[LansdowneSt]

How did a 30-year-old man from France wind up playing in one game for the St. Louis Browns in 1903? That is the story of Claude Gouzzie (pronounced Goo-ZAY), the first person born in France to play in the major leagues. It is also a story that may never have been told, were it not for a chance encounter between two baseball historians at the organizational meeting for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in 1971. That is a story in its own right.

To fill Jesse Burkett's place on the roster while he tended to his ill wife, Claude Gouzzie was brought in from Niles, Ohio, where he was playing for an independent minor league club. An on-field injury pressed him into service and Gouzzie took over at second. Gouzzie got one at-bat (he made an out facing Earl Moore), fielded one chance without an error, and otherwise had an unremarkable appearance in a 7-0 Browns loss. A few days later Burkett was back with the Browns. Gouzzie went back to the minors, his improbable major league career over.

He was a mystery man for years due to a misspelling of his last name in many of the boxscores but a chance meeting of two SABR researchers and one keying into the lone Cleveland boxscore that got he name right. The record was corrected in an article in the SABR Baseball Research Journal, Volume 1, published in 1972. It was entitled “The Man with the Peculiar Name” — as the Plain Dealer game story referred to Gouzzie. - SABR

Crafted the facegen as best I could from the lone photo. I think Monessen could take'em. As a glove first man, he rates as a middling 2B in OOTP - I hope his rep as a grinder is true if he's to have a chance versus those east of the Monongahela.

Saved as the MLB Historic ID as he had no bRef or in-game Minors code