[Merkle923]

One of the more curious figures in baseball history. After just 85 games as an 18-year old shortstop in the Three-I League in 1949 - and only batting .218 - he was inexplicably promoted to the parent White Sox. There he made five starts, went 4-for-10 plus two walks, doubled, tripled - and went back to the minors the next year and stayed there until the Reds brought him north twelve seasons later (one of the longest intervals between major league appearances in history).

Now 30, Baumer got eight starts at second base, but on the day of the last of them Cincinnati completed a trade for Don Blasingame of the Giants, and that was it for Baumer. Thirteen days later he was unloaded by the Reds to Detroit just before the cutdown date. He played three more years in the minors and then at 32 joined the Ni****etsu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League for five seasons as a slugging infielder (and getting on a couple of baseball cards there). Returning to the States he became a scout, then farm director of the Brewers in 1974, then their General Manager in 1975, and ultimately a Phillies' Vice President.