Edward Hugo Cermak (July 23, 1881 – November 22, 1911) 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 one game 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 ...

for the Cleveland Blues on September 9, 1901. Starting the game in

right field A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In t ...

, he had four plate appearances and struck out in all four. Cermak became an umpire after his playing days and was apparently struck in the throat by a foul ball at some point during the 1911 season, losing his speaking ability. When Cermak died late that year, the newspaper in his hometown reported that his death was related to the on-field injury. However, authors Robert Gorman and David Weeks write that Cermak died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and that the throat injury was not listed as a contributing factor on Cermak's death certificate. He was buried at

Woodland Cemetery A woodland cemetery is a cemetery where the original landscape, with existing trees, is given much influence on the landscape architecture of the cemetery. A woodland cemetery is designed so that the landscape is given a more prominent position, ...

in Cleveland.

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Major League Baseball outfielders Cleveland Blues (1901) players Galveston Sand Crabs players Austin Senators players South Bend Greens players Waco Navigators players Shreveport Pirates (baseball) players Wichita Jobbers players Rockford Reds players Baseball players from Cleveland 1881 births 1911 deaths 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Burials at Woodland Cemetery (Cleveland) Tuberculosis deaths in Ohio Baseball umpires La Crosse Pinks players {{US-baseball-outfielder-1880s-stub