Billy Gumbert

In the estimation of nineteenth-century baseball historian David Nemec, Pittsburgh pitcher “Billy Gumbert may have been more talented than his younger brother Ad,”1 a 123-game major-league winner. But Billy’s disinclination to journey far from a budding career in local business restricted his ballplaying opportunities. He pitched only home games at Recreation Park after a morning telephone call to the office informed him that his services were needed that afternoon. But this singular arrangement came to an abrupt end when Gumbert, a large man with a temper, felt insulted by Pittsburgh manager Al Buckenberger and threatened to do him bodily harm. Upon taking his leave of the game, Gumbert went on to a long and satisfying career in industry.

William Skeen Gumbert was born in Pittsburgh on August 8, 1865. He was the fourth of five children born to railroad stockyard master Robert Wray Gumbert (1834-1902), and his New Jersey-born wife, Henrietta (née Skeen, 1836-1925).2 The patriarchal side of the Gumbert family was long established locally, having descended from German Protestants who emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Pittsburgh before 1800.3

Billy grew up in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood and attended public school through the eighth grade.4 He then entered the local work force. Big for the era, eventually 6-feet-1½ and 200 pounds,5 and athletically gifted, Billy began his ballplaying career on local sandlots before joining his older brother Charley on the East End Athletic Club Athletics, a fast Pittsburgh amateur nine. For the 1886 season, younger sibling Ad Gumbert was added to the roster, placing all three Gumbert brothers in East End livery. Charley and Ad were pitchers, as was Irish immigrant teammate John Tener, a future major leaguer, National League president, and governor of Pennsylvania. Not yet a hurler, Billy played shortstop for the Athletics.6

Charley never entered the professional ranks, spending 54 years in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.7 But Billy and Ad Gumbert did, and modern-day baseball authority sometimes confuses their minor-league playing records. The two began the 1887 season with the East End Athletics,8 but Ad left in late June to audition for the Johnstown club in the independent professional Pennsylvania State Association.9 When Johnstown folded early the next month, Ad joined the Zanesville Kickapoos of the Ohio State League. He made six pitching appearances and then returned to Pittsburgh.10 Billy, meanwhile, remained home in Pittsburgh the entire season.

Our subject entered the professional ranks in 1888, joining brother Ad on a Zanesville Kickapoos club that was now a member of the newly formed Tri-State League.11 For reasons unknown, however, he played that season under the alias surname “Humbert.”12 The Gumberts quickly established themselves as Kickapoo mainstays. Ad assumed the role of staff linchpin while Billy became the everyday shortstop. A righty batter and thrower, Billy was reliable defensively and hit with extra-base power, if not for high average. The pop in Billy’s bat was put on display during a two-game exhibition match against the National League Pittsburgh Alleghenys in mid-June. In the opener he slammed a triple and a home run off future Hall of Famer Pud Galvin, accounting for both Zanesville tallies in an 8-2 defeat.13 The next day Billy drilled an RBI double off the formidable Ed Morris in an 8-3 setback charged to Ad.14

In early September, Ad was signed by the NL Chicago White Stockings and commenced his nine-season major-league career by splitting six pitching decisions.15 Billy remained with the (63-39, .615) Zanesville Kickapoos until the financially troubled club folded in early September. In 91 games he batted a modest .237 but added 52 stolen bases. On defense, his .877 fielding average ranked fifth among 19 Tri-State League shortstops.16 According to a Pittsburgh newspaper, Billy was “regarded as the finest all-around player in the Tri-State League.”17 An unidentified Sporting Life correspondent was another admirer, writing, “Billy Humbert, Zanesville’s clever shortstop, has gone to work for the winter. It is surprising that no manager has picked up this man before this. He played a great game for Zanesville at shortstop, hit hard and ran the bases well. … [U]mpire [George] Barnum picked him out as one of the most promising shortstops in the Tri-State League. Humbert is a steady young man in the bargain.”18

