Earle Francis Brucker Jr. (August 25, 1925 – March 28, 2009) was a 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 two games as a

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

in 1948. After playing several seasons in

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

, including a brief stint in the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

in 1953, he retired from baseball in 1955. He spent most of his life as the owner and operator of the

Cajon Speedway Cajon Speedway was an oval race track near El Cajon, California. History Located between Gillespie Field and the San Vicente Freeway, the 0.25 mile dirt oval track opened in 1961. Named Cajon Speedway, the track expanded to a 0.375 mile dirt tr ...

El Cajon, California El Cajon ( , ; Spanish language, Spanish: El Cajón, lit. 'the box') is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajon, Rancho El Cajón, which was named for the ...

. Brucker was the son of Earle Brucker Sr., who played five seasons in the major leagues for the Athletics himself. When Earle Sr. joined the Athletics coaching staff in 1941, Earle Jr. was made the

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if ...

catcher at the age of 15. Earle Sr. had gotten a 50-year lease on a property near Gillespie Airport, which he attempted to lease to the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

as a

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

facility. When they declined, he turned the property into a racetrack, fairgrounds, and high school football stadium. He turned the property over to Earle Jr. in 1958. One of his sons, Steve Brucker, took over the track but was murdered in 2003. With the death of Brucker and the speedway lease ending in 2005, the track shut down after the 2004 racing season. Brucker died at his home in El Cajon on March 28, 2009.

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1925 births 2009 deaths Baseball players from San Diego Beaumont Exporters players Philadelphia Athletics players 20th-century American sportsmen Lincoln A's players Major League Baseball catchers Martinsville A's players Raleigh Capitals players San Diego Padres (minor league) players Savannah Indians players Tampa Smokers players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Baseball players from El Cajon, California San Diego High School alumni Burials at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery {{US-baseball-catcher-1920s-stub

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