Dave Bartosch was an outfielder for the 1945 St. Louis Cardinals.
David Robert Bartosch was born March 24, 1917, in St. Louis,
the second of three children of Henry
and Anna Bartosch. The 1920 census shows the family at 3723 Pennsylvania Avenue
in St. Louis, a house they own on a mortgage. Henry, 30, a plumber, and Anna,
28, were both born in Missouri; this census says that Henry’s parents were born
in Germany and Anna’s in Missouri, while the 1930 census will show the reverse.
Henry Jr. is five and David is two.
For the 1930 census the family is at 3016S Chippewa Street
in St. Louis, a house they own outright that is valued at $12,000. Henry is
still a plumber, Henry Jr. is 16, David is 13, and sister Anna Maxine is three.
As a teenager Dave was an accomplished athlete. He first attained
prominence as a high school swimmer from 1934-36, winning various events,
mostly freestyle, not only in school competitions but AAU and YMCA meets as
well. From the March 12, 1936, St. Louis Neighborhood News:
Another Johnny Weissmuller and “Buster” Crabbe, are the
complimentary comparisons being tendered Dave Bartosch, Cleveland aquatic star,
this week. It was a pleasure, an awesome one at that, to see Dave actually lap
the field in the 220 yard breast stroke event of the fourth annual Public High
League swim meet, held Saturday evening in Wilson Pool, Washington University…
Dave finished high school that spring and then signed a
contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was sent to the Daytona Beach
Islanders of the Class D Florida State League, where he played right field. He
hit .285 and slugged .375 in 37 games, and then was moved to another Class D
league, the Alabama-Florida League, and the Union Springs Springers, where he
played center field and hit .304/.345/.411 in 31 games. In December, back in
St. Louis, Dave lost in the semi-finals in the Globe-Democrat Golden Glove
squash tournament.
For 1937 the Cardinals kept Dave in Class D, but this time
with the Union City Greyhounds of the Kitty (Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee)
League. He played left and center and hit .337 to lead the league; he slugged
.477 with 31 doubles, eight triples, and eight homers in 505 at-bats, also
leading the league in hits, total bases, and RBI (103). After the season he was
moved all the way up to AA, to the roster of the Columbus Red Birds of the
American Association. In December he won a Sidney Hills health club’s squash
instructors squash tournament; in March 1938 he was competing in a badminton
tournament for the Leon’s Health Club team.
Dave opened the 1938 season not with Columbus but with the
Asheville Tourists of the Class B Piedmont League. In June he was sent back to
Class D and the Kitty League, this time to the Paducah Indians, who had
replaced Union City as the Cardinals affiliate in the league. An article in the
June 23 Paducah Sun-Democrat said that:
Three players assigned to the Indians still have not
arrived. They are Dave Bartosch, hard-hitting outfielder from Asheville who
went to St. Louis to talk matters over with [St. Louis general manager Branch]
Rickey after his transfer here…
An article on the front page of the same edition of the same
newspaper reported that Dave was accompanying Rickey, who had been invited to
attend that evening’s game by the Paducah Junior Chamber of Commerce, to town.
Dave played left for Paducah, and filled in at first base
due to an injury. He hit in his first 15 games, through July 5; on July 11 it
was announced that he had been voted to the Kitty League all-star team that
would play against first-place Mayfield on the 13th. Also on the 11th
Dave and his teammates appeared in an item in the Society News section of the Paducah
Sun-Democrat:
Mr. and Mrs. Bryan Hosts At Supper
Mr. and Mrs. Holland G. Bryan complimented members of the
Paducah Indians baseball team at a chicken and watermelon supper Sunday evening
at their home on Woodland drive. Supper was served buffet style on the lawn.
The July 14 Sun-Democrat included an account of the
all-star game, in which Dave batted third and played first base, and the
following item: “Dave Bartosch, Paducah first baseman, and Tom Franey, Mayfield
rightfielder, forgot the Paducah-Mayfield athletic feud after the All-Star game
and went to St. Louis together…”
On August 9 Dave moved back to the outfield, and immediately
crashed into the fence and injured both wrists and his head. On the 12th
the Sun-Democrat reported that he had gone back to St. Louis for several
days; on the 16th they reported that he was back; on the 20th
he was recalled by Asheville. With Paducah he hit .290/.399/.477 in 176 at-bats
in 46 games, and stole 12 bases. In his two stints with Asheville he hit
.263/.306/.388 in 289 at-bats in 73 games.
In January 1939 the Cardinals moved Dave laterally to another
Class B team, the Decatur Commodores of the Three-I League. A January 31
article in the Springfield Illinois State Journal mentioned that he had
suffered from an illness during 1938, but I didn’t find any mentions of it at
the time. In St. Louis in March, before leaving for spring training, he
competed in another squash tournament.
