George Michael "Dummy" Leitner (June 19, 1871 – February 20, 1960) 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 ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. 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 ...

(MLB) for two seasons for the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...

(1901),

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 ...

(1901), Cleveland Bronchos (1902), and

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) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

(1902). Leitner was deaf, and like other deaf baseball players of his era, was nicknamed "Dummy".Doxsie, Don.
Iron Man McGinnity: A Baseball Biography
' (McFarland, 2009), p. 74. Three members of the 1901 Giants pitching staff shared that nickname: Leitner, Deegan, and

Taylor Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) ...

. Leitner had a deaf sister, Lydia (died at 21), and a deaf brother, Frank, who was active in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. He married a deaf woman named Helen (née Wells) and had two children, a deaf daughter named Helen who was later married to deaf August Wriede, and a hearing son named Clarence Wells Leitner who was known for his intelligence in writing and editing for the ''Evening Sun'' and ''North East'' newspaper for the city of

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. George and Clarence Leitner and August Wriede all worked for ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

''. Leitner died in Baltimore at the age of 88.

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1871 births 1960 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Philadelphia Athletics players 20th-century American sportsmen New York Giants (baseball) players Cleveland Bronchos players Chicago White Sox players Norfolk Skippers players Baton Rouge Cajuns players Baseball players from Baltimore People from Parkton, Maryland Baseball players from Baltimore County, Maryland Deaf baseball players American deaf people {{US-baseball-pitcher-1870s-stub