George Disch

A late-season addition by the Detroit Tigers in 1905, right-hander George Disch posted a 2.64 ERA in eight games. Initial reports were positive, and a bright future was predicted. However, he could not crack a Tiger rotation of George Mullin, Ed Killian, Bill Donovan, and Frank Kitson (116 complete games in 137 starts in 1905) so Detroit sold him back to the minors that offseason. Why did the Tigers give up on a promising prospect so quickly? Apparently, it had nothing to do with Disch’s performance; rather, Detroit owner Frank Navin got an attractive offer from St. Paul of the American Association. One source added, “It may have been one of his [Navin’s] good business deals.”1

George Charles Disch was born March 1, 1879, in Lincoln, Benton County, Missouri. His father, John, born in Switzerland, was a farmer. His mother, Wilhelmina “Minnie” (Pagenkopf), was a native of Wisconsin with German (Prussian) ancestry. George had five older brothers: John, Henry, Emil, William, and Paul, and one younger sister, Minnie. William played seven seasons as a minor-league outfielder in Class C and D leagues beginning in 1902 but never reached the majors.

At some point during George’s childhood, the family moved to Milwaukee, where he likely began playing baseball on local sandlots. The name Disch began appearing in Milwaukee newspaper baseball coverage in the late 1890s, but first names were rarely used, so it was impossible to know if they were referring to George or his brother William. George pitched for a club called the White Clovers,2 presumably a youth nine, in 1895. By 1898 he was pitching for Milwaukee’s South Side High School.3

George developed other interests besides baseball as a young man. In 1901 he was the secretary of the Bay View Flying Club of the National Association of Homing Pigeon Fanciers. George’s bird finished third in a 200-mile race that summer, clocked at 12:28:58, but it was explained that the birds did not make very fast times, “owing to the northwest wind.”4

George spent most of the 1902 season with a local team, the Milwaukee Sentinels.5 Disch’s record in Baseball-Reference.com shows that he pitched in one game on September 19, 1902, for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. No information could be found about the circumstances of his acquisition by the Brewers, but he was knocked out of the box in the third inning and absorbed a 6-1 loss.6 He pitched for an independent club in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1903.

George’s brother William played with Fort Worth of the Texas League in 1903; that offseason, he took a job as a “physical instructor” at St. Edward’s College in San Antonio, Texas.7 He invited George to come down over the winter and help coach pitchers on the school’s baseball team.8 In the days before strict eligibility enforcement, George even pitched in a few games for the college that spring.9

Disch signed with the Marshalltown Grays of the Class D Iowa League for 1904. He had a 15-7 record and returned to Marshalltown in 1905. By midseason he was just 8-9 but had caught the attention of Tim O’Rourke, a scout for the Detroit Tigers. Detroit manager Bill Armour also came to Iowa to look over several prospects, including Disch, and on July 22 Marshalltown sold him to Detroit for $600, $50 of which went to O’Rourke.10 Originally the plan was for Disch to join the Tigers after Marshalltown’s season ended, but because the purchase price would not be paid until he arrived in Detroit, the timeline was pushed up and he reported to the Tigers in early August.11

Before leaving for Detroit, however, George married Fay Lee on July 31 in Marshalltown.12 The couple had two children: a daughter, Mildred, born in 1906, and a son, George Jr., born in 1909.

Disch made his major-league debut on August 8, starting against the Americans at Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Disch allowed two runs in the second inning and another in the third but held Boston scoreless the rest of the game, scattering nine hits. The Americans’ Bill Dinneen, however, shut out the Tigers on six hits, so Disch absorbed the 3-0 complete game loss. The Detroit Times wrote, “He looks like a most promising experiment,” and added, “The general opinion of the players of both teams is that he will do.”13

Disch’s next appearance was in relief in New York on August 14. The Highlanders knocked Tiger starter Herb Jackson out of the box after three innings and Disch pitched the final five innings. Despite some bench jockeying from New York manager Clark Griffith,14 Disch allowed no runs and just two hits. He had a no-decision in a 5-4 extra-inning loss to Washington on August 23. The Detroit Times remarked, “Disch for Detroit, looks like the real thing. His pitching reminds one of Jess Stovall at his best…He [Disch] handles himself like a real ball player and acted as much at home as if pitching in the Iowa corn fields.”15

Disch pitched five strong innings against the Athletics five days later on August 28 (18-year-old rookie Ty Cobb made his major-league debut two days after that), but was charged with his second loss. Philadelphia scored a ninth-inning run, the only one allowed by Disch, when right fielder Sam Crawford fell down fielding a single, giving the A’s a 5-4 win. Rube Waddell, who had relieved Eddie Plank, was credited with the victory.

On September 3, Disch started and pitched seven strong innings against St. Louis, exiting with the game tied 2-2. Reliever Eddie Cicotte surrendered a run in the 10th inning, giving the Browns a 3-2 win. Jimmy Wiggs started for the Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader against the White Sox on September 6 and surrendered eight first-inning runs. Disch was then brought in and, other than a five-run seventh, held Chicago mostly in check the rest of the way, in an eventual 15-0 defeat. He had two more successful relief appearances (two runs in 7 2/3 innings) the rest of the season.

The two months with Detroit at the end of the 1905 season would turn out to be the extent of Disch’s major-league career. In eight games, three of them starts, Disch worked 47 2/3 innings; he surrendered 43 hits and 14 earned runs, good for a 2.64 ERA. He did not win a game but was charged with two rather hard-luck losses.

