George Schmees

George Edward Schmees
(Rocky)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Woodward High School (Cincinnati)
• Debut April 15, 1952
• Final Game September 28, 1952
• Born September 6, 1924 in Cincinnati, OH USA

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Biographical Information

George Schmees was signed as an amateur free agent by the Cincinnati Reds before the 1946 season. The outfielder-first baseman would be in the minors until 1952. George got his first chance at pro ball with the Ogden Reds of the class C Pioneer League in 1946 and had a good opening season, hitting .316 with 10 home runs in 92 games. George was then sent to the Brooklyn Dodgers before the 1947 season.

George worked his way up the ladder, having several good seasons, hitting .285 with 22 homers for the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1949. In 1951, with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, he hit at a .328 clip with 28 home runs and had an even 100 RBIs. All this good work caught the St. Louis Browns' attention and on November 19, 1951, they drafted George from the Dodgers in the 1951 Rule V Draft.

The Browns brought Schmees to the big leagues in 1952 and he got off to a very slow start, hitting just .131 in 34 games. In June of that year, George was selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox. He was still not up to his normal game, hitting poorly, and the Red Sox had him pitch a couple of games, including a start. He gave up just 2 runs in 6 innings for a creditable 3.00 ERA with no decisions. This performance, plus his .203 hitting average, ended George's time in the major leagues.

George returned to the minors where he had two good seasons. The first came with the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League in 1954, when he hit for a .297 average with 15 round-trippers, and the next with the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association in 1956, hitting .307 with 22 homers. It seemed that no matter where George landed, they wanted him to take the pitcher's mound, which he did, making 19 appearances with no decisions during his minor league run. He finished out his pro baseball career in 1958 at age 33 in the minors with a lifetime .286 hitting average with 169 home runs while appearing in 1,553 games.

Schmees died October 30, 1998, at age 74 in San Jose, CA, where he had been employed as a production foreman for Bernard Fine Foods.

See also: Baseball Players of the 1950s

Related Sites

• George Schmees at the SABR Bio Project