john Eckmayer

[ronnie]

My dad played for the St. Louis Browns farm team at St. Paul, Minnesota.

He was a pitcher and played in 1938. He was signed here in St. Louis, out
of high-school, by William DeWitt Sr. owner of the Browns, and grandfather
of the current Bill DeWitt Jr., owner of the Cardinals.

Does anyone remember my dad, or have any info. about him, or have any
stats from that team. I would appreciate it. Thanks a lot, his daughter,
Ronnie Eckmayer

[disgrig]

No one with the last name Eckmayer shows up in the SABR database. In other words, John Eckmayer never played for a major league team. The minors may be a different story.

[VIBaseball]

The Professional Baseball Players Database show no one by that time, unfortunately. Also, while the Browns had 13 farm clubs in 1938, St. Paul was not among them.

[disgrig]

I also checked SABR's new minor league database and their is no listing for the name, Eckmayer.

[wrogers37]

Question to Ronnie about her Grandfather

I'm curious as to how you know your dad was signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1938? Did he just tell you this information or did he or you have any printed material to support this statement? (contract, newspaper article, photos, etc.)

[Macker]

I don't know anything about John Eckmayer. I know a lot of people who claimed to have played professionally, yet they never did. Searching various databases of players in organized baseball will make a lot of people appear to be liars.

However, in years past, a number of players were under contract and/or played in a league that wasn't part of the National Agreement. Some teams would have a pitcher owned by Brooklyn pitching to a teammate who was owned by the Yankees. It is arbitrary whether anyone accepts whether they were professional players, but to the players themselves, they were owned by a team and playing minor league ball.

In researching a player who played for an 'outlaw' league, I've seen a quote by Branch Rickey stating, "I'm glad he found a spot with that club. If he hadn't, we would have found room in our system." So this guy was 'owned' by Brooklyn, but playing for a team & league outside the National Agreement. A review of the newspaper coverage and interviews with the ballplayers would indicate these guys were minor league players and owned by major league clubs.

[Bill_McCurdy]

"I'm not a bad man. I just never played for the Browns."

No hits. No runs. No errors. No runners left on base. *

* That's just the line score on all the old St. Louis Browns-Wannabes who told their families back in the day that they once played for, worked in the farm system of, or otherwise signed with the Browns, but never played because of injury in their first-ever spring training camp. Only the extreme truth-hedgers (signed/got hurt right away/could never play again) from those more earlier times remain safe today in the digital age from having the mask of fraud ripped from their ancestral lying faces.

If your father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather has now passed on from this life beyond the great draped portal of death without ever offering any prior proof that they actually played for the Browns, my baseball advice is best summed up in this line from The Wizard of Oz:

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"