George A. Heubel (June 20, 1849–January 22, 1896) was a German 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 leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player. He was the first player born in Germany to play in the National Association and 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 ...

Career

Heubel started his amateur career in 1867 with the Quaker City team. He then played for Geary in 1868 and the Philadelphia Athletics in . In , he was the

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

for the

Cleveland Forest Citys The Forest Citys were a short lived professional baseball team based in Cleveland in the early 1870s. The actual name of the team, as shown in standings, was Forest City, not "Cleveland". The name "Forest Citys" was used in the same generic styl ...

. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players started play in , and in its first season, Heubel was the

right fielder A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...

for the Athletics. He batted .307 in 17 games (the team played 28 in total), and the Athletics won the first NA pennant. In , he played five games in

center field A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

for the

Washington Olympics The Olympic Club of Washington, D.C., or Washington Olympics in modern nomenclature, was an early professional baseball team. When the National Association of Base Ball Players permitted openly professional clubs for the 1869 season, the Olympic ...

and then retired as a player. He worked as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

for the NA in . The

formed in , and Heubel umpired for the league that season. He also played one game for the

New York Mutuals The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Ass ...

. In , he managed the Allentown Peanut Eaters of the Pennsylvania State Association. Heubel later became a

groundskeeper Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor e ...

for the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1894, however, he was held responsible for a fire at the ballpark and was subsequently fired. Heubel was also a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

. He died in 1896, at the age of 46, and was buried in Leverington Cemetery in

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."George Heubel Death Certificate"
. ''thedeadballera.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-08.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heubel, George 1849 births 1896 deaths 19th-century baseball players 19th-century baseball umpires Accidental deaths from falls Cleveland Forest Citys (NABBP) players German emigrants to the United States Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Germany Major League Baseball umpires Minor league baseball managers New York Mutuals players Philadelphia Athletics (NA) players Philadelphia Athletics (NABBP) players Philadelphia Geary players Washington Olympics players

Career

See also

References

External links