George W. Creamer (1855 – June 27, 1886), born George W. Triebel, was an American
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), ...
second baseman from
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. He played with four teams in two leagues: the
Milwaukee Grays
The Milwaukee Grays were a short-lived baseball team that spent one year, 1878, in the National League.
The team was part of the League Alliance, loosely affiliated with the National League, in 1877. It won 19 games and lost 13 (including a 10†...
(), the
Syracuse Stars (), the
Worcester Ruby Legs
The Worcester Worcesters were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team from 1880 to 1882 in the National League. The team is referred to, at times, as the Brown Stockings or the Ruby Legs; however, no contemporary sources from the time exist tha ...
(–), and the
Pittsburgh Alleghenys
The following is a history of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball.
Franchise beginnings (1870s-1899) Early baseball in Pittsburgh and the American Association
The earliest mention of "base ball" in the region was found in the journal ...
(–).
On August 20, 1883, after a game between the
Louisville Eclipse
The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as th ...
and the Alleghenys‚ Creamer and fellow players
Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the a ...
and
Mike Mansell were each fined $100 and suspended indefinitely for drunkenness.
In , the Alleghenys finished with a 30-78-2 record and went through five managers. Creamer was the fourth of these managers, serving from August 6 to August 16 and losing all eight games he managed.
Creamer was signed by the Baltimore Orioles before the 1885 season, but in March, newspaper reports said that he was very sick with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
and not expected to play baseball again.
Players from the
Chiacgo White Stockings took up a collection for Creamer and gave him $65. A benefit for him was scheduled for May 1 at the Academy of Music in Pittsburgh.
A July 1885 newspaper article referred to a benefit that raised $200 for Creamer.
In early May 1886, newspaper reports described Creamer as very ill in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
.
He died in Philadelphia, where he was interred at
Greenwood Cemetery.
[Philadelphia Death Certificate, retrieved from familysearch.org]
Creamer was a member of the
Knights of Pythias.
See also
*
List of Major League Baseball player-managers
Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Founded in 1869, it is composed of 30 teams. Each team in the league has a manager, who is responsible for team strategy and leadership on and off ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Creamer, George
1855 births
1886 deaths
19th-century baseball players
Major League Baseball second basemen
Baseball players from Philadelphia
Major League Baseball player-managers
Milwaukee Grays players
Syracuse Stars (NL) players
Worcester Ruby Legs players
Pittsburgh Alleghenys players
Pittsburgh Alleghenys managers
Pittsburgh Allegheny players
Rockford White Stockings players
Brooklyn Atlantics (minor league) players
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Burials at Greenwood Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Tuberculosis deaths in Pennsylvania