Earle Brucker (bruckea01)

From BR Bullpen

Earle Francis Brucker Sr.

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.

Debut April 19, 1937
Final Game May 23, 1943
Born May 6, 1901 in Albany, NY USA
Died May 8, 1981 in San Diego, CA USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Earle Brucker was a catcher who played for 5 years in the major leagues, from 1937-43. When he first broke in, he was a 36-year-old rookie. Brucker had actually served as player/manager for the St. Joseph Saints in 1934-1935, before his ML career. His whole career was spent with the Philadelphia Athletics. He became the most-used catcher by the Athletics in his rookie year, although Frankie Hayes, who had been the first-string catcher in 1936, resumed that post in 1938-41. Hayes was 14 years younger than Brucker.

Brucker hit an impressive .371 in 1938, in 171 at-bats. Although he only appeared in 53 games, his 21 doubles were fairly close to team leader Wally Moses with 29 doubles in 589 at-bats.

In 1939, he hit .291 with a .381 on-base percentage. In 1940, he was 39 years old, one year older than teammate Al Simmons. Brucker's last at-bat was in 1943, at the age of 42.

After his playing days, Brucker spent nine seasons as an Athletics coach. He was later a member of the St. Louis Browns and Cincinnati Reds coaching staffs. Brucker also managed 5 games for the 1952 Reds.

Father of Earle Brucker, Jr. Their ML debuts were separated by only 11 years, a record. Earle, Jr. broke in at age 22 in 1948 with his father's team, the Philadelphia Athletics, only five years after his father had played his last season and only one year after Frankie Hayes had played his last season.

Brucker owned some land in El Cajon, CA, and built a baseball stadium there in 1955, hoping to interest the Detroit Tigers in putting a farm team there. When that didn't happen, it was converted into a football stadium, and a motorcyle race track was put in it. Then it was converted into a race track for cars in 1961, known as the Cajon Speedway. Brucker Sr. told Brucker Jr. to run it, which he did for many years. Brucker Jr.'s sons Kevin and Steve ran the facility from the 1980's through to 2005, when it ceased to operate as a race track. See Cajon Speedway Track History