1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #13 George Blaeholder

Sunday, March 19, 2023

#13 George Blaeholder - St. Louis Browns

George Franklin Blaeholder

St. Louis Browns

Pitcher

Bats: Right Throws: Right Height: 5'11" Weight: 175

Born: January 26, 1904, Orange, CA

Major League Teams: St. Louis Browns 1925, 1927-1935; Philadelphia Athletics 1935; Cleveland Indians 1936

Died: December 29, 1947, Garden Grove, CA (43)

Pitching 11 years in the major leagues, George Blaeholder is credited with popularizing the now ubiquitous slider pitch, then known as the nickel curve or the slide ball. Blaeholder pitched primarily with the Browns, first regularly joining their starting rotation in 1928. He'd win at least 10 games each season between 1928 and 1934, but given the losing nature of the Browns during those years, he'd not post any winning seasons. He was 14-15 in 1929 with a 4.18 ERA and a league leading four shutouts, during one of his better years. Blaeholders' highest bWAR of 4.9 came in 1934 when he was 14-18 with a 4.22 ERA in 39 games and 234 1/3 innings pitched. His final two big league seasons came in 1935 with the Athletics and in 1936 with the Indians, when he posted an 8-4 record and the only winning record of his career.

Blaeholder spent six seasons between 1937 and 1942 pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, then a farm team of the Indians, but he'd never make it back to the majors. For the Browns, Athletics and Indians, he was 104-125 in 338 games pitched, with a 4.54 ERA and 572 strikeouts over 1,1914 1/3 innings. For the Brewers, he was 52-54 in 206 games with a 4.13 ERA.

Building the Set

March 10, 2023 from Passaic, NJ - Card #76

I took a chance purchasing this card from eBay seller kugo_556, given the low Buy It Now price and the limited feedback the seller had received. As a rule, I tend to stay away from sellers with low feedback tallies and any negative feedback in the prior six months. But I couldn't beat the price, and I clicked Buy It Now on this card on the same night I added the cards of George Selkirk (#88) and Van Mungo (#102). A few weeks later, the card hadn't yet arrived and I feared my money and this card were long gone. Fortunately though, the seller quickly responded to my message and told me he had forgotten to send the card and it was on its way. To the seller's credit, the card did in fact arrive a few days later, albeit two weeks after I had purchased the card. It was contained in a crumpled up penny sleeve, but the card otherwise looked like a nearly 90-year-old card should look.

Variations Available

1 - 1934 / green back / 1933 statistics / 1934 copyright

2 - 1935 / green back / 1934 statistics / 1934 copyright ✅

The Card / Browns Team Set

This is the sixth and final card needed to complete the Browns team set, and that's the second team set completed, following the Dodgers set completed a few days earlier. My version of the card has quite a bit of grime towards the upper left corner, which seems appropriate given the location of the smokestack in the distance behind Blaeholder. The tip on the back of the card stresses control, which is an interesting choice of a tip for Blaeholder. He walked quite a few batters, and in some seasons he tallied more walks than strikeouts. For his career, Blaeholder had 535 walks to his 572 career strikeouts.

1935 Season

Blaeholder appeared in six games for the Browns before being traded to the Athletics on May 21st for Sugar Cain and Ed Coleman. (I'm not making up Cain's name, and I had never heard of the pitcher before researching for this post.) With Connie Mack's (#142) Athletics team, Blaeholder made 22 starts and was 6-10 with a 3.99 ERA over 149 innings pitched. Only Johnny Marcum, with 27 starts, had the misfortune of starting more games for the lowly Athletics than Blaeholder. Following the season, in January 1936, Blaeholder was selected off waivers by the Indians.