George Blackburn

George W. Blackburn
(Smiling George)

• Bats Unknown, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 184 lb.

• Debut July 6, 1897
• Final Game July 24, 1897
• Born September 21, 1869 in Ozark, MO USA
• Died December 29, 1938 in Oklahoma City, OK USA

BR page

Biographical Information

George Blackburn pitched briefly for the Baltimore Orioles in 1897. He was active in baseball until the 1930s but then "disappeared", and his date of death was unknown for decades.

Blackburn was born in rural Missouri and had two sisters. His wife, Alice, died in 1897 and he remarried in 1903 in Pine Bluff, AR, with a son born a year later. George was a minor league manager for a time, then turned up in San Bernardino, CA, where he opened a saloon. After his second wife died in 1913, he became a minor league umpire, leading a nomadic life for several years. He worked in the Cotton States League at first, living in New Orleans, then moved to the Virginia League in the 1920s, followed by the East Texas League a few years later. In 1930, he was umpiring in the Arizona State League. With all this moving around, it was difficult to pin down a place of residence for him, and his trace disappeared around 1936, when he registered as a voter in San Bernardino and listed his profession as "baseball umpire". His trace was finally found thanks to his youngest sister, Mollie, who married a man named Robert Burton and settled in Oklahoma. Researchers looked at that state's death records, and found a likely candidate who had died in Oklahoma City, OK in 1938. It was proved that it was the former player as his obituary listed a Mrs. R.E. Burton as a surviving sister.

Year-by-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Playoffs	Notes
1896	Austin Senators	Texas Association		--	--	replaced by Robert Burns
	Dallas Navigators	Texas Association		--	--	replaced Harry Pritchard Team disbanded August 2
1898	Utica Pent-Ups	New York State League		--	--	,replaced Brown, replaced by Howard Earl
1902	Natchez Indians	Cotton States League	55-51	1st
1903	Pine Bluff Lumbermen	Cotton States League		--	--	replaced by Frank Christian
1904	Natchez Indians	Cotton States League		--	--	replaced by William Breitenstein
1905	Topeka White Sox	Western Association		7th(t)		replaced Frank Quigley
1907	Vicksburg Hill Climbers	Cotton States League	77-57	2nd
1908	Vicksburg Hill Climbers	Cotton States League	66-49	2nd

Further Reading

• "George Blackburn Found", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, January/February 2020, p. 1.