The next two years were a whirlwind, during which the once promising prospect descended all the way to the Class D leagues. One explanation was that “he [Disch] has ability but no self-control and has simply ‘eaten’ himself out of fast company,”16 although no further detail was provided. In February 1906 Detroit President Frank Navin sold Disch to St. Paul of the American Association.17 After several rough outings early in the season, the Saints sold him to Milwaukee,18 which turned him over to Des Moines of the Western League. After one game, a 14-1 shellacking by Lincoln, Disch wound up with Evansville (Indiana) of the Central League. He pitched respectably for the River Rats, going 7-9 in 20 games. He also batted .274 while playing the outfield when not on the mound.

Evansville placed Disch on their reserve list, but in January 1907, St. Paul – which claimed it still owned the player’s rights – recalled him. St. Paul argued that the agreement was for Evansville to “hold him only temporarily, for under the contract St. Paul was to call for him.”19 Evansville officials countered that because St. Paul never recalled him, and the River Rats paid Disch’s salary all season, he now belonged to them. While waiting for the National Commission to decide on his contract status, Disch had “permission to play where he pleases.”20 Naturally, he sought the best offer. In March it was reported that St. Paul had sold him to Topeka,21 but by April he had hooked on with one of his former clubs, Marshalltown of the Iowa League. Disch finished the 1907 season with Freeport (Illinois) of the Wisconsin State League. He pitched in only nine games, going 5-1, but batted .310 as a regular outfielder, good for the second-best average in the league behind Ed Konetchy of La Crosse.22

By then primarily an outfielder, but still pitching on occasion, Disch returned to Freeport in 1908. In late June, a pitch broke bones in his right hand and put him out of action for several weeks. During his absence, Freeport withheld a portion of his $135 monthly salary. After the season, Disch filed a claim contending that the Freeport club owed him $90. When it did not pay up, National Association Secretary John H. Farrell declared Disch a free agent.23 However, later it was revealed that Disch had slipped away during his recovery and played for a semipro team in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which was the basis for Freeport’s claim of withholding his salary. When Farrell received the new information, he reversed his decision and awarded Disch back to Freeport.24

Disch reportedly had offers from Rockford, Illinois, and a team in Texas. However, being married with two young children, he wanted to stay close to his offseason home in Milwaukee, where he held a job as a clerk in a steel factory. So, over the next several years Disch pitched for both Sheboygan, where he was teammates with his brother William, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in the semipro Lake Shore League.

In the early 1920s Disch and his family relocated to Rapid City, South Dakota, where he partnered with his brother-in-law, A. D. Lee, in a creamery business. After Mr. Lee died, the name of the company was changed to Lee and Disch.25 The business was later sold and renamed the Superior Creamery. George continued to work at the company, at one point being employed as a “cream receiver,”26 until he retired. Disch died of cancer on August 25, 1950, at the age of 71. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Rapid City. He was survived by three brothers and a sister, his wife Fay, two children, and two grandchildren.27

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Sources

Unless otherwise noted, statistics from Disch’s playing career are taken from Baseball-Reference.com and genealogical and family history was obtained from Ancestry.com. The author also used information from clippings in Disch’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notes

1 “Stovall and Disch Sold to St. Paul,” Detroit News, February 20, 1906: 8.

2 “The Coming Champions,” Milwaukee Journal, June 7, 1895: 8.

3 South Side Highs Win,” Milwaukee Journal, May 2, 1898: 8.

4 “Raced 200 Miles,” Milwaukee Journal, June 3, 1901: 10.

5 “Racine’s Base Ball Team’s Line-Up, 1903. Racine (Wisconsin) Journal Times, March 24, 1903: 8.

6 Disch Knocked Out of Box,” Duluth (Minnesota) News-Tribune, September 20, 1902: 4.

7 Billy Disch was the manager of the University of Texas baseball team, running it for nearly three full decades before turning it over to his former pupil, Bibb Falk. Disch won 21 of 26 Southwest Conference titles and was instrumental in helping to create the Southwest Conference.

8 William Disch had a lengthy college baseball coaching career, including 1911 to 1939 at the University of Texas. He was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

9 “Trinity University Beat the Deaf Mutes,” Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, April 19, 1904: 2

10 “Disch Goes to Detroit,” Marshalltown (Iowa) Evening Times, July 31, 1905: 7.

11 “Money for Disch Arrives,” Marshalltown Evening Times, August 8, 1905: 7.

12 “George Disch Weds,” Waterloo (Iowa) Evening Courier, August 2, 1905: 2.

13 “Players Think Disch a Find,” Detroit Times, August 9, 1905: 7.

14 “Disch Refused to Be Rattled,” Detroit Times, August 15, 1905: 7.

15 “Eleventh Hour Defeat Again,” Detroit Times, August 2, 1905: 7.

16 “Notes for the Fans,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania)Times, January 18, 1907: 6.

17 “Stovall and Disch Sold,” Detroit Free Press, February 21, 1906: 10.

18 “Dope of the Day,” Minneapolis Journal, July 1, 1906: Sport Section – 2.

19 “Disch to Wear Evansville Suit,” Evansville (Indiana) Journal News, January 30, 1907: 10

20 “Disch Goes to Freeport,” Marshalltown Evening Times Republican, June 22, 1907: 8

21 Grant Howell, “The Western League,” Sporting Life, April 6, 1907: 10.

22 “Konetchy Leads State Batting,” Lacrosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, December 9, 1907: 2.

23 “George Disch Free Agent,” Dallas Morning News, March 24, 1909: 13.

24 “Disch And Harmon Are Not Free Agents,” Freeport (Illinois) Evening Standard, April 5, 1909: 1.

25 Notice,” Rapid City (South Dakota) Journal, January 27, 1922, 8.

26 Rapid City Journal, September 2, 1948: 15.

27 “Disch Rites To Be Held Monday,” Rapid City Journal, August 26, 1950, 4.