| Chief Zimmer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 1893 baseball card of Zimmer | |
| Catcher / Manager | |
| Born: November 23, 1860 Marietta, Ohio, U.S. | |
| Died: August 22, 1949 (aged 88) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| July 18, 1884, for the Detroit Wolverines | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 27, 1903, for the Philadelphia Phillies | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .269 |
| Home runs | 26 |
| Runs batted in | 625 |
| Teams | |
As a player
As a manager | |
Charles Louis "Chief" Zimmer (November 23, 1860 – August 22, 1949) was an American professional baseball player whose playing career spanned from 1884 to 1906. He played for 19 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), including 13 seasons for the Cleveland Blues/Spiders (1887–1899), three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900–1902), and one season as the player/manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1903).
Zimmer is regarded by some as "the finest defensive catcher of his day."[1] He set major-league catching records for assists (188 in 1890), double plays (16 in 1895), runners caught stealing (183 in 1893), games at catcher (125 in 1890), and career fielding percentage (.943 as of 1896). As one of the game's first every-day catchers, The Sporting News in 1949 called Zimmer "baseball's original 'iron man'." Offensively, Zimmer had a career batting average of .269, but hit above .300 four times, including a career-high .340 batting average in 1895.
Zimmer was also the first president of the Players' Protective Association and a successful entrepreneur during his playing days, including operation of a wholesale and retail cigar business that he promoted while on the road. His most famous business venture, however, was "Zimmer's Baseball Game", a mechanical baseball parlor game that he invented in 1891 and became popular in the early to middle 1890s.