Roy Hartzell
Encyclopedia
Roy Allen Hartzell played in the 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...

 from 1906 to 1916.

Hartzell started his career with the St. Louis Browns (now known as the Baltimore Orioles
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...

), and was later traded to the New York Highlanders (now New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

) for two other players, Jimmy Austin
Jimmy Austin
James Phillip "Jimmy" Austin was a professional baseball player and coach.-Early years:Austin was born in Swansea, Wales, the son of a shipbuilder. He was one of only three Major League baseball players to be born in Wales...

 and Frank LaPorte
Frank LaPorte
Frank Breyfogle Laporte was an American baseball player.Born in Uhrichsville, Ohio, he began his major league career with the New York Highlanders in 1905. He was eventually traded to the St. Louis Browns, where he had his best years. In he batted a career-high .314...

.

Early life

Hartzell was born on July 6, 1881, in Golden, Colorado
Golden, Colorado
The City of Golden is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the edge of the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was...

. His parents were James and Nellie Hartzell from Illinois. James G. Hartzell was a Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...

 and died and is buried in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Hertzel had two brothers named Lester and Harry. Lester was a mining engineer and a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 at the State School of Mines in Colorado. Lester was quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 of the Mines football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team. Harry was involved in tourism operations in the Golden community.

Roy Hartzell played baseball and football in the Denver area. Hartzell worked in the smelters in Montana before signing with the pros. He married Ella Stebbins in Philadelphia in April 1911. She was also from Golden. He had some business in the Golden area working with rentals and sales.

Major Leagues

Hartzell was 24 years old when he played his first game in the big leagues on April 17, 1906, with the St. Louis Browns. He played many positions including second base, third base
Third Base
is a 1978 Japanese film directed by Yōichi Higashi.-External links:...

, 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...

, and outfield
Outfield
The outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield...

 in each of his 11 seasons of baseball. At the plate he batted left-handed
Left-handed
Left-handedness is the preference for the left hand over the right for everyday activities such as writing. In ancient times it was seen as a sign of the devil, and was abhorred in many cultures...

, but threw right-handed. He stood about 5 foot 8 inches tall, and weighed 155 pounds.

On October 3, 1911, New York was playing the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

. Jack Lewis of Boston was pulling a steal and collided with Hartzell and had to be replaced by a pinch runner named Duffy Lewis
Duffy Lewis
George Edward "Duffy" Lewis , born in San Francisco, California, was a left fielder and left-handed batter who played Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox , New York Yankees and Washington Senators...

. The two Lewises are of no relation.

Hartzell played in 1,290 games with a life-time 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 :...

 of .252. His last MLB game was on July 25, 1916. He signed to play for the 1917 Toledo Iron Men of the American Association
American Association (20th century)
The American Association was a minor league baseball league at the Triple-A level of baseball in the United States from to and to . Together with the International League, it contested the Junior World Series which determined the championship team in minor league baseball, at least for the...

.

Accomplishments

On July 12, 1911 when Hartzell was the cleanup hitter
Cleanup hitter
In baseball, the cleanup hitter is the hitter who bats fourth in the lineup. Although the third man up is generally the hitter with the highest batting average, cleanup hitters often have the most power on the team and are typically the team's best power hitter; their job is to "clean up the...

, he hit a 3-run double and another double in the same inning, then added a sacrifice fly and a grand slam, driving in a total of 8 runs. It was a Major League record until Jimmy Foxx had 9 RBI in a game in 1933.

Hartzell's 595 at-bats for the Browns led the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...

 in 1909, and his 91 RBI for New York in 1911 were the most by a player in the Yankees' first 13 years.

Later years

Hartzell died on November 6, 1961, in Golden, Colorado
Golden, Colorado
The City of Golden is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the edge of the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was...

, his birthplace. He was buried in Golden Cemetery.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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