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Phantom Baseball: 1895

Circa 1895. "Hasamaear, Washington baseball." Fan favorite William "Roaring Bill" Hasamaear keeps his eye on the ball, such as it is. 5x7 inch glass negative from the C.M. Bell portrait studio in Washington, D.C. View full size.

Circa 1895. "Hasamaear, Washington baseball." Fan favorite William "Roaring Bill" Hasamaear keeps his eye on the ball, such as it is. 5x7 inch glass negative from the C.M. Bell portrait studio in Washington, D.C. View full size.

 

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Effete present-day bonus babies take note:

None of those sissy fielder's gloves needed here!

Meier, a common German family name

either alone or in combinations like this one. German Wikipedia lists almost 30 spelling variations of it, although none like this baseball player. Immigration officials were very creative in phonetically spelling names if the person entering was illiterate. Meier was the name of a farm supervisor for a nobleman that owned the farm, thus resulting in it being one of the most common last names in German speaking Europe. Later on, people who were merely renting the farm from the nobleman took the name, probably because of its perceived prestige over "Bauer", which means "farmer".

Roaring Bill

According to Baseball Reference his name is listed as William Hassamaer. He was 6 feet tall, 180 pounds. He played three years for two teams, The Washington Senators and the Louisville Colonels. Lifetime batting average of .289, 178 RBI and 25 stolen bases. No mention of how he received his nickname of Roaring Bill.

[Bill's last name was also rendered as Hasmear, Hasmaer, Hassamaear, Hassamear, etc. - Dave]

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