Ray Fisher

Ray Lyle Fisher
(Pick)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11½", Weight 180 lb.
• School Middlebury College
• High School Middlebury High School
• Debut July 2, 1910
• Final Game October 2, 1920
• Born October 4, 1887 in Middlebury, VT USA
• Died November 3, 1982 in Ann Arbor, MI USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Ray Fisher won 100 games over ten years in the major leagues, with an ERA of 2.82. He later was a longtime baseball coach at the University of Michigan.

Born in Middlebury, Vermont, Fisher attended Middlebury College and was the first major leaguer to come from that school. He began his minor league career with the Hartford Senators in 1908, going 12-1. Back with Hartford in 1909, he led the Connecticut State League with 24 wins. He joined the New York Highlanders of the American League in 1910, going 5-3 with a 2.92 ERA as a rookie. He had his best season with New York (now the Yankees) in 1915, recording 18 wins and a 2.11 ERA for the fifth-place club.

After missing the 1918 season while serving in the Army in World War I, Fisher was acquired by the Cincinnati Reds for the 1919 season. He went 14-5 for the pennant-winning Cincinnati club that year, and he made two appearances in the infamous 1919 World Series win over the Chicago White Sox. The next summer, 1920, he went 10-11, and after that season, the Reds cut his salary by $1,000. Rather than take the pay cut, he asked for his release, then quit to coach baseball at the University of Michigan when the team wouldn't release him. For this offense, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned him from baseball.

Fisher coached Michigan for 38 years, from 1921 to 1958, winning nine Big Ten Conference titles outright and sharing four more. The 1953 team won the 1953 College World Series. In 1970, the ballpark at the University of Michigan was renamed "Ray Fisher Baseball Stadium" in his honor. He also coached freshman football at the school, and one of his players was future President Gerald Ford.

In 1951, Fisher was one of a number of baseball figures who testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Study of Monopoly Power in its investigation of baseball's business practices. His testimony focused primarily on the circumstances surrounding his leaving the Reds to take the coaching position at Michigan and his subsequent blacklisting by the Commissioner.

In 1980, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn reinstated Fisher back into baseball. Shortly before his death he was honored at Old Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium. He lived to age 95, and at the time of his death, he was the oldest-living former player of the Yankees and Reds. His New York Times obituary says he was nicknamed "The Vermont Schoolteacher" (as he taught college Latin during the offseasons during his playing days)

Fisher was inducted into the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

Notable Achievements

• 15 Wins Seasons: 1 (1915)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 4 (1913-1915 & 1920)
• Won a World Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1919

Related Sites

• Ray Fisher at the SABR Bio Project
• Find-A-Grave Memorial for Ray Fisher