George Gates Bristow (May 13, 1870 – October 17, 1939) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player. He played three games as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed ...

in 1899. Bristow was 5 feet, 10 inches, and weighed 170 pounds."George Bristow Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 6, 2011.

Career

Bristow was born in

Paw Paw, Illinois Paw Paw is a village in Lee County in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the village was home to 830 people, down from 870 at the 2010 census. It was settled in the mid 19th century and by 1878 the village had a railroad connectio ...

, in 1870. He started his professional baseball career in 1894."George Bristow Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 6, 2011. In 1895, Bristow was a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and captain for the Texas-Southern League's

Galveston Sandcrabs The Galveston Sand Crabs were a professional baseball team based in Texas. The team competed in the South Texas League and Texas League, and was an active baseball team from the 1903 season until the 1912 season and from 1922 to 1924. The team later ...

. He won 23 consecutive games that year, breaking Jack Luby's "world's record" of 20. Bristow, who played second base while not pitching, also had a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .341 in 89 games. Bristow spent most of the following season playing for the Newark Colts of the Atlantic League. In 52 games there, he batted .324 and had a 10-7

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

as a pitcher. Bristow then had one-year stints in the Texas League (

Waco Tigers The Waco Tigers were a minor league baseball team based in Waco, Texas. Between 1892 and 1905, the Tigers played in four non–consecutive seasons as members of the Texas League, with three of the seasons being partial seasons of play. The Waco Ti ...

) and Southwestern League before being acquired by the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

's Cleveland Spiders in early 1899. He made his major league debut on April 15 against pitcher

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

, going hitless.Hetrick, p. 166. On April 21, he sprained his ankle and had to leave the game. Bristow's third appearance came on May 8, when he replaced an ejected

Lave Cross Lafayette Napoleon Cross (born Vratislav Kriz, May 12, 1866 – September 6, 1927) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman from to . Cross played most of his 21-year career with Philad ...

. Bristow doubled in that game for his first and only major league hit.Hetrick, p. 40. Later that month, he was released to the Western League's Kansas City Blues and never appeared in the majors again. For the next few years, Bristow played in the minors. He batted .251 in the Western League in 1900 before moving on to the Iowa-South Dakota League, Pacific National League,

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, and

Northwestern League The Northwestern League was a sports league that operated in the Central United States during the early years of professional baseball for five seasons: 1879, 1883–1884, and 1886–1887. After the 1887 season, the league was replaced by the We ...

, where he was a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

in 1905. Bristow's professional baseball career ended in 1906. He died in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (locat ...

, in 1939, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bristow, George 1870 births 1939 deaths Baseball players from Illinois Bellingham Gillnetters players Cleveland Spiders players Des Moines Prohibitionists players Fall River Indians players Galveston Sandcrabs players Helena Senators players Hot Springs (minor league baseball) players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Le Mars Blackbirds players Major League Baseball outfielders Minor league baseball managers Newark Colts players Paterson Silk Weavers players People from Paw Paw, Illinois Portland Green Gages players St. Joseph Saints players Salt Lake City Elders players Seattle Siwashes players Spokane Indians players Victoria Legislators players Waco Tigers players 19th-century baseball players