27 Semi professional baseball players

David Akeman better known as Stringbean, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, comedian, actor and semiprofessional baseball player best known for his role as a main cast member on the hit television show, Hee Haw, and as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Akeman was well-known for his "old-fashioned" banjo-picking style, careful mix of comedy and music, and his memorable stage wardrobe. Akeman and his wife were murdered by burglars in their rural Tennessee home near Ridgetop In 1973.

Wayne Harper Ambler was an American professional baseball player whose career spanned six season, including three in Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Athletics (1937–1939). Over his career in the majors, Ambler player second base and shortstop. He also played in the minor leagues. Ambler played for the Class-A Williamsport Grays (1939), the Double-A Jersey City Giants (1940) and the Double-A Indianapolis Indians (1941). Ambler made his major league debut on June 4, 1937, after never playing in the minors, a rare feat. During his major league career, Ambler compiled a batting average of .224 with 175 hits, 39 doubles, two triples, 73 runs batted in (RBIs) and four stolen bases in 271 games played.

James Everett Bonner was an American baseball player who played for Dai Tokyo in the Japanese Baseball League. Joining the team in its inaugural year, he was the first African American to play baseball professionally in Japan, 11 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd was an American university administrator, educator, athlete, coach, segregationist, and politician. Byrd began a long association with the University of Maryland as an undergraduate in 1905, and eventually rose to the position of university president from 1936 to 1954.

Raymond Joseph Cannon was an attorney, baseball player and Democratic politician who represented Wisconsin's 4th congressional district in the Congress from 1933 to 1939.

Oliver Angelo Carnegie was an Italian American professional baseball player whose playing career spanned 15 seasons. Over that time, Carnegie played in the minor leagues with the Class-B Flint Vehicles (1922) of the Michigan–Ontario League; the Class-B Hazleton Mountaineers (1931) of the New York–Penn League; the Double-A Buffalo Bisons of the International League; and the Class-D Lockport White Sox (1942) and the Class-D Jamestown Falcons (1944) of the PONY League. In 1,539 career games played, Carnegie batted .309 with 1665 hits, 302 doubles, 48 triples and 297 home runs. Carnegie batted and threw right-handed. Carnegie also managed the Class-D Jamestown Falcons in 1944. Officially a player-manager since he also played 96 games that season, Carnegie led the Falcons to a 70–54 record which was good enough for second overall in the PONY League.

George David "Slick" Coffman was an American baseball pitcher. He played 18 years of professional baseball, including four years in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers (1937–1939) and St. Louis Browns (1940). In his major league debut in May 1937, Coffman won in an 11-inning, 4–2 pitching duel with Lefty Grove. Coffman compiled a career record of 15–12 in 313 2⁄3 innings pitched with a 5.60 earned run average.

Donald Eugene Conley was an American professional baseball and basketball player. He played as a pitcher for four teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1952 to 1963. Conley also played as a forward in the 1952–53 season and from 1958 to 1964 for two teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is one of only two people to win championships in two of the four major American sports: one with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 World Series and three with the Boston Celtics from 1959 to 1961.

Francis Patrick "Frank" Crossin, Sr. was a professional baseball player whose career spanned seven seasons, three of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) St. Louis Browns (1912–14). Over his Major League career, Crossin, a catcher, compiled a .147 batting average with eight runs scored, 17 hits, one double, one triple, and seven runs batted in (RBIs) in 55 games played. He made his professional debut with the minor league Binghamton Bingoes in 1912. His MLB debut came on September 24, 1912. Crossin played parts of the next two seasons in the majors. In 1915, a year after his MLB career ended, he returned to the minors. Over his career in the minors, Crossin compiled a .261 batting average with 303 hits in 381 games played. He batted, and threw right-handed. During his career, he stood at 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm), and weighed 160 pounds (73 kg).

Charles Arnold "Chick" Gandil was a professional baseball player. He played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox of the American League. He is best known as the ringleader of the players involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Described by his contemporaries as a "professional malcontent", he was physically well-built at 6.2 ft (1.9 m) and 195 lb (88 kg), and had a mean and callous expression. He used both to display his toughness, and also did not hesitate to use sheer strength to get his point across.

Junior Lee Hedges is, with 217 victories, the winningest high school football coach in the history of Shreveport-Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana. In 2001, the Caddo Parish School Board renamed the football stadium at Captain Shreve High School in Hedges' honor. In 2010, he was elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches.

