Leon Clarence Brinkopf was a right-handed shortstop

Shortstop

Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...

 in Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 for the Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...

 in 1952.

Brinkopf was originally signed by the St. Louis Browns

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

 in 1944 but found himself released a year later. He made his way to the Chicago Cubs' farm system after they acquired him from his independent minor league team in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 in exchange for former Cub big-leaguer Roy Easterwood

Roy Easterwood

Roy Charles Easterwood was a Major League Baseball catcher who played for the Chicago Cubs in 1944. A native of Waxahachie, Texas, the 29-year-old rookie stood 6'0" and weighed 196 lbs....

. Brinkopf debuted with the Cubs on April 18, 1952 and appeared in a total of nine games, including his final big-league contest on May 5. The sum of his Major League Baseball experience was four hits (all singles) in 22 at-bats (a .182 batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

), 2 RBI

Run batted in

Runs batted in or RBIs is a statistic used in baseball and softball to credit a batter when the outcome of his at-bat results in a run being scored, except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play. The first team to track RBI was the Buffalo Bisons.Common nicknames for an RBI...

and a run scored.

Brinkopf died on July 2, 1998 in his birthplace of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.