Henry Zimmerman

Background

Zimmerman was born on February 10, 1886 in the Bronx, New York City, the son of a traveling fur salesman and his wife.

Education

Zimmerman completed an eighth-grade education in the public schools of the Bronx and became apprenticed to a plumber.

Career

Although for a number of years Zimmerman worked at his craft in the winter, he soon found baseball irresistible. Quickly he graduated from local sandlot ball to semiprofessional ball, able to earn $25 a week with one team on Wednesdays and Saturdays and an additional $8 with another club on Sundays. He was a standout at several positions. In 1906 he was signed by Wilkes-Barre of the New York State League at a salary of $150 per month. He played second base and hit . 314 in 1907. Late that year he was sold to the Chicago Cubs for $1, 250. He could not break into the Cubs lineup because the famous infielders Joe Tinker, Hoot Evers, and Frank Chance seemed immovable. Opportunity finally arrived in 1911 when he became the team's regular second baseman. The following spring Zimmerman was switched to third base. That year he led the National League in hitting with a . 372 average, his career high. In 1916, recognized as the best third baseman in the league, he was traded to the New York Giants for Larry Doyle, their second baseman, who had led the league in batting in 1915, and two other players. The Cubs had apparently grown tired of the annual salary disputes with their right-handed slugger. In 1917 Zimmerman was fined by the league for cursing at an umpire in a dispute and throwing a ball at him. One day the following year he failed to run out a fly ball that was dropped by an outfielder, and upon being bawled out by the manager, John McGraw, Zimmerman promptly walked off the field in a huff. Zimmerman's impulsiveness may have been responsible for the "bonehead" play that made him a baseball "immortal. " It took place at the Polo Grounds in New York on October 15, 1917, in the fourth inning of the sixth and, as it turned out, final game of the World Series between the Giants and the Chicago White Sox. Zimmerman's career ended in 1919 when he was suspended for having thrown games. Zimmerman in his thirteen years in the big leagues went to bat 5, 304 times and compiled a . 295 batting average, with a slugging percentage of . 419. Zimmerman dropped out of the public gaze after retiring, although for a time he played on a semipro club. He reappeared suddenly in 1935 when he was named in an income-tax evasion case against "Dutch" Schultz, the notorious bootlegger and racketeer. Zimmerman, it was revealed, was a partner of Schultz's in a speakeasy in the Bronx in 1929 and 1930 and had a joint account with him, containing at one time almost $16, 000. Possibly this connection had been arranged by Zimmerman's brother-in-law, Joe Noe, a prominent Bronx bootlegger, whose body, riddled with bullets, was found in front of one of the best-known Prohibition-era nightclubs in 1928. Noe was reputed to have been in business with Schultz.

Achievements

• During his playing career, Zimmerman was primarily a third baseman, although he also played extensively at second base.

Personality

Standing five feet, eleven-and-a-half inches tall and weighing 185 pounds in his prime, Zimmerman was handsome, broad-shouldered, and sometimes swaggering.

Connections

Zimmerman married Helene Chasar in 1912, when she was sixteen years old; they had one child. Three years later his wife sued him for nonsupport, and they were divorced in 1916. Zimmerman's second wife, Bertha Noe, stated at the time of her husband's death in a Bronx hospital that in his later years he had been a steamfitter.

Spouse:

Helene Chasar

Spouse:

Bertha Noe

References

• The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
• The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Definitive Record of Major League Baseball