Germany Schaefer

Second Base / First Baseman / Third Baseman

Born: February 4, 1876
Chicago, Illinois

Died: May 16, 1919 (aged 43)
Saranac Lake, New York

Batted: Right

Threw: Right

MLB debut

October 5, 1901, for the Chicago Cubs

Last MLB appearance

April 25, 1918, for the Cleveland Indians

MLB statistics

Batting average

.257

Hits

972

Runs batted in

308

Teams

Career highlights and awards

Immortalized in Glory of Their Times for stealing 1st base

Herman A. "Germany" Schaefer (February 4, 1876 – May 16, 1919) was a second baseman, first baseman and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played fifteen seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Newark Pepper, New York Yankees, and Cleveland Indians.

Born William Herman Schaefer in the south side of Chicago to German immigrant parents, he played in two World Series with the Tigers. During the 1909 season, Schaefer and Red Killefer were traded by the Tigers to the Senators for Jim Delahanty. In 1,150 career games, Schaefer batted .257 with 9 home runs and 201 stolen bases.

Schaefer was known as both a baseball trickster and a tactician in the early years of 20th century baseball. Well liked, stories of his exploits dot both the memories of his contemporaries and the newspaper reports of the time. One of his most famous exploits was stealing first base, which was perhaps erroneously recalled in Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times by Detroit outfielder Davy Jones. With runners on first and third, a common ploy in baseball at the time was an attempted double steal, in which the runner heading from first (in this case Schaefer) ran for second, hoping to draw a throw from the catcher as the runner on third tried to scamper home. The catcher did not throw the first time, inspiring Schaefer to steal first base in reverse and then attempt the double steal once more on the following pitch. It worked in Jones' recollection although factual evidence of this is lacking.

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Wikipedia