Dave won a starting outfield berth with Decatur, but at the
end of May they put him on the suspended list (which was basically an inactive
list) to stay under the roster limit, and on June 12 the Cardinals sent him
down to Class C, to the Portsmouth Red Birds of the Middle Atlantic League.
With Decatur he had hit .253/.306/.407 in 26 games. The Portsmouth Daily
Times mentioned on June 19: “Still talking about the shoestring catch by
Dave Bartosch, new right fielder, which saved their 2-to-0 nightcap victory in
the 11th inning at Dayton Saturday night, the Portsmouth Red
Birds returned home late Sunday…” On July 20 they reported:
Don’t think Dave Bartosch isn’t paddling the ball. In the
nine games prior to Wednesday’s contest he hit safely 19 times in 32 times at
bat for a .594 average. That’s what we call massaging the pellet or what have
you…
On August 16 the Canton Repository reported that “a
pitching speed meter” had “made its first Canton appearance at Lakeside last
night” before a Portsmouth-Canton game; Dave was measured at 122 feet per
second, which was third behind two players who hit 128. On August 25 he pitched
the last five innings of a 13-2 loss, allowing two runs on two hits.
With the Red Birds Dave hit .304/.357/.401 in 319 at-bats in
83 games, and was named honorable mention on the league’s all-star team. The
September 9 Portsmouth Daily Times ran a story on what the Red Birds
were doing over the winter; after mentioning that pitcher Allen Turner might do
some wrestling, the article continued:
Dave Bartosch’s ambition is far from wrestling. The
fair-haired outfielder plans to study voice (he swings a mean baritone)
wherever he is—in Portsmouth or at his home in St. Louis.
Despite Dave’s solid stint with Portsmouth, the Cardinals
moved him down to the roster of the Williamson Red Birds of the Class D
Mountain States League. By the time the 1940 season opened the census was
taken, which showed the same five members of the Bartosch family living in the
same house, though the address had been changed from 3016S to 3016A Chippewa
Street, and the value of the house had plummeted from $12,000 to $3000. Henry,
now age 50, had worked 20 hours the previous week, and 26 weeks of the previous
year, as a plumbing contractor. Henry Jr. had worked 40 hours and 52 weeks, as
a postal clerk earning $1900 a year. David is shown as not employed for pay,
seeking work, and a baseball player for a semi-pro club [?] who earned $830 for
24 weeks of work in 1939.
I don’t know what Dave was doing that spring and summer—if
he played for Williamson it wasn’t enough to get into the league stats—until
June 29, when it was announced that he had been acquired from the Cardinals by
the El Dorado Oilers of the Class C Cotton States League. He played four games
at first base for El Dorado, including one in which he hit two home runs,
before he went to another Cotton States team, the former Pine Bluff Judges, who
had just changed their name to the Red Rovers and apparently started playing
only road games.
Dave played mostly third base for the Red Rovers. His Cotton
States stats for the season: .258/.314/.384 in 271 at-bats in 68 games.
At some point in 1940-41 Dave filled out his draft
registration card. It’s undated, but he gives his age as 23, which puts it
between March 1940 and March 1941. He gives his address as 3016A Chippewa, his
employer as the Henry Bartosch Plumbing Company, and his appearance as 6-1,
180, hazel eyes, blonde hair, and light complexion.
Dave disappears for a bit after that. I found no evidence of
his playing professional baseball in 1941, and at some point he joined the
Coast Guard. He next pops up in the March 28, 1943, St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
Irene Kuehner Is Bride-Elect
Miss Irene Jane Kuehner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George P.
Kuehner, 5200 Tamm avenue, announced her engagement to David Robert Bartosch,
United States Coast Guard. The prospective bridegroom is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Bartosch, 3016 Chippewa street.
Miss Kuehner is a graduate of Fontbonne College.
Same newspaper, May 15:
234 Orchids Worth $1100 for Wedding of Coast Guardsman
What was termed the largest single order of orchid bouquets
in the history of St. Louis was being made up yesterday by the Witek Flower
Company, 4732 McPherson avenue, for the wedding at 7 p.m. today of Miss Irene
Kuehner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Kuehner, 5200 Tamm avenue, to Coast
Guard Seaman David Bartosch, 3016A Chippewa street, at Memorial Presbyterian
Church.
The bride and her attendants will carry eight bouquets
valued at $1100. Fred Strohmeyer, Witek manager, said.
Miss Kuehner’s bouquet will consist of 72 white orchids,
while the five bridesmaids will hold orchid chains 4 feet long and containing
30 flowers each. The two flower girls will carry clusters of six orchids each.
The church chancel will be decorated with white gladioli and white larkspur.