Miller James Huggins was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds (1904–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910–1916). He managed the Cardinals (1913–1917) and New York Yankees (1918–1929), including the Murderers' Row teams of the 1920s that won six American League (AL) pennants and three World Series championships.

George Christopher Jackson, known also as "Hickory" Jackson, was a professional baseball player whose career spanned 27 seasons, three of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Boston Rustlers/Braves (1911–13). Over his major league career, he compiled a .285 batting average with 85 runs scored, 158 hits, 24 doubles, seven triples, four home runs, 73 runs batted in, and 34 stolen bases in 152 games played. Jackson's professional career started in the minor leagues with the Jackson Senators.

Joseph Jefferson Jackson, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American outfielder who played Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 1900s. He is remembered for his performance on the field and for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result of Jackson's association with the scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's first commissioner, banned Jackson from playing after the 1920 season despite his exceptional play in the 1919 World Series, in which he led both teams in several statistical categories and set a World Series record with 12 base hits. Since then, Jackson's guilt has been fiercely debated with new accounts claiming his innocence and urging Major League Baseball to reconsider his banishment. As a result of the scandal, Jackson's career was abruptly halted in his prime, ensuring him a place in baseball lore.

Hugh Ambrose Jennings was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won National League championships in 1894, 1895, and 1896. During those three seasons, Jennings had 355 runs batted in and hit .335, .386, and .401.

Harmon Clayton Killebrew Jr., nicknamed ’The Killer’ and ’Hammerin' Harmon’, was an American professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. During his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Minnesota Twins, Killebrew was a prolific power hitter who, at the time of his retirement, had the fourth-most home runs in major league history. He was second only to Babe Ruth in American League (AL) home runs, and was the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter. Killebrew was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

Charles Walter "Walt" Kuhn, known also as "Red" Kuhn, was a professional baseball player. During his playing career, Kuhn, a catcher, played three seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Chicago White Sox (1912–14). Over those three years, he compiled a batting average of .205 with 25 runs scored, 55 hits, nine doubles, and 15 runs batted in (RBIs) in 119 games played. The majority of Kuhn's career was spent in the minor leagues. He played seven seasons in the minors with the Fresno California State League club (1905), San Francisco Orphans (1908), Fresno Tigers/Raisin Growers (1908–1910), Portland Beavers (1911), Oakland Oaks (1915), Salt Lake City Bees (1916), Waco Navigators (1916), and Dallas Giants (1917).

Christopher Mathewson, nicknamed "Big Six", "The Christian Gentleman", "Matty", and "The Gentleman's Hurler", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher, who played 17 seasons with the New York Giants. He stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall and weighed 195 pounds (88 kg). He was among the most dominant pitchers in baseball history, and ranks in the all-time top 10 in several key pitching categories, including wins, shutouts, and ERA. In 1936, Mathewson was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its first five members.

Ralph Mattis, known also as Matty Mattis, was a professional baseball outfielder whose career spanned seven seasons, one of which was spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Pittsburgh Rebels (1914). In his only season in the majors, Mattis batted .247 with 14 runs scored, 21 hits, four doubles, one triple, and eight runs batted in (RBIs) in 36 games played. The majority of his career was played in the minor leagues. He played with the Richmond Colts (1911), Newport News Shipbuilders (1912), Roanoke Tigers (1913), Parksley Spuds (1923–24), and Crisfield Crabbers (1925) over his career in the minors. Combined between those teams, Mattis batted .303 with 698 hits in 610 games played. During his career, he stood at 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) and weighed 172 pounds (78 kg). He batted and threw right-handed. Mattis served as a manager for one season with the Parksley Spuds (1923).

Sherman Leander "Jocko" Maxwell was an American sportscaster and chronicler of Negro league baseball. Many veteran journalists of his day, including Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American, believed that Maxwell was the first African American sports broadcaster in history. It was an assertion that many in the mainstream press also accepted, and Maxwell himself sometimes stated that he had in fact been the first. For much of his life, he was known by the nickname of Jocko. Despite his many accomplishments over a broadcasting career of more than four decades, Maxwell was rarely paid by the radio stations he worked for during his career.

William James O'Reilly Jr. is an American journalist, author, and former television host. During the late 1970s and 1980s, he reported for local television stations in the United States and later for CBS News and ABC News. He anchored the tabloid television program Inside Edition from 1989 to 1995. O'Reilly joined the Fox News Channel in 1996 and hosted The O'Reilly Factor until 2017. The O'Reilly Factor was the highest-rated cable news show for 16 years, and he was described by media analyst Howard Kurtz as "the biggest star in the 20-