Henry Zimmerman (February 9, 1887 – March 14, 1969), known as "Heinie" or "The Great Zim", was an American professional baseball

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system u ...

. Zimmerman played in

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 (A ...

for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

from 1907 to 1919. A good hitter, he won 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 s ...

triple crown in 1912. He was also known for his poor performance in the 1917 World Series, and his baseball career ended when he was banned for fixing games.

Career

Zimmerman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1887. He started his professional baseball career with the New York State League's

Wilkes-Barre Barons The Wilkes-Barre Barons were a basketball team from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Barons played between 1933 and 1980 in different American leagues. The team won 11 titles during this time, including while playing in the American Basketbal ...

in 1906. The following season, he was purchased by the Chicago Cubs. He was a part of the Cubs teams that won the World Series in 1907 and 1908, although he received limited playing time. Within the next few years, he became a regular player. In 1912, Zimmerman won the NL triple crown, leading the league with a .372 batting average, 14

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, and 104

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

. He also led the league with 207

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album s ...

and a 170 OPS+."Heinie Zimmerman Stats"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved May 18, 2020. He never played as well again but remained a productive player. In 1916, Zimmerman was traded to the New York Giants. He led the NL in RBI that season, with 83. He led the NL in RBI again in 1917, with 100. The Giants then lost the 1917 World Series, and Zimmerman played poorly, batting .120. Zimmerman became known for an infamous play in the decisive sixth game of the series. In the fourth inning, the game was scoreless when

Eddie Collins Edward Trowbridge Collins Sr. (May 2, 1887 – March 25, 1951), nicknamed "Cocky", was an American professional baseball player, manager and executive. He played as a second baseman in Major League Baseball from to for the Philadelphia Athlet ...

of 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 ...

was caught between third base and home plate.

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 cat ...

Bill Rariden ran up the line to start a rundown, expecting

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 dr ...

Rube Benton or

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Walter Holke to cover the plate. However, neither of them moved, and Collins blew past Rariden to score the series-winning run. With no one covering the plate, third baseman Zimmerman was forced to chase Collins, pawing helplessly in the air with the ball in a futile attempt to tag him. Zimmerman was long blamed for losing the game, although Giants manager

John McGraw John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 189 ...

blamed Benton and Holke for failing to cover the plate. The play was actually quite close, as action photos show Zimmerman leaping over the sliding Collins. After a lot of public criticism for his World Series performance, Zimmerman had a mediocre season in 1918. In 1919, the Giants acquired

Hal Chase Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 – May 18, 1947), nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he pl ...

, and he and Zimmerman tried to get other players to help them throw games during the season. Zimmerman's actions got him kicked off the team in September 1919, and he never played in organized baseball again. Based on testimony by McGraw during the

Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate l ...

hearings in the early 1920s, Zimmerman and Chase were both indicted for bribery. Zimmerman denied McGraw's accusations, and neither he nor Chase was ever proven to be directly connected to the Black Sox. According to some historians, Zimmerman had been informally banned after the Giants released him. Baseball commissioner

Kenesaw Mountain Landis Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his ...

later declared that any players who had been involved in throwing games would be banned from baseball, which could have included Zimmerman; however Judge Landis never formally ruled on Zimmerman. But based on Zimmerman's long-term pattern of gambling and his role in the Black Sox Scandal, Landis' declaration after the Black Sox trial is seen as formalizing Zimmerman's ban. Regardless, his career was effectively over by the time Landis was appointed. In 1,456 MLB

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Basebal ...

, Zimmerman batted .295 (1566-5304) with 695

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted bal ...

, 275

doubles Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles te ...

, 105 triples, 58 home runs, 799 RBI, 175

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe o ...

s, a .331

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

, and a .419

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

in 13 seasons. In 12 World Series games, he hit .163 (7-43) with 2 RBI. In the 2001 book '' The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract'',

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. ...

ranked Zimmerman as the 51st greatest third baseman of all-time.James, Bill. ''The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.'' New York: The Free Press, 2001. pp. 568-569. Zimmerman died in New York City in 1969. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Heinie 1887 births 1969 deaths Major League Baseball third basemen National League batting champions National League home run champions National League RBI champions Chicago Cubs players New York Giants (NL) players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Baseball players from New York (state) Sportspeople from Manhattan Sportspeople banned for life American people of German descent Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)

Career

See also

Notes

References

External links