Frederick Raymond "Fritz" Ostermueller (September 15, 1907 – December 17, 1957) was an American left-handed pitcher 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 ...

from 1934 to 1948, playing for 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 ...

, St. Louis Browns,

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

, and

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

. While with Pittsburgh, he coined a quote frequently misattributed to teammate

Ralph Kiner Ralph McPherran Kiner (October 27, 1922 – February 6, 2014) was an American Major League Baseball player and broadcaster. An outfielder, Kiner played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and Cleveland Indians from 1946 through 1955. Fo ...

: "Home run hitters drive Cadillacs; singles hitters drive Fords."

Career

Ostermueller began his career in his home town of Quincy, Illinois, before finishing high school. In 1929 he had 95 strikeouts for the Shawnee Robins of the

Western Association The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest league, originally established as the Northwestern League in 1883, was refounded as the Wester ...

, and later played for the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Fie ...

. Ostermueller made his major league debut on April 21, 1934 with the

, pitching seven seasons for them, chiefly as a starter. On December 3, 1940, he was sold to the St. Louis Browns, along with Denny Galehouse. He was the ace of the Pirates staff in 1947 and 1948 at the age of 41 and was called "Old Folks." As a hitter, Ostermueller was better than average for a pitcher. He posted a .234

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 ...

(175-for-749) with 60 runs, 62 RBI and 35

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), better known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches during a plate appearance that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The bas ...

. He did not hit any home runs in his major league career.

In popular culture

Ostermueller was portrayed in the film '' 42'' by Linc Hand. In the film, Ostermueller hits

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, ...

with a high pitch, but in a subsequent game Robinson hits a game winning

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

off him. In reality Ostermueller's first inning pitch hit Robinson on the left wrist, not his head, and he claimed it was a routine

brushback pitch In baseball, a brushback pitch is a pitch (typically a fastball) thrown high and inside the strike zone to intimidate the batter away from the plate on subsequent pitches. It differs from the beanball in that the intent is not to hit the batte ...

without racist intent. His family denied that he was a racist, it was just "a movie ploy." There was no fight on the mound afterwards. The climactic scene in which Robinson hit a home run to clinch the National League pennant for the Dodgers came in the top of the fourth inning of the game; it made the score 1–0, and the Dodgers eventually won 4–2. The Dodgers achieved a tie for the pennant on that day before winning the pennant the next day.

Later life and death

Ostermueller coached in college and built and became the owner-operator of the Diamond Motel in

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ) is a city in Adams County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Mississippi River, the population was 39,463 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 40,633 in 2010. The Quincy, Illinois, mic ...

. He died on December 17, 1957, aged 50, of

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ostermueller, Fritz 1907 births 1957 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Quincy, Illinois Boston Red Sox players Brooklyn Dodgers players Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Browns players 20th-century American sportsmen Quincy Red Birds players Wheeling Stogies players Topeka Jayhawks players Shawnee Robins players Rochester Red Wings players St. Joseph Saints players Greensboro Patriots players Toledo Mud Hens players Deaths from colorectal cancer in Illinois