Two transformative events took place in the life of Billy Gumbert during 1889. First, he secured an upwardly mobile position in the bookkeeping department of the National Tube Company, a Pittsburgh manufacturer of steel products. Gumbert’s attachment to his new employment impelled him to forsake professional baseball that summer. Instead, he remained home and played on weekends and holidays for his old amateur club, the East End Athletics. Second, he began to experiment with pitching, reportedly at the suggestion of his brothers, both of whom were accomplished hurlers.19

Gumbert made his pitching debut on July 4 in an Allegheny County League game, striking out 16 in a 6-4 Athletics victory over the Braddock club. “The work of Will Gumbert who made his first essay [sic] in the pitcher’s box” was the feature of the contest, reported the Pittsburg Dispatch. “Gumbert’s best ball is a terrific in-shoot, and his speed is something wonderful. If he can only get control of his drop ball, he will undoubtedly make a pitcher of the first-class order.”20 An oversized hard thrower standing a mere 55 feet away from uneasy amateur batsmen, Gumbert soon became a dominant force in the county league. Success on the diamond, however, did not dissuade Billy from sticking with his job at National Tube.

The 1890 season began like the one before, Gumbert inserting amateur baseball into his work schedule at the steel plant office. Meanwhile, on the professional scene the Pittsburgh Alleghenys had suffered the fate of other National League clubs that year, losing the core of its roster to the newly arrived Players League. Defectors included pitching stalwarts Pud Galvin, Harry Staley, and Ed Morris. Desperate for replacements, the Alleghenys tried out no fewer than 20 starting pitchers during the 1890 campaign. The most promising of these was Billy Gumbert.

If he had not been identified as a prospect previously, a Gumbert outing on June 17 against a picked nine captained by Allegheny player-manager Guy Hecker brought him to Pittsburgh’s attention. In an off-day exhibition game at Recreation Park, Billy threw a five-hitter but dropped a 2-1 decision to Hecker’s side.21 Knowing pitching talent when he saw it, Hecker thereupon sought a way to enlist the amateur hurler’s services. Happily for Pittsburgh, Gumbert’s boss, National Tube Company president E.C. Converse, was a baseball fan and a friend of Alleghenys principal owner William C. Temple, a fellow steel company magnate. As a result, Billy was excused from work two days later for a trial with the National League club.

On June 19, 1890, Billy Gumbert made his major-league debut, starting the opener of a home doubleheader against the Cleveland Spiders. The last-place Alleghenys had lost 27 of their previous 34 games and were in dire need of a victory. The newcomer promptly came through – and in stunning fashion. He held the Spiders to a measly three hits in a route-going 9-2 triumph.22 And along the way, Gumbert smashed a two-run homer in his first official major-league at-bat, the first time in NL history that a player had initiated his career batting statistics with a home run.23

Given his sterling performance, the Alleghenys wanted to engage Gumbert on a permanent basis. But the youngster was reluctant to abandon his job at National Tube. To accommodate the interests of all concerned, the parties thereafter reached an informal working arrangement. Billy became a member of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, but would pitch only home games at nearby Recreation Park. The employment protocol devised required Gumbert to report for duty at the plant office each morning and then await a telephone call to see if he was needed “to come over and pitch” in the afternoon.24

Six days after his maiden outing, Gumbert got that phone call and was back in the box for Pittsburgh. He took a 6-5 lead into the ninth against Boston, only to “suddenly let down” and drop a 10-6 decision to Kid Nichols.25 In a Gumbert-Nichols rematch three days later, Billy held Boston to a single run through seven innings. But three errors by shortstop Sam Crane in the eighth cost Gumbert eight unearned runs and sent him to defeat by a misleading 9-1 score.26 Thereafter, Gumbert split his next two decisions, beating New York, 13-9, but losing 11-10 to Brooklyn.

