Carl Spongberg

{{short description|American baseball player (1884–1938)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Carl Spongberg

|image=Carl Spongberg.jpg

|position=Pitcher

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{birth date|1884|5|21}}

|birth_place=Idaho Falls, Idaho

|death_date={{death date and age|1938|7|21|1884|5|21}}

|death_place=Los Angeles, California

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=August 1

|debutyear=1908

|debutteam=Chicago Cubs

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=August 1

|finalyear=1908

|finalteam=Chicago Cubs

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Win–loss record

|stat1value=0–0

|stat2label=Earned run average

|stat2value=9.00

|stat3label=Strikeouts

|stat3value=4

|teams=

• Chicago Cubs ({{mlby|1908}})

}}

Carl Gustave Spongberg{{cite news |title=SPONGBERG |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-spongbe/172893277/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |date=22 July 1938 |page=13}} (May 21, 1884 – July 21, 1938) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs.[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/spongca01.shtml "Carl Spongberg Statistics and History"]. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved 2010-12-31. He was the first Idaho-born player in MLB history.[https://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/ID_born.shtml Players Born in Idaho - Baseball-Reference.com]

Spongberg pitched for a team based in Montpelier, Idaho{{cite news |title=Montpelier Defeated Cumberland Tuesday in One of the Best Ever Played Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner/53273844/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=2 June 1905 |pages=1}} before catching on with a club in Utah in 1907, where he was described in the Salt Lake Herald as a "Young Phenom."{{cite news |title=Carl Spongberg Pitched a Winning Game of Ball at Salt Lake Monday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-carl-spongberg-pitch/172895109/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=10 May 1907 |pages=8}} He left Utah in 1908 to join the Northwestern League club in Aberdeen, Washington{{cite news |title=Carl Spongberg left Salt Lake |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-carl-spongberg-left/172895207/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=3 April 1908 |pages=7}} but could not crack a pitching staff that included Bill Brinker, Con Starkel and Gus Thompson. He was released and went to work on the railroads while playing baseball in a Sunday league.{{cite news |title=Spongberg Writes About Base Ball |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-spongberg-writes-abo/172895585/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=22 May 1908 |pages=5}} By that summer, he was pitching for a team in Ogden, Utah. He was signed by the Chicago Cubs in late July of 1908.{{cite news |title=Chicago Nationals Sing Spongberg |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-salt-lake-herald-chicago-nationals-s/172899513/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Salt Lake Herald |date=25 July 1908 |pages=10}}

On August 1, 1908, he appeared in the only game of his MLB career in Boston against Joe Kelley's Doves. He entered the game in the second inning in relief of Chick Fraser and allowed seven runs in seven innings. He also recorded two hits off of Cecil Ferguson.{{cite web |title=Chicago Cubs vs Boston Doves Box Score: August 1, 1908 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN190808010.shtml |website=Baseball-Reference.com |publisher=Sports Reference |access-date=22 May 2025 |language=en}}

Later that month, he was farmed out to a club in Springfield, Illinois.{{cite news |title=Spongberg Still in Demand |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-spongberg-still-in-d/172900582/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=21 August 1908 |pages=2}} He finished the season pitching in Salt Lake City.{{cite news |title=Salt Lake Defeated Again |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-examiner-salt-lake-defeated/172900690/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Morning Examiner |date=21 September 1908 |pages=6}} He returned to Springfield in the spring of 1909 but was released and returned west to pitch in Grand Junction, Colorado.{{cite news |title=Carl Spongberg who was recently released |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-carl-spongberg-who-w/172903523/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=28 May 1909 |pages=9}} In July 1909, Spongberg sprained his ankle while trying to walk more than {{convert|20|miles|km}} from Collbran, Colorado, where his team had just played, to De Beque, Colorado, where his team's next game was scheduled.{{cite news |title=Carl Spongberg Sprains an Ankle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-carl-spongberg-sprai/172903574/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=25 June 1909 |pages=6}}

On May 1, 1913, he was married in Salt Lake City to Jean Leishman of Logan, Utah. At the time, he had been working for Walker Brothers bank in Salt Lake City for two years.{{cite news |title=Marriage of Leishman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/deseret-news-marriage-of-leishman-spon/172910499/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Deseret News |date=5 May 1913 |pages=5}} Later in the 1910s, he ran a grocery store in Montpelier while playing baseball locally.{{cite news |title=Fresh Vegetables |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-fresh-vegetables/172909883/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=21 July 1916 |pages=5}}{{cite news |title=Ball League Opens with Good Games |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-ball-league-opens-wi/172909924/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=6 June 1919 |pages=1}} By 1921, he was managing a wholesale office in Pocatello, Idaho.{{cite news |title=Carl Spongberg has returned |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/montpelier-examiner-carl-spongberg-has-r/172905878/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Montpelier Examiner |date=11 February 1921 |pages=10}} By 1927, he was managing a Western States Grocery Company warehouse in Bakersfield, California.{{cite news |title=Wholesale Grocery to Benefit Ranchers Over Breadth of Kern County |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/bakersfield-morning-echo-wholesale-groce/172909483/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=Bakersfield Morning Echo |date=9 January 1927 |pages=6}} In 1935, he moved from Oregon to Denver to work as a divisional manager for Safeway.{{cite news |title=Blackaby New Buyer for Local Safeway Stores |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oregon-daily-journal-blackaby-new-bu/172911583/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Oregon Daily Journal |date=10 February 1935 |pages=4}} He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 1938.{{cite news |title=Obituary for Carl G. Spongberg |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-salt-lake-tribune-obituary-for-carl/172911499/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |date=23 July 1938 |pages=13}}