent continued to rave about Fred in the August 14 issue:

It is sad, but the once proud Bisons, who hadn’t been headed, are now tied for third. Why? We have so many weak hitters, and some of the poorest coaches that ever drew breath, and so few men who cultivate the gentle art of stealing bases. Backwoods pitchers that no one ever heard of before come up here and hold the boys down to eight, five, even two hits. Then, too, a spirit of langorous ease seems to drift over the aggregation from time to time and envelops our young men in its ethereal influence, all except, possibly, Gilboy and Zahner…

Justice compels me to say, however, that Jim Brown’s stomach trouble…and Zahner’s broken thumb, have a great deal to do with our slump…

Earnest Fred Zahner’s thumb became complicated with the ball last week and the thumb was broken. Now what are we going to do for a catcher that isn’t partially disabled? Zahner’s injury was the worst thing that could have happened to the Buffalos just now, for he was playing the best ball of the team. Hard-working, yet finding time to be sociable, a good batter or sacrifice hitter, and as good a catcher as they make, Fred Zahner is the best catcher we have had in years. And how he has worked! I don’t know whether he is related to the wholesale manufacturer of ladies’ boots and shoes in Louisville, but if he has any interest in the business I hope said business waxes and multiplies right smart.

Things seem to have gone south from there, though, as shortly before the end of the season Fred was released. From the Buffalo report in the September 25 Sporting Life:

…Fred Zahner was also handed his manumission papers at the same time. It is probable that the cause which shut out Leewe also got Zahner off the team—that is, lack of popularity with his companions. This may not be true, however. Zahner’s showing was .270 and .954, not so bad either way. He was a good sacrifice hitter, and displayed more ginger than some catchers who have been on the local team during the past 10 years. In the Western Association or in the Inter-state League he would be a star.

Fred played in 60 games in 1897, 47 of them for Buffalo, and hit .266 with a fielding percentage of .938, in the middle of the pack for the league’s catchers. From the Sporting Life Louisville report in the January 1, 1898 issue:

Fred. Zahner, who played with Buffalo last season, has not yet signed for next year. He is in excellent shape, but may not go out next year unless he gets an offer to his liking, as on account of recent political events [?] it may be more to his advantage to remain at home.

February 12:

Catcher Fred Zahner is doing so well with his recently-secured livery stable in Louisville that he will retire permanently from base ball.

March 19:

Fred Zahner’s retirement appears to be the real thing, after all, as he has just refused a good offer from Ottumwa. Fred is manager of the sales stables of his brother-in-law in Louisville, and is earning more money at it than he can playing ball.

January 28, 1899:

Catcher Fred Zahner, who played with the Colonels in 1896 [no], and later in the Eastern League, but who laid off last year, giving his attention to his sale stable, is looking for an engagement and wants to go out again next season. Zahner is in excellent physical shape and his long rest has improved him wonderfully. He is still a very young man and will make a strong addition to some club.

For a few weeks in March there were reports that Pittsburgh (Pittsburg in those days) might sign him, but they didn’t, and neither did anyone else. The 1898 and 1899 Louisville directories showed Fred as still living at 724 6^th with his parents, with a livery at 123 E Market. The 1900 census, taken June 7, showed two families at 724 6^th. Louis, shown as L. Fred Zahner, now 58, shoe manufacturer, owns the house; Josephine is 56, “civil engineer” Frederick is shown as 29 (though he had turned 30 two days before), and bookkeeper Joseph is 26; also part of the household is 17-year-old German servant Bertha Moser. The other part of the house is taken up by sister Mary and her husband William Bosler, listed as a bailiff in the city court, and their 14-year-old son William Jr.

About seven weeks later, on July 24, Fred died. From the July 25 Jeffersonville (Indiana) Evening News:

FELL

Head Foremost Out Of The Boat And Was Drowned Last Evening.

DEATH OF POPULAR FRED ZAHNER.

Fred Zahner, who was well known in this city, where he had frequently played ball was drowned in the river last evening at a point about opposite Ohio avenue. Before becoming a ball player Zahner was connected with the P.C.C. & St. L., and made trips to this side every day checking up cars back of the prison. He had many friends here, and, in fact, was popular everywhere he went. He was 30 years of age and was married [no he wasn’t]. It was while returning from this city to Louisville that the accident happened.

Joe Zahner, a brother of the drowned man, is an expert oarsman and belongs to the Pastime Boat Club and has been in the habit of taking Fred Zahner out riding frequently. Often they would come to this side and spend an hour or so with friends. In this way Fred Zahner learned to row, but could not swim. Last evening Fred Zahner wanted to come over to this side but his brother had other things to attend to and another companion, Pierre Marconnat, consented to come along. They reached this side and remained here until about 6:30 when they went down the hill to return home. Here a dispute arose as to who should pull the boat. Zahner said he would not and Marconnat said he could not as he did not know how.

After considerable squabbling, however, Marconnat took the oars and managed to get out in mid stream below the Big Four bridge. A storm was coming up, the steamer City of Cincinnati was coming down and the City of Jeffersonville was coming toward this city. This frightened Marconnat, who told Zahner he had better handle the oars.

Marconnat bent to one side to let him pass. The skiff tipped far to one side, and Zahner went head-first into the water. He rose once, beating the water wildly and calling for help. His frightened companion tried to turn the boat to him, but under awkward management it drifted farther away. Two fishermen, 60 feet off, stopped running a trot-line to watch the antics of the man in the water. They thought he had fallen from his boat on purpose and was playing. In a minute Zahner had sunk.

His companion pulled to the shore and notified the life-savers. Capt. Devan sent a crew immediately, but nothing could be done on account of darkness and an approaching storm.

Sporting Life reported the fact of Fred’s drowning in their August 4 issue, and added details on their front page the following week:

ZAHNER’S DEATH.

Particulars as to the Accident Which Cost the Well-Known Player His Life.

In the last issue of “Sporting Life” was briefly mentioned the telegraphic news that catcher Zahner had lost his life by drowning, at Louisville, on July 24. By mail we have received the following details of the sad affair:

“Zahner and a companion had gone to Jeffersonville in a skiff and were on the return trip when the accident occurred. Zahner rowed half way across the river, and then gave the oars to the other man, who wanted to learn how to row. He practiced for about ten minutes, when Zahner, who was in the stern of the skiff, got up and started to walk to the centre to take the oars. He had taken only a step or two when he lost his balance and fell into the river. He was a poor swimmer, but managed to keep above water for some time, shouting to his companion to come to him. The other man, however, being unable to row, could not help. Zahner sank in about 30 feet of water. The young man was 29 years of age [30] and unmarried [correct]. He caught for the Louisville Club in 1897 [no], and had been a member of minor league teams. He was one of the most popular young men in Louisville and his sad fate it generally mourned.”

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Z/Pzahnf101.htm

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