Adam DeBus

Adam Joseph DeBus

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10½", Weight 150 lb.

• Debut July 14, 1917
• Final Game September 1, 1917
• Born October 7, 1892 in Chicago, IL USA
• Died May 13, 1977 in Chicago, IL USA

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Biographical Information

Adam DeBus played 38 games at shortstop and third base in July and August of 1917 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Honus Wagner had played shortstop for the team since 1903 (in 1902 he had played more in the outfield), but in 1917, at age 43, Wagner played only one game at shortstop.

Debus also played in the minors for the Green Bay Bays in 1914 and the Fargo-Moorhead Graingrowers in 1916. His professional baseball resumé was rather thin when he joined the Pirates, but this was during World War I when teams were beginning to suffer from a shortage of available players.

He enlisted in the Army in early 1918 but was only deployed to France after the Armistice. There he played on a service team that defeated the Canadian team in the Inter-Allied Games of 1919, a sort of mini-Olympics for the various allied troops still stationed in France at the time. The final was played at Stade Pershing, which is still used for baseball almost 100 years later. He was discharged in August, but could not find any more employment in baseball after his return and worked for an electrical company in his hometown of Chicago, IL while playing semi-pro baseball. He continued playing until he turned 40, while working as a clerk for various manufacturing firms in the transportation sector.

He was almost 50 when he married Florence McDonough in 1942, but the couple lived together until Adam's death in 1977, at the age of 84.

Related Sites

• Adam DeBus at the SABR Bio Project
• Find-A-Grave Memorial for Adam Debus