Gumbert remained in Pittsburgh when the Alleghenys embarked on a 17-game road trip in early July. He notched another victory upon the club’s return late in the month, outdueling Cooperstown-bound John Clarkson in a 4-3 win over Boston. By then Billy had signed a regular-season contract with Pittsburgh but, as before, the pact only obligated him to pitch in home games.27 This proviso, however, limited Gumbert’s ability to show his stuff, as poor home-game attendance prompted club management to begin converting scheduled home games into road contests.28 In the end, only 40 of the Alleghenys’ 138 games were played at Recreation Park.

With the club away, Gumbert got into trouble, being arrested on an assault charge at the family home in early August.29 Back on the diamond, he absorbed an extra-inning loss to Chicago on August 12. It was nearly six weeks before Gumbert received the ball again. But he finished his restricted campaign strongly, once again besting Clarkson and the Beaneaters with a four-hitter on September 24, 6-3. That same day, the Allegheny County grand jury returned an indictment that charged William Gumbert with assault and battery.30 The disposition of the charge, however, was not published, giving rise to the suspicion that, like many domestic affrays involving family or friends, the indictment was never prosecuted.

On their face, Gumbert’s season stats – a 4-6 (.400) record in 10 games, with an inflated 5.22 ERA and a substandard strikeout (18)-to-walk (31) ratio – do not impress. But several excellent efforts were included in his eight complete games, and pitching for a Pittsburgh Alleghenys club that otherwise went a god-awful 19-106-2 (.152), Gumbert had become the nearest thing that the club had to a staff ace.

Shortly after the season ended, second baseman “Sam LaRocque and Will Gumbert put their signatures to Allegheny contracts for 1891. … The latter has signed a regular contract and will be with the club at home and abroad.”31 Two weeks later, Gumbert entered a lifetime contract, taking the East Liberty neighborhood’s Anna Roxbrough as his bride.32 In time, the arrival of daughters Florence (born 1895) and Adele (1897) completed the family.33

Two factors complicated Gumbert being a member of the 1891 Pittsburgh club, now called the Pirates: (1) the pull of his stable and promising position at National Tube, and (2) the collapse of the Players League. The expected return of far better-established players to their National League teams diminished the chances of newcomers like Gumbert securing a roster spot. In late March, the Pittsburgh Daily Post reported that “Will Gumbert … will probably be found in the county league this year. Will seems averse to going abroad, though his pitching last season showed he could get along in the fastest of company.”34

As prophesied by the Post, Billy Gumbert did not play professional baseball in 1891. Instead, he returned to his amateur club, rechristened the East End Gyms. Although primarily a pitcher, Gumbert went behind the plate to catch John Tener in the game that clinched the county league championship for the Gyms, an 8-1 victory over the Bridgeville club on September 7.35 Before the year was out, however, it was reported that “Will Gumbert … has about made up his mind to try a season of professional baseball. … He was promised a chance with the local club.”36

Gumbert was still with the East End Gyms when the 1892 season began. But when Pittsburgh ran short of arms in mid-June, “Will Gumbert was hurried into uniform and sent against Anson’s [Chicago] colts.”37 Scattering nine hits, Gumbert “performed with remarkable coolness” and posted a complete game 4-3 victory.38 History thereupon repeated itself, with Pittsburgh again anxious to sign the hurler while Gumbert remained averse to giving up his job with National Tube. The parties therefore reverted to their 1890 arrangement whereby Gumbert only had to make himself available for home games.

In limited outings, Gumbert turned in excellent work for the Pirates, going 3-2 in six games with a sparkling 1.36 ERA.  One of his two defeats, a 5-4 setback in Chicago on August 2 was unique, as it came in the only major-league game ever pitched by Billy Gumbert that was not played in Pittsburgh. The following week, he bounced back with a three-hit victory at home over St. Louis, 3-2. The only negatives in Billy’s second tour with the club were an unsightly 3-to-23 strikeouts-walks differential and a fractious relationship with Pirates skipper Al Buckenberger. In early September, these two irritants brought Gumbert’s return stint with Pittsburgh to a premature close.

