Red Steiner

James Harry Steiner

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.
• High School Thomas Jefferson High School (Los Angeles)
• Debut May 11, 1945
• Final Game September 29, 1945
• Born January 7, 1915 in Los Angeles, CA USA
• Died November 16, 2001 in Gardena, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

California native Red Steiner was in professional baseball for sixteen seasons from 1934 to 1950. He spent 11 of those seasons in the minor leagues until 1945 before getting his one chance at the major leagues.

The husky catcher was affiliated with the Chicago Cubs organization until December 1, 1940 when he was purchased by the Boston Bees from the Cubs. After two more unknown transactions, he started his major league time with the Cleveland Indians in 1945 and was selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox on August 10th of that year. As a result, Red spent his 1945 major league year in a split season affair with the Indians and the Red Sox. Steiner appeared in 38 games, had 79 at-bats with 15 hits for a career major league batting average of .190. This was his only time in the big leagues.

In his eleven seasons before his big league time, he went from class C to AA ball. In four of the years on his way up, he hit over the .300 mark and probably had his best year in 1944 when he hit .312 in 95 games for the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League.

Steiner jumped to the Mexican League in 1946, hitting .306/~.402/.369 for the Nuevo Laredo Owls. He batted .295/~.354/.356 for the 1947 Veracruz Eagle. In 1947-1948, Red hit .286 for two Cuban Winter League teams, with 36 RBI in 262 AB. He was back with Nuevo Laredo in 1949 and put up a .284/~.348/.382 batting line. In both 1946 and 1949, he managed Nuevo Laredo for part of the season. With those players who jumped to Mexico welcome back in Organized Baseball, he returned in 1950 for one more year at age 35 for the Sacramento team and closed out his minor league numbers appearing in 1,165 games with 3,884 at-bats and 1,088 base hits for a minor league career batting average of .280. He had also hit .295/~.370/.369 in 265 games in Mexico.

James Harry Steiner died in Gardena, CA on November 16, 2001 at the age of 86.

Related Sites

• Red Steiner at the SABR Bio Project
• BR Minors page