Henry "Hi" Jasper (May 24, 1886 – May 22, 1937) 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 ...

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), ...

. He played for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

, St. Louis Cardinals, and

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

. Jasper began his professional career in 1909 with the Jacksonville Braves of the Central Association. He had a .218 batting average in 114 games for the Braves. The following season, he played for the Dubuque Dubs of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League, and played in 61 games for them. In 1912, he spent the season with the Anadarko Indians of the

Oklahoma State League The Oklahoma State League was a Class D level minor baseball league based in Oklahoma that existed in 1912 and again from 1922 to 1924. L.S. Dodds (1912), Leo Meyer (1912), C.E. Plott (1922), E.A. Daniels (1922–1924) and A.L. Ragan (1924) serve ...

. While with the Indians,

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

manager

Hank O'Day Henry M. O'Day (July 8, 1859 – July 2, 1935), nicknamed "The Reverend", was an American right-handed pitcher and later an umpire and manager in Major League Baseball. After a seven-year major league playing career, he worked as a National ...

brought him in for a trial to make the major league roster, which was unsuccessful. He returned to the Dubs as a

in 1913, and had a win-loss record of 13-6 in 20 games. Jasper joined the Chicago White Sox and made his major league debut on April 19, 1914. In 16 games for the White Sox, Jasper had a 1-0 record and a 3.34

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA). The following season, he pitched in three games for the White Sox, losing one and finishing the year with a 4.60 ERA. Early in the 1915 season he was sent to the Los Angeles Angels, but refused to report for the team; club president Johnny Powers said in response to his refusal that he would find it impossible to join a major league team. In 1916, Jasper spent the season with the St. Louis Cardinals. In 21 games, he had a 5-6 record and a 3.28 ERA. Near the end of the season, he was sent to Los Angeles, but again refused to report; it was not until March the following year when he decided to join the team. After a stint with Los Angeles in 1917, he spent the next two seasons with the

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They prev ...

and the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

. Jasper's last stint in the major leagues was with the

; in 12 games he had a 4-5 record and a 3.59 ERA. Jasper died in 1937 after he fell off a truck driven by his employer in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jasper, Hi 1880 births 1937 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Chicago White Sox players St. Louis Cardinals players Cleveland Indians players Baseball players from Missouri Road incident deaths in Missouri Jacksonville Braves (Central Association) players Dubuque Dubs players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players St. Paul Saints (AA) players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players