Kurt Krieger (baseball player)

Kurt Krieger
Pitcher
Born: September 16, 1926 Traisen ,  Austria
Died on: August 16, 1970 St. Louis ,  United States
Suggested: Right	Threw: Right
Debut in Major League Baseball
April 21,  1949  with the  St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB assignment
September 11,  1951  with the St. Louis Cardinals
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Win-loss	0-0
Earned Run Average	12.60
Strikeouts	3
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1949, 1951)
Last update: January 7th, 2019

Kurt Ferdinand Krieger (born September 16, 1926 in Traisen , Lower Austria , Austria ; † August 16, 1970 in St. Louis , Missouri , USA ) was the first and only Austrian-born baseball player in the history of Major League Baseball since 1903 ( MLB). In the best baseball league in the world, the tall pitcher made one appearance in 1949 and two in 1951 for his home team, the St. Louis Cardinals , and spent most of his career at minor league level.

life and career

Kurt Krieger was born on September 16, 1926 as the son of Ferdinand (1901–1972) and Helen Krieger (1906–1973) in the Lower Austrian community of Traisen. At a young age he emigrated with his parents to the United States during the Second World War , where the family settled in St. Louis in the US state of Missouri. Before the start of the 1944 season , he signed an amateur contract as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals from Major League Baseball (MLB), but was initially used with the Lima Red Birds in the Ohio State League . The Cardinals, however, were this year after a clear first place in the National League championship of the MLB, after the city rivals St. Louis Browns were defeated with a total score of 4-2 in the 1944 World Series . With the Red Birds trained by Runt Marr and Leo Norris , he was fourth out of six table positions at the end of the season. Warrior was used in 28 games, ten of them from the beginning. Subsequently, he was stationed in Great Britain from 1945 to 1946 during the Second World War, before returning to his new home. In 1946 he joined Washington University in Saint Louis ; at the same time as fellow baseball colleague Bill Jennings .

After a year at college, he joined the Lynchburg Cardinals in 1947 in the Piedmont League , where he was used in 39 games. Before the end of the season he moved to the Texas League , a double-A league, to the Houston Buffaloes active there , where he was used in two championship games. After he had completed two seasons for the Columbus Red Birds from the American Association , a triple-A league and thus the top division of minor league baseball, he made the leap into the major league in the 1949 game year . In his first year with the Columbus Red Birds, he made 38 appearances and came fourth out of eight table positions with the team trained by Hal Anderson and was only beaten 3: 4 in the finals in the subsequent best-of-seven series the St. Paul Saints , who qualified for the Junior World Series . A year later he was still in 28 championship games for the Red Birds from Columbus , Ohio , used, with the team under coach Anderson finished the season in sixth place in the table and thus not qualified for the subsequent play-offs. After all these years for the affiliation teams of the St. Louis Cardinals, Kurt Krieger was first assigned to the MLB team on April 21, 1949. The game against the Cincinnati Reds ended in defeat for the substitute 22-year-old and his team.

After he was again an integral part of the Columbus Red Birds in 1950 and had made 27 missions under Rollie Hemsley , including 26 as a starter, and finished third in the regular time in the final classification, he made it with the team in the subsequent play-offs to move into the finals, which were won 4: 3 in the best-of-seven series against the Indianapolis Indians . In the subsequent Junior World Series , the team was also able to prevail against the competition and won this competition for the sixth time in its history after 1933, 1934, 1941, 1942 and 1943. After the successes in the past game year, Krieger was used in 1951 for the later record champions Rochester Red Wings in the International League and again for the Columbus Red Birds in the American Association. While he was used in a Triple-A team from Rochester , New York, in 20 games, he came to the other Triple-A team from Columbus, Ohio, under the still active as a player, but also working as a coach Harry Walker in seven games of the season before he made the jump to Major League Baseball again. For the St. Louis Cardinals he came here on April 28, 1951 in an 8-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs , and on September 11, 1951 in a 5-10 defeat against the New York Giants used. This was also the last appearance of the native Austrian, who always wore different jersey numbers (24, 30 and 42) in the course of his three MLB appearances, in the Major League. After that, he was only used in the minor league, but mainly in triple A leagues and thus in the higher-quality minor league area, although he also ran into teams in the class B, which no longer exists .

His other stations after the St. Louis Cardinals were then again the Lynchburg Cardinals from the Piedmond League, in which he brought it to 20 championship appearances in 1952. This was followed by the Columbus Red Birds in the same game year, where he has now been used for the fifth year in a row. Here he was under Johnny Keane , who later also coached the Major League and coached the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, in 18 American Association games on the field. He then let his active career fade away with the Rochester Red Wings in the International League and switched to league rivals Syracuse Chiefs during the game year 1953 . This was the first time in his career that he was not active for any affiliation team of the St. Louis Cardinals, since the Syracuse Chiefs were part of the New York Yankees . Kurt Krieger only made a few missions in 1954 when he played for the Terre Haute Phillies in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League (or three-I-League for short ) and again for the Syracuse Chiefs in the International League Appearance occurred. At the end of his career, he worked for the St. Louis Cardinals as a batting practice pitcher from 1951 and stayed in his adopted home of St. Louis until the end.

A month before his 44th birthday, Krieger died of cancer at St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and was survived by his parents by two and three years, respectively. The family was buried at Sunset Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Affton , Missouri.

successes

with the Columbus Red Birds

• 1 × American Association Winner : 1950
• 1 × Junior World Series winner : 1950

Web links

• Player information and statistics from MLB  or  ESPN  or  Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  The Baseball Cube  or  Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
• Kurt Krieger in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Footnotes & individual references

1. Jump up ↑ American Dream in Domestic Baseball , accessed July 26, 2016
2. ↑ A Viennese baseballer's American dream , accessed July 26, 2016
3. ↑ According to other sources , Dutch Ulrich (1899–1929) from Baltimore , Maryland , was also born in Austria; he played between 1925 and 1927 in the MLB
4. ↑ Baseball beyond Borders: From Distant Lands to the Major Leagues, page 94 , accessed July 26, 2016
5. ↑ The Baseball Necrology: The Post-Baseball Lives and Deaths of More Than 7,600 Major League Players and Others, page 224 , accessed July 26, 2016