Lou Bierbauer

Who was Lou Bierbauer?

Louis W. Bierbauer was an American professional baseball player of German descent. He was a second baseman in Major League Baseball during the late 1880s and 1890s. Over that period of time, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association before joining many other major leaguers in jumping to the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders in the newly formed Players' League for the 1890 season, a league which folded after just one year of play. Once the League folded in 1891, pretty much every player that left the National League or the American Association for the Players' League was allowed to return to their original team. However Bierbauer never signed back with the Athletics. The National League's Pittsburgh Alleghenys realizing Bierbauer's absence in the Athletics line-up became determined to sign him.

Alfred Spink, the founder of the Sporting News, wrote about the incident in his 1910 book "The National Game". According to Spink, Allegheny's manager Ned Hanlon traveled to Presque Isle in the dead of winter to sign him, crossing the ice on the harbor during a snow storm. He finally reached Bierbauer's home and got him to sign a contract with Allegheny.