Stanwood Fulton Baumgartner (December 14, 1894 – October 4, 1955) 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), ...

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 ...

who became a longtime

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

and raised in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Baumgartner played for the Philadelphia Phillies of 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 ...

from 1914 to 1916 and from 1921 through early 1922. Then he played for

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds untoucha ...

's Philadelphia Athletics of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

from 1924 to 1926. In all, he worked in 143 major league games and won 26 of 47 decisions, for a

winning percentage 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 ...

of .553.

Baseball career

A left-hander, Baumgartner was listed as tall and . He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

, football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

from 1912 to 1914. During the 1913–14 season, all three teams went on to win the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

title, and Baumgartner was chosen for the All-Conference teams in all three sports. Baumgartner then signed with the Phillies and—with no prior

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 ...

experience—made his major league debut on June 26, 1914, throwing one-third of an inning in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

against the Brooklyn Robins. He played in 15 games his rookie year, posting a 2–2 record and an

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 ...

of 3.28, along with two complete games and a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

. The 1915 season saw Baumgartner as the Phils' main game finisher: he pitched in 16 games, finishing a team-leading 12. He did not pitch in the

1915 World Series The 1915 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1915 season. The 12th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion Boston Red Sox against the National League champion Philadelphia Phill ...

. Baumgartner was admitted to law school and took classes at the University of Chicago in the offseason. Following a Phillies spring training trip to Tampa in March 1916, Baumgartner remained in Tampa and took his law school exams under the proctorship of a law professor at the University of Tampa. Baumgartner only worked in one game during the 1916 season. He then left "Organized Baseball" for four full years, and did not return to the Phillies until 1921. During that season, he appeared in 22 games, earning three wins against six losses. He pitched six games for the Phillies in 1922, none after May 30, and spent the remainder of that season and all of 1923 in minor league baseball. In 1924, he came back to Philadelphia as a member of the Athletics, and ended up having the best season of his career. In

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

, he pitched in 36 games and started 16, hurled 12 complete games, and posted an ERA of 2.88, which was fourth best in the American League. The following season, he appeared in a career-high 37 games and compiled an ERA of 3.57. After one more season with the Athletics in 1926, mostly as a reliever, Baumgartner was sent to the Pacific Coast League, where he won 14 games. It was his last year in professional baseball. In his 143 MLB games pitched he allowed 553 hits and 185 bases on balls in 505 innings. He fanned 129 and posted 18 complete games and three shutouts.

Sportswriter

After his playing retirement, Baumgartner became a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, first covering the police beat before settling in as a sportswriter, covering all sports and specializing in baseball. He wrote for ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' and ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' until, suffering from late-stage colorectal cancer, he retired during the 1955 season. He died in Philadelphia at the age of 60 on October 4, during the

1955 World Series The 1955 World Series matched the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees, with the Dodgers winning the Series in seven games to capture their first championship in franchise history. It would be the only Series the Dodgers won while based ...

. He was interred at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in

Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania Cheltenham Township is a home rule township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Cheltenham's population density ranges from over 10,000 per square mile (25,900 per square kilometer) in rowhouses and high-rise apartments along Chel ...

Coaching career

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and his hiatus from professional baseball, Baumgartner—although only 22 years old at the time—was also the head coach for the

Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team represents the University of Delaware in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football. The team is currently led by head coach ...

program for the 1917 season. He compiled a 2–5 record.All-Time Coaching Records by Year
CFB Data Warehouse.com. Retrieved December 1, 2009

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

*
Williams, Phil, ''Stan Baumgartner.''

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

Biography Project * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baumgartner, Stan 1894 births 1955 deaths American men's basketball players Baseball players from Houston Burials at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery Chicago Maroons baseball players Chicago Maroons football players Chicago Maroons men's basketball players Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Deaths from colorectal cancer Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens baseball coaches Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football coaches Major League Baseball pitchers New Haven Profs players Philadelphia Athletics players The Philadelphia Inquirer people Philadelphia Phillies players Providence Grays (minor league) players Portland Beavers players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players