Searching for Ballplayer Felber

[Michael Xavier]

Less than a week ago, in a historic league, I picked up 2B Ballplayer Felber in the 2nd round of the 1922 draft. In real life, OOTP has him playing in Joplin in 1922, where .416 in 65 games and then he doesn't play again until 1929, where he plays for Spartanburg.

I needed a 2B and he had good contact. So far, he has hit .375/.453/.562 with 24 hits, 19 runs, and 9 doubles through 15 games, but I just can't call a player with this type of production "Ballplayer," so I started to search for him on Baseball Reference and Ancestry. Surely there is some record of this person. Also, OOTP has him listed as 26, "Really? This dude starts playing minor league ball at 26? No way!" My chief reason for the search is to find out his real name and when he was born.

I believe his name is Oscar Felber, for Baseball Reference has a player named Oscar Felber, who played from 1920-1932 in the minors. This matches a person named is Oscar H. Felber, who is listed throughout the mid-1920's as a "ball player" in the Oklahoma City directory. Oscar H. Felber married Rose Hartley on May 14, 1923.

According to their marriage license, Oscar was born in St. Louis, MO and he was 23 when he married Rose, who is a native of Pittsburg, KS. Pittsburg, KS is 29 miles from Joplin, MO, where my rookie 2B played in 1922.

Oscar Felber is cited in some newspapers as being on the roster of the Oklahoma City Indians in the 1920's.

He also registers for the draft on February 14, 1942 in Dayton, OH, which is the last team he played for in 1932. He cites that is birthday is December 05, 1900 and his birthplace is St. Louis, MO. This matches the previous records, and indicates that he was 21 at the begining of the 1922 baseball season. I just reduced his age by 5 years.

I'm excited, but then I find his World War I draft card. Oscar Henry Felber was born December 5, 1897 according to it. His Social Security Card application and obituary tell the same tale -- born in 1897. This means he was 24 at the start of the 1922 season. Oh, well, at least I can reduce his age by 2 years.

[LansdowneSt]

I'd believe the marriage license and WWI draft card info. In 1942, he may have lowered his age to be eligible for certain WWII support efforts - even the draft. He may have regarded it as patriotic or practical to be eligible to support the effort by being below age 45 in 1942.

Got me curious - I'll have to look up/import felber001osc and felber003--- and see what's there in OOTP. Nice work on the research.

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah, that "lied about his age to the draft board" thing sounds really plausible and it wasn't super outlandish in the teens and 20s for guys to start playing organized baseball that late. One thing to bear in mind, especially for that time period, is that the leagues we have data for on BBRef and through that the DB the game uses are not even close to inclusive of all baseball being played at that time. For 1920 especially, this 26 year old guy would have been 20 when the war broke out in Europe and 22 when the US entered it. Perhaps he was in college at that point in time or maybe he was working at the local electric company and playing on their semi-pro team on the weekends. Maybe if he was born a decade earlier he'd have gone full pro at around the time he'd have been drafted. Back in those days if you were an able-bodied young man it was not a question of whether you were involved in the war effort but of how deeply you were. Jack Dempsey was once branded a "slacker" because a photo was found of him working in a factory during the Great War but his shoes looked too fancy. I have no idea of his actual story of course but an awful lot of doughboys saw their entire futures basically set aside until they came home from the war, which often wasn't until months after the armistice was signed.

Or he was that actual age in 1942. Good luck in that continued research. I'm just saying, I think both accounts are plausible.

[fuzzy_patters]

Thank you for sharing this. This is one of my favorite parts of playing historical. I love turning development on and minor leagues on and waiting to see who emerges. Then I start Googling and searching Ancestry and Newspapers.com so I can learn more about them. It’s a blast.

[fuzzy_patters]

Here is an interesting blurb about your player. I’ll send more if I can find them.

[fuzzy_patters]

Here he is in 1926.

[fuzzy_patters]

Here he is in Tennessee in 1929. I assume the Eric McNair listed next to him is the future Philadelphia A’s and others shortstop.

[fuzzy_patters]

This article says he was 28 in 1928. It sounds like he had a great year. It’s possible he lied about his age though so he would have a longer future in baseball.

[fuzzy_patters]

This one here is from 1925 and gives you a clue as to the type of player he was.

[Syd Thrift]

The #3 search result on Google for "Oscar Felber baseball" is this thread haha

[TomVeal]

Judging by the newspaper stories, Oscar had real potential. I wish him good luck in your league.

[Michael Xavier]

I am in Florida on vacation with my young sons, so I have not played OOTP as I normally do for over 20 years, but I am grateful for the newspaper clippings, and I can happily report that Felber won NL Rookie of the Month for April 1922.

He's got to tail off a little, but as of now, Felber is on pace to have 237 hits in 148 games played and he has no legitimate competition in the NL for Rookie of the Year, unless I decide to start playing Babe Herman more. Still, his .372 doesn't even put him in the top ten in AVG. Hornsby is batting 57 points higher than Oscar.