John Baumgartner
John Edward Baumgartner is an American former professional baseball player.
He appeared in seven Major League games as a member of the 1953 Detroit Tigers and played six seasons in minor league baseball. While he played third base exclusively in MLB, he also was an outfielder and first baseman in the minor leagues. Baumgartner threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed.
Baumgartner played college baseball at the University of Alabama, which qualified for the 1950 College World Series led by Baumgartner and other future big leaguers such as longtime MLB pitchers Frank Lary and Al Worthington. Baumgartner signed with Detroit in 1950 and made the Tigers 1953 roster coming out of spring training. He started the first seven games of the regular season at third base for Detroit, collecting five hits in 27 at bats and scoring three runs. In the field, he made two errors in 23 total chances for a fielding percentage of.913. Those would be Baumgartner's only games played in the Majors; he was sent back to the minors, and Ray Boone was eventually acquired from the Cleveland Indians to play the hot corner for Detroit.
In 657 minor league games, Baumgartner batted.261 with 624 hits.
