Chief Zimmer

Catcher

Born: November 23, 1860
Marietta, Ohio

Died: August 22, 1949 (aged 88)
Cleveland, Ohio

Batted: Right

Threw: Right

MLB debut

July 18, 1884, for the Detroit Wolverines

Last MLB appearance

September 27, 1903, for the Philadelphia Phillies

MLB statistics

Batting average

.269

Home runs

RBIs

625

Teams

Career highlights and awards

Oldest player in the National League from 1900 to 1903.

Charles Louis Zimmer (November 23, 1860 – August 22, 1949) was an American professional baseball player whose playing career spanned from 1884 to 1906. He played for 19 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball, including 13 seasons for the Cleveland Blues/Spiders (1887–1899), three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900–1902), and one season as the player/manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1903).

Zimmer is regarded by some as "the finest defensive catcher of his day." He set Major League catching records for assists (188 in 1890), double plays (16 in 1895), runners caught stealing (183 in 1893), games at catcher (125 in 1890), and career fielding percentage (.943 as of 1896). As one of the game's first every-day catchers, The Sporting News in 1949 called Zimmer "baseball's original 'iron man'." Offensively, Zimmer had a career batting average of .269, but hit above .300 four times, including a career high .340 batting average in 1895.

Zimmer was also the first president of the Players' Protective Association and a successful entrepreneur during his playing days, including operation of a wholesale and retail cigar business that he promoted while on the road. His most famous business venture, however, was "Zimmer's Baseball Game", a mechanical baseball parlor game that he invented in 1891 and became popular in the early to middle 1890s.

Zimmer was born in Marietta, Ohio, in 1860. As a young man, he worked as an apprentice in a cabinetmaker's shop.

He began his professional baseball career at age 23 in 1884 playing in the Ohio State League for teams from Ironton and Portsmouth, Ohio. He appeared in eight games in the Major Leagues for the Detroit Wolverines in 1884. After being released by the Tigers, Zimmer did not play professional baseball in 1885. He played for Poughkeepsie of the Hudson River League in 1886, compiling a .409 batting average, and for the Rochester Maroons of the International Association in 1887, batting .331.

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Wikipedia