David William Tilden Zearfoss (January 1, 1868 – September 12, 1945) 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 ...

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 catc ...

. He played all or part of five seasons 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 ...

between 1896 and 1905 for the

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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

. He had a .208

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

for his major league career. In 1908, he became the manager of a minor league team in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

and would become a resident of Delaware. He attended the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

and worked for thirty years for the Wilmington Gas Company until his retirement in 1939. He died in 1945 and was buried in

Northwood Cemetery Northwood Cemetery is a cemetery located in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, It was established in 1878. Notable interments * George Bradley (1852–1931) Major League Baseball player * Duke Esper (1868–1910) ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

References

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1868 births 1945 deaths Baseball players from Schenectady, New York Major League Baseball catchers New York Giants (baseball) players St. Louis Cardinals players New York Metropolitans (minor league) players Newark Colts players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Toronto Canucks players Great Falls Indians players Tacoma Tigers players Butte Miners players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players San Francisco Pirates players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Toledo Mud Hens players Topeka White Sox players Franklin Millionaires players Washington College Shoremen baseball players 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Burials at Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia University of Delaware alumni {{US-baseball-catcher-1860s-stub