Bock Baker

Charles Baker
(Smiling Bock)

• Bats Unknown, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 181 lb.

• Debut April 28, 1901
• Final Game May 13, 1901
• Born July 17, 1878 in Watervliet, NY USA

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Biographical Information

Bock Baker had a very unusual major league career. In his first game with the Cleveland Blues on April 28, 1901, he gave up 23 hits and 6 walks in a start, leading to 13 runs and a loss. He was sold to the Philadelphia Athletics on May 1, when he gave up 6 hits and 6 walks in 6 innings, leading to another 11 runs, in his only game on May 13. That was the end of his career.

There is some confusion as to who exactly this man was. He was confused with a number of other contemporary baseball players, including Del Baker, who later found fame as manager of the Detroit Tigers. They are obviously different persons. The birth date listed for him in most reference sources - July 17, 1878 - was also doubtful as it also belonged to a man who was a janitor and undertaker in Buffalo, NY, who is described as "short and stout" on his World War I draft card. One of the few things known about the pitcher Bock Baker is that he was a tall man, "another Amos Rusie" as contemporaries described him.

In 1898, Bock was signed by a team in Troy, NY. Newspaper accounts say he was 20 years old, of German descent, and had played semi-pro ball in Albany and Rensselaer County. He was a tall man with an excellent fastball, who was also a decent hitter and fielder, but lacked foot speed. He was apparently recruited by a number of teams in the Eastern League, but his parents objected to his moving away from home. His name is given as Charles and his home town as Watervliet, NY. Later that year, he was signed by the Springfield Ponies of the EL. In 1901, after his disastrous stay in the American League, he turned up in July with the Albany Senators of the New York State League. He was still with Albany in 1902 as well as with Utica in the same league, and in 1903 showed up with the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association. The trail goes cold after that. This record is not consistent with what was in the minor league database next to his name, but that is a function of the difficulty of separating the various Bakers who were active in professional baseball at the turn of the 20th century.

Of his later life, the only known reference was that he attended his mother's funeral in Watervliet in October 1916. Census records from 1880 and 1900 list a Charles Baker, born in June 1879, son of George Baker, a butcher born in Germany circa 1846 who was living with the family in 1900, with his occupation being "clerk". More research confirmed that this was indeed the pitcher, but the remainder of his life remains shrouded in mystery. What can be confirmed is that in 1908, his three-year old daughter Helen died of burns in New York City after playing with matches, and that by 1910 he was living in the Big Apple with his family - wife Hattie and daughters May and Anna - and working as a butcher, according to census records. In 1915, Hattie (born Harriet) was living with Baker's parents - but he was not listed among family members and in 1920, she is listed as living in New York with her three daughters (the aforementioned May and Anna, and Dorithy - sic -, then 10) but she is listed as divorced. She later remarried, and while burial records have been found for the pitcher's parents and siblings near the family's original home in Albany, NY, it has not been the case for him. Therefore, his later whereabouts remain unknown.

Further Reading

• "It's Not Too Late to Turn Bock", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, September/October 2009, pp. 2-3.
• "Bock Baker", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, July/August 2024, p. 2.
• "Mystery of the Month, Part 2", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, September/October 2024, pp. 1-2.