Charles Solomon "Buddy" Myer (March 16, 1904 – October 31, 1974) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

as a

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

from through . A two-time

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

, Myer was notable for being the American League batting champion and led the American League in

stolen bases In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions 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 or out a ...

in 1928. An excellent hitter, he batted .300 or better nine times, and retired with a career average of .303. Myer walked more than twice as many times as he struck out. Apart from a brief period with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

in 1927–28, he spent his entire career with the Washington Senators.

Early life

Myer was born in Ellisville, Mississippi, the son of Maud (née Stevens) and Charles Solomon Myer, a merchant and cotton buyer. He was of German and English descent. His father's family was of Jewish descent but had converted in an earlier generation. During his lifetime, Myer was incorrectly reported to be Jewish.

Career

Myer decided to go to college at Mississippi A&M (now

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

). In 1923, he attracted many baseball scouts to watch him play. That same year, the Washington Senators offered him a contract. Buddy accepted the contract with the one condition, that he finish his college education. Myer graduated from Mississippi A&M in 1925. He was discovered by baseball promoter, Joe Engel, who managed the

Chattanooga Lookouts The Chattanooga Lookouts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League and the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and are named for nearby Lookout Mountain. The team plays its home g ...

Engel Stadium Engel Stadium is a stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The stadium was built in 1930 and holds 12,000 people. It was the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts until 1999 when they moved to their current stadium, AT&T Field. The former Tennessee Temple ...

. He broke in with the Senators in 1925 at the age of 21. In 1926 he batted .304. In May 1927 he was traded by the Senators to the Red Sox for Topper Rigney. In 1928 he stole a career-high 30 bases for the Red Sox, leading the league, while batting .313, and was 5th in the league with 26 sacrifice hits. He came in 9th in AL MVP voting. After the season, the Senators got him back, but had to give up five ballplayers in trade. In December 1928 the Red Sox traded him to the Senators for Milt Gaston, Hod Lisenbee, Bobby Reeves, Grant Gillis, and Elliot Bigelow. In 1929 he batted .300, and the following year he batted .303 with an 8th-best 114 runs scored. In 1932 he had a career-high 16 triples (2nd), and scored a career-high 120 runs (6th). In 1933 he batted .302, and in 1934 he batted .305 with 102 walks (4th in the league) and a .419 on-base percentage (6th). In 1935 he won the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

batting title with a .349 mark. He had 215 hits (2nd in the league), a .440 on-base percentage and 96 walks (4th), played in 151 games (5th), scored 115 runs (7th), and had 100 RBIs. He was voted to the All Star team, and came in 4th in

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

voting that year. In 1933, Myer was involved in what many still consider to be baseball's most violent brawl, between him and the Yankees' Ben Chapman. It is alleged that Chapman – who later gained great infamy for his taunting of

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...

in 1947, while Chapman was the manager of the Phillies – not only spiked Myer, but hurled a number of

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

epithets at him. Chapman and Myer's fight spread to the dugouts and the stands. Long suspensions for all involved followed. In 1937 he was selected for the All-Star Game, and ended the year with a .407 OBP (9th in the league). In 1938 he had another outstanding season, finishing 4th in the league with a .336 batting average, 2nd in OBP with .454 , and 7th in walks with 93. In 1939 he batted .302 in a partial season, his 9th and final time eclipsing the .300 mark. He died at age 70 in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

. Throughout his career, Myer was often referred to as being Jewish. Baseball historian

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 about baseball history and statistics. His a ...

reported that Myer "told a home-town newspaperman shortly before his death in 1974 that he was not Jewish, he was German", . Myer's father was Jewish, his mother was not. Despite not identifying as Jewish, Myer "never set the record straight" during his career, even starting an altercation with Yankees outfielder Ben Chapman after Chapman attempted to spike him and called him a Jewish slur.

Career statistics

Source:

References

External links

Baseball Cube statsFangraphs stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myer, Buddy 1904 births 1974 deaths American League All-Stars American League stolen base champions American people of German-Jewish descent Baseball players from Mississippi Boston Red Sox players Major League Baseball second basemen Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball players New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players People from Ellisville, Mississippi Washington Senators (1901–1960) players 20th-century American sportsmen

Early life

Career

Career statistics

See also

References

External links