With Gumbert pitching batting practice, few teammates were seen taking their cuts. Thereafter, manager Buckenberger informed the press that Pirate players stayed away from the pregame warm-up because Gumbert’s wildness made them leery of sustaining an injury. The report embarrassed Gumbert but when he spoke to Jake Beckley, the Pirates team captain denied any such player sentiment existed toward the pitcher. An angry Gumbert then went looking for Buckenberger, whom he threatened to “punch in the jaw”39 or “mash Buckenberger’s face”40 – accounts differ. Whatever the actual threat, it was enough for Billy to draw an immediate suspension that continued until season’s end.41

The Buckenberger incident seems to have dampened Gumbert’s enthusiasm for the game. The following summer, he played only intermittently for local amateur and semipro clubs. Nevertheless, Billy answered the call when the National League Louisville Colonels arrived in Pittsburgh bereft of starting pitching. Donning a Louisville uniform, Gumbert entered the box at Recreation Park to face his former teammates on August 12, 1893. He did not make it out of the first inning, being lifted after surrendering six runs. A late Louisville rally spared Gumbert the defeat but the contest marked his final major-league appearance.

In 17 big-league games spread over three seasons, Billy Gumbert went 7-8 (.467), with a 4.06 ERA in 119⅔ innings pitched. His 21 strikeouts to 59 walks differential was poor but his .264 opponents’ batting average was tolerable. Gumbert also helped himself on occasion with the bat, posting a (12-for-56) .214 BA, with 10 RBIs. In the end, Gumbert’s career presented a case of what might have been – had he devoted himself exclusively to baseball rather than trying to fit pitching into broader career plans.

That is not to say that Gumbert was mistaken in preferring other opportunities over baseball. He went on to a long and successful career in business, first with National Tube and thereafter with the Sun Oil Company, where he eventually rose to the position of regional sales manager. Billy also had a happy home life with wife Anna until her passing in 1930. He was also active in his church, serving as a trustee of the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church.42

Suffering from late-life arteriosclerosis, William Skeen Gumbert died at his home in Pittsburgh on April 13, 1946. He was 80. After funeral services, his remains were interred in Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh. Predeceased by his spouse, ballplaying brothers Charley and Ad, and his two sisters, Billy was survived by daughters Florence Gumbert Sheasley and Adele Gumbert Fee.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted above include the Billy Gilbert file maintained at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; US Census and other government records accessed via Ancestry.com; Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 2, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), and certain of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Unless otherwise specified, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.

Notes

1 “Billy Gumbert,” in David Nemec, ed., Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 1 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), 317.

2 Billy’s siblings were Sarah (born 1859), Charles (1860), Ida (1863), and Addison (1867).

3 Certain baseball reference authority mistakenly identify Billy and Ad Gumbert as the grand-uncles of Harry “Gunboat” Gumbert, a capable National League pitcher from 1935 to 1950. They were actually more distantly related: first cousins twice removed, descended from common forbear George Gumbert Sr. (1794-1871). The family patriarch was Christian Gumbert (originally Gumber), a German-born patriot who fought in the Revolutionary War.

4 Per the 1940 US Census.

5 Baseball-Reference lists Gumbert as a hair shorter: 6-feet-1.

6 As recalled decades later in “Keck Says: Recalling the Three Gumberts; A Great Pitching Family,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, March 24, 1942: 26, complete with 1886 East End Athletics team photo.

7 Per the Charles K. Gumbert obituary published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 9, 1930: 24.

8 See “East End Athletics Organize,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, May 27, 1887: 6. The Athletics roster included “pitcher, A. Gumbert [and] third base, W. Gumbert” and announced that the “team is open for challenges from all amateur clubs in Western Pennsylvania.”

9 See “The State League,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, June 25, 1887: 5: “Gumbert pitcher, was tried today … and was satisfactory,” notwithstanding being tagged with a 7-0 defeat by Reading.

10 Baseball-Reference currently misassigns Ad Gumbert’s 1887 minor-league stats to Billy Gumbert (who did not play for Zanesville until the 1888 season). Efforts to correct the error were ongoing at the time this bio was submitted in December 2023.