Miss Kuehner is a graduate of Fontbonne College and for the
last three years has been assistant secretary to her father, a wholesale
florist and orchid importer. Bartosch is stationed at the Coast guard office in
the Old Federal Building.
Dave was honorably discharged in December 1944, and he was
invited to 1945 spring training with the Cardinals; he made the team. On April
28 he made his major league debut at Cincinnati, pinch hitting for second
baseman Emil Verban against Arnold Carter in the top of the seventh in a
scoreless tie. He grounded out to Carter, and the Reds went on to win in the
bottom of the ninth.
His next appearance was in the second game of a doubleheader
in Pittsburgh on May 2. He pinch-hit for pitcher Stan Partenheimer in the top
of the eighth, down 11-1, and singled against Max Butcher. On May 6 the Providence
Journal reported:
The Cardinals tried out an outfielder, Dave Bartosch, this
Spring who once didn’t know whether he would pursue a career on the ball field
or in the opera…So he picked the diamond and decided his rich baritone wouldn’t
be completely wasted—in the shower-room quartet…[ellipses part of original]
A week later he pinch-hit against Vic Lombardi at Brooklyn
and doubled and scored a run. Two days later, still in Brooklyn, he got his
first major league start, leading off and playing right field against Tom
Seats; he went 1-for-4 as the Cardinals lost 7-0. He led off the game by
reaching first on an error on Eddie Stanky—this was followed by three singles
yet somehow Dave only made it to third base before the third out.
Dave got five more starts in the outfield in May, the
highlight coming on May 21 on another trip to Brooklyn when he got three
singles and a walk, scored a run and batted in another. He got into several
games in the first half of June but played sparingly after that, and on July 24
the Cardinals sent him to Columbus. This concluded his major league career, in
which he hit .255/.340/.277 (the one double was his only extra-base hit) in 47
at-bats in 24 games. The Cardinals voted him a half share of their second-place
portion of the World Series money.
Dave played the outfield for Columbus, and hit just
.223/.274/.277 in 184 at-bats in 50 games; this concluded his minor league
career, at age 28. Over the next several years his name appeared regularly in
the St. Louis newspapers, as he pitched in semi-pro and amateur baseball and appeared
in golf and bowling tournaments. In the 1950 census Dave, 33, his marriage
apparently over, is living with his parents and sister (Henry Jr. has moved
out) at 3016A Chippewa. Henry, 61, worked 40 hours the previous week as a
journeyman plumber, Dave 40 hours as an insurance salesman, and Anna Maxine,
24, 40 hours as a grade school teacher.
Four months later, in August, Dave married 26-year-old Dorothy
L. Huggins. In 1960 he was on a list of 55 former major league players living
in the St. Louis area who had been invited by the Cardinals to a ceremony in
their honor before the game of July 1 (the Cardinals would do this again in
1963). Also in 1960 he was a member of a Citizen’s Committee formed to back a sewer
bond issue. In 1961 he ran for the city council of Florissant, a suburb to the
north of St. Louis, but lost. In 1963 he was appointed City Treasurer of
Florissant after the resignation of the predecessor.
In 1966 Dorothy gave birth to son Jeffrey, in Los Angeles; I’m
not sure how or when they ended up there, or what Dave was doing. In 1969 Dave
was hired as a scout by the Cardinals. From the June 30, 1974, Springfield
Republican:
Scouting: ‘A Job Nobody Quits’
By Tom Shea
Republican Staff
“It’s the kind of job that no one quits. Most are very happy
with it. It’s the kind of job you don’t get rich, but there are benefits that
are unseen. Like watching a boy progress, meeting some nice people and having
the pleasant occupation of watching baseball for a living.”
The above is a description of Dave Bartosch’s job. He
happens to be the Northeast Scouting Supervisor for the St. Louis Cardinals.
His duties are to view high school and college games in the
spring prior to the June Free Agent Draft. His territories cover New Jersey to
Maine.
Bartosch had a half dozen or so scouts under him. The
arrangement being a scout will recommend a player to be drafted, and it will be
Bartosch that makes the final decision to recommend the prospect to be drafted.
“We cross check the scouts to really see who has the
potential to play pro ball,” noted the Suffield, Conn., resident who played in
the Cardinal chain…
Dave moved to the Cubs organization in 1980, and to the
Padres in 1982; he was mentioned in a March 1983 article as being involved in
the scouting of a player in Mexico. On October 14, 1985, Dorothy passed away in
Newhall, Los Angeles County, at age 62.
On October 1, 1992, Dave, then 75, was one of four scouts whose
contracts the Padres announced they would not be renewing. He passed away on
April 30, 2006, about a month after his 89th birthday, and was
buried in Newhall with Dorothy.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbartd102.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bartoda01.shtml
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