George Bechtel
{{short description|American baseball player (1848–1921)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=George Bechtel
|position=Right fielder / Pitcher
|image=George Bechtel.jpg
|bats=Right
|throws=Right
|birth_date={{Birth date|1848|9|2}}
|birth_place=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|1921|4|3|1848|9|2}}
(assumed)
|death_place=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|debutleague = MLB
|debutdate=May 20
|debutyear=1871
|debutteam=Philadelphia Athletics
|finalleague = MLB
|finaldate=August 19
|finalyear=1876
|finalteam=Louisville Grays
|statleague = MLB
|stat1label=Batting average
|stat1value=.277
|stat2label=Runs batted in
|stat2value=165
|stat3label=Win–loss record
|stat3value=7-20
|teams=
; National Association of Base Ball Players
: West Philadelphia (1867)
: Geary of Philadelphia (1867–1868)
: Keystone of Philadelphia (1868–1869)
: Philadelphia Athletics (1870)
; League player
: Philadelphia Athletics ({{Baseball year|1871}}, {{Baseball year|1875}})
: New York Mutuals ({{Baseball year|1872}}, {{Baseball year|1876}})
: Philadelphia White Stockings ({{Baseball year|1873}}–{{Baseball year|1874}})
: Philadelphia Centennials ({{Baseball year|1875}})
: Louisville Grays ({{Baseball year|1876}})
|highlights=
}}
George A. Bechtel (September 2, 1848 — possibly April 3, 1921) was an American right fielder and pitcher in professional baseball's early history. He played in all five seasons of baseball's first all-professional league, the National Association, and later played in the first season of baseball's first major league, the National League, when the Association folded.{{cite web| title = George Bechtel's Stats | work = retrosheet.org | url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbechg101.htm | accessdate = April 22, 2008 }} In 1876, he became the first player in Major League history to be suspended for life for intentionally losing games for money.{{cite web | title = Banished From Baseball | work = 1919blacksox.com | url = http://www.1919blacksox.com/banished.htm | accessdate = April 22, 2008 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080820215849/http://1919blacksox.com/banished.htm | archivedate = August 20, 2008 }}
Career
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bechtel began his professional career in {{Baseball year|1871}} for the Philadelphia Athletics, when they joined the new National Association. Bechtel had played for the Athletics in {{Baseball year|1870}}, and stayed with the team during its transformation from the previous version of the National Association.{{cite web|title=1870 Baseball Season: Rosters of the 1870 Professional Teams |work=By Patrick Mondout |url=http://www.super70s.com/Baseball/Years/1870/Default.asp?Node=1&sNode=13&Exp=Y |accessdate=April 22, 2008 }}{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} He batted .351 that season while playing in 20 of the team's 28 games, as the Athletics won the season's championship.{{cite web| title = 1870 Baseball Season: Final Standings | work = retrosheet.org | url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1871/Y_1871.htm | accessdate = April 22, 2008 }} Bechtel had also played for a couple of other Philadelphia teams during his amateur career before 1870. He was formerly of the Philadelphias in 1867, and the Keystones in both 1868 and {{Baseball year|1869}}.{{cite book| title = When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865–1870|pages=258–260|chapter=Appendix A, Team Rosters | author = William J. Ryczek | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EjSpGTxITgMC&q=%22George+Bechtel%22+baseball&pg=PA260 | accessdate = April 22, 2008 | isbn=978-0-7864-0514-5 | year=1998 | publisher=McFarland}}
The following season, he signed with the New York Mutuals, who had offered him a higher salary in {{Baseball year|1872}}, and batted .302 and scored 64 runs in the team's 54-game schedule.{{cite web| title = George Bechtel: Baseball Historian Biography | work = baseballhistorian.com | url=http://www.baseballhistorian.com/players.cfm?lookie_player=bechtge01 | accessdate = April 22, 2008 }} After just one season in New York, Bechtel moved back to Philadelphia, playing the next two seasons for the Philadelphia White Stockings with mixed success at the plate, batting .244 in {{Baseball year|1873}} and .278 in {{Baseball year|1874}}. When the {{Baseball year|1875}} season began, he again moved, this time to the Philadelphia Centennials, and was their pitcher in all 14 games that the club played.{{cite web| title = 1875 Philadelphia Centennials season | work = retrosheet.org | url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1875/TPH301875.htm | accessdate = April 22, 2008 }}
On May 26, 1875, after a 2–12 start, Bechtel and fellow Centennial Bill Craver were sold to the Philadelphia Athletics for $1,500. This is the first known sale of ballplayers from one team to another in baseball history. It is theorized that sale was actually an enticement for the Centennials to fold, which they did.{{cite web | title = David Ball, "The Bechtel-Craver Trade and the Origins of Baseball's Sales System." | work = mcfarlandbaseball.com | url = http://www.mcfarlandbaseball.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=187 | accessdate = April 22, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090701035802/http://www.mcfarlandbaseball.com/modules.php?name=Forums | archive-date = July 1, 2009 | url-status = dead }}
Expulsion
Rumors surrounded Bechtel's play ever since the late 1860s, indicating that he was a very good fielder, one of the better fielders of the day, but his play at times became sloppy. Henry Chadwick once stated regarding his play: "At the commencement of the season, Bechtel's play in left field was equal to any player, but, as the season wore on, he grew careless, and from other causes unnecessary to mention, he played poorly."{{cite book|last=Ginsburg|title=The Fix Is in: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals| year=2004| pages=41}}
On May 30, 1876, in a game against the Mutuals, he made three of the team's nine errors, all three in crucial game situations. After the game, he became a "much suspected man" by the press and his team alike, so the team suspended him for crooked play.{{cite book|last=Ginsburg|title=The Fix Is in: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals| year=2004| pages=41–42}}
On June 10, Bechtel wired teammate Jim Devlin a message stating "We can make $500 if you lose the game today. Tell John (manager Jack Chapman) and let me know at once. BECHTEL." Devlin wired him back explaining that he was not that kind of player, and presented the telegram to the team's management. Louisville immediately suspended him from the team.{{cite book|last=Ginsburg|title=The Fix Is in: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals| year=2004| pages=42}} Bechtel was picked up by the Mutuals and played in a couple of games for them before the end of the season. The National League followed the lead of the Grays and suspended Bechtel before the {{Baseball year|1877}} season, and despite attempts for re-instatement, he was denied. Devlin himself was also banned for life the following season when he and a couple of teammates were paid for losing games. According to Bill Lamb, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, Bechtel had a stroke on April 1, 1921, and two days later, he died at St. Mary's Hospital in Philadelphia on April 3, 1921.{{cite web |last1=Lamb |first1=Bill |title=George Bechtel |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-bechtel/#_edn36 |website=Society for American Baseball Research |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202174306/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-bechtel/|archive-date=February 2, 2023 |url-status=live |date=January 10, 2023}}{{cite web|title=On The Brink |work=petermorrisbooks.com |url=http://www.petermorrisbooks.com/on_the_brink.htm |accessdate=April 22, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202134821/http://www.petermorrisbooks.com/on_the_brink.htm |archivedate=December 2, 2008 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Baseballstats|br=b/bechtge01|brm=bechte001geo}}
- [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbechg101.htm Retrosheet]
- [https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-bechtel/ George Bechtel] at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
{{1871 Philadelphia Athletics}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtel, George}}
Category:Baseball players from Philadelphia
Category:Major League Baseball right fielders
Category:Philadelphia Geary players
Category:Philadelphia Keystones (NABBP) players
Category:Philadelphia Athletics (NABBP) players
Category:Philadelphia Athletics (NA) players
Category:New York Mutuals players
Category:Philadelphia White Stockings players
Category:Philadelphia Centennials players
Category:Louisville Grays players
Category:Philadelphia (minor league baseball) players
Category:19th-century baseball players
Category:19th-century American sportsmen