Ox Eckhardt
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image
Oscar George "Ox" Eckhardt (December 23, 1901 – April 22, 1951) was an American professional baseball and football player. He was an outfielder for the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers of Major League Baseball, and a fullback for the New York Giants of the National Football League.
Eckhardt holds the knownTemplate:Cref2 all-time professional baseball record for batting average, counting both major and minor league stats with .365.
(Ty Cobb holds the major league record, .366, but Cobb's minor league average of .304 lowers his total professional-ball average to .364, second behind Eckhardt. Ike Boone holds the minor league record, .370, but his major league average of .321 also lowers his total professional-ball average to .364 (just behind Cobb if their averages are expanded to further digits). Eckhardt hit .192 in the major leagues, but in just 52 at bats, so his known minor league average of .366 was lowered just one point.)
On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro League statistics into its records, giving Josh Gibson the highest professional career batting average, his major league average being .373 (according to Baseball Reference) and his average outside the major leagues being .374. However, a good portion of Gibson's statistical record is missing.
Football career
Eckhardt played college football as a halfback and quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He intercepted a pass in the Longhorns 16–0 upset win over Vanderbilt in 1923.[1]
In 1926, he professionally as a fullback in 11 games for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL).[2]
Baseball career
In spite of his outstanding ability to hit for average, Eckhardt – a poor fielder who lacked much home run power – was never able to establish himself in the major leagues. He spent a few years as a football coach and assistant professor at West Texas State Teachers College (now West Texas A&M University), so he was already 26 when he started seriously playing minor league ball,[2] which is older than the average age of major league debuts.[3] He was invited to spring training by the Detroit Tigers in 1929,[2] 1930,[4] and 1931,[2] but he didn't make the team. He played in spring training for the Boston Braves 1932, and did go north with the Braves, but was sent back to the minors after eight at bats as a pinch hitter. The next year, 1933, he hit .414 for the San Francisco Missions, which is the PCL (Pacific Coast League) record. In 1935, he again won the PCL batting title, edging out 20-year-old Joe DiMaggio, .399 to .398.[2]
This finally earned him a slot on a major league club, the 1936 Brooklyn Dodgers, with a chance to win a job as a regular. But Eckhardt was 36 years old by then, was still a poor fielder with little power, and in ten starts hit just .182 in 44 at bats. He was sent back to the minors, never to return.[2]
Eckhardt was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 2003.
Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Texas State Buffaloes (Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association) (1925–1927) | |||||||||
| 1925 | West Texas State | 4–4 | 1–3 | T–10th | |||||
| 1926 | West Texas State | 2–6 | 0–4 | 9th | |||||
| 1927 | West Texas State | 6–3–1 | 2–2 | T–5th | |||||
| West Texas State: | 12–13–1 | 3–9 | |||||||
| Total: | 12–13–1 | ||||||||
Notes
Template:Cnote2 Begin Template:Cnote2 Template:Cnote2 End
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
- Career statistics from Script error: No such module "String".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Template:First word Template:PAGENAMEBASE at Find a GraveTemplate:EditAtWikidata
Script error: No such module "Navbox". Template:PCL Hall of Fame
- Pages with script errors
- 1901 births
- 1951 deaths
- American football fullbacks
- American football halfbacks
- American football quarterbacks
- Major League Baseball right fielders
- Boston Braves players
- Brooklyn Dodgers players
- New York Giants players
- Texas Longhorns baseball players
- Texas Longhorns football players
- West Texas A&M Buffaloes football coaches
- Austin Senators players
- Amarillo Texans players
- Beaumont Exporters players
- Dallas Rebels players
- Indianapolis Indians players
- Memphis Chickasaws players
- Mission Reds players
- Seattle Indians players
- Toledo Mud Hens players
- Wichita Larks players
- People from Yorktown, Texas
- Players of American football from DeWitt County, Texas
- Baseball players from DeWitt County, Texas
- Coaches of American football from Texas
- 20th-century American sportsmen