William Charles Fischer (March 2, 1891 – September 4, 1945) was a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

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), ...

Biography

Fischer was born in New York City. He started his professional baseball career in 1909. After the 1912 season, he was picked up by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the rule 5 draft and was their backup catcher in 1913 and 1914. In 1915, he jumped to the

Chicago Whales The Chicago Whales were a professional baseball team based in Chicago. They played in the Federal League, a short-lived "third Major League", in 1914 and 1915. They originally lacked a formal nickname, and were known simply as the "Chicago Fed ...

of the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

. Fischer had a career year in 1915, hitting .329 and finishing second in the batting race to Benny Kauff."1915 Federal League Batting Leaders"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-05. The Whales won the pennant. However, the Federal League folded after the season, and Fischer was sent to the Chicago Cubs. He started off slow in 1916 and was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in July. He played in Pittsburgh for the next two years before his major league career ended. Fischer died in Richmond, Virginia, in 1945.

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1891 births 1945 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Brooklyn Dodgers players Brooklyn Robins players Chicago Whales players Chicago Cubs players Pittsburgh Pirates players Binghamton Bingoes players Portland Beavers players Baseball players from New York City {{US-baseball-catcher-1890s-stub