11 As reported in “Zanesville Zephyrs,” Sporting Life, March 21, 1888: 3, which identified him by the alias Humbert.

12 As revealed in “Von Der Ahe Could Not Buy Him,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, August 18, 1888: 5. See also, “Billy Gumbert,” Major League Baseball Profiles, above, 317. Billy’s membership on the 1888 Zanesville club is further established by the photo that accompanies this profile.

13 As reported in “Leaguers Downed,” Zanesville (Ohio) Times-Recorder, June 19, 1888: 1. On the home run, Billy launched “a terrific hit over the centerfield fence after having knocked a foul over the left field fence.”

14 See “Victory at Last,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 20, 1888: 6. Morris would go on to post 29 wins that season, and won 171 games overall in an eight-season major-league career.

15 Ad Gumbert went on to register a solid 123-102 (.547) record as a big-leaguer.

16 Per final season Tri-State League statistics published in Sporting Life, January 16, 1889: 2, and the 1889 Reach American Association Base Ball Guide, 83-84.

17 Per “Von Der Ahe Could Not Buy Him.”

18 “Pittsburg Pencillings,” Sporting Life, October 24, 1888: 3.

19 As recounted decades later in “Keck Says.”

20 “The County League,” Pittsburg Dispatch, July 5, 1889: 5. In hometown newsprint, the middle Gumbert brother was more often called Will, rather than Bill or Billy. But to conform to modern-day reference work identification and for purposes of clarity, our subject is named Billy Gumbert throughout this profile.

21 As reported in “General Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Press, June 18, 1890: 3.

22 Contemporaneous accounts of the game can be found in the Pittsburg Dispatch, Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, and Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 20, 1890.

23 Gumbert had sacrificed in his first two plate appearances. The feat had earlier been performed in the American Association when both Mike Griffin and George Tebeau homered in their maiden major league at-bat on April 16, 1887.

24 “Keck Says.” See also “The Alleghenys Go Abroad,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 20, 1890: 6.

25 See “Lost in the Ninth Inning,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 26, 1890: 6.

26 “Gumbert pitched a great game of ball, and nothing but the hardest kind of luck made the score what it was,” reported the Pittsburg Dispatch, June 29, 1890: 6.

27 See “Base Ball Notes,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, July 28, 1890: 6; “General Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Press, July 27, 1890: 5.

28 An April 23 game against Cleveland had attracted only six paying spectators (out of 17 fans in attendance, total), still the single-game turnstile nadir for major-league baseball.

29 As reported by the Pittsburg Press, August 6, 1890: 7. Details of the charge were not provided and its disposition is unknown.

30 Per “Costs Placed on the Captain,” Pittsburg Dispatch, September 25, 1890: 8; “Captain Wishart Mulcted,” Pittsburg Press, September 25, 1890: 3; “Grand Jury Returns,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, September 25, 1890: 3.

31 “Nine Players Signed,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 9, 1890: 5.

32 Per State of Pennsylvania marriage records and reported in “Base Ball Notes,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 23, 1890: 6.

33 A third Gumbert child, name unknown, did not survive infancy.

34 “The Players of the League,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, March 28, 1891: 6.

35 See “The Gyms Are Champions,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, September 8, 1891: 6.

36 Per “Late Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Press, November 17, 1891: 6.

37 “They Bunched Their Hits,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 17, 1892: 6.

38 “A Good Experiment,” Pittsburg Dispatch, June 17, 1892: 8.

39 “Splinters from the Bat,” Ironwood (Michigan) News-Record, September 10, 1892: 6.

40 “Baseball Brevities,” New York Times, September 7, 1892: 3.

41 See “Late Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Press, September 2, 1892: 6. See also, “Keck Says,” above, which asserts that “Bill quit the club on the spot” after the confrontation with Buckenberger.

42 Per the Gumbert obituary in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, April 13, 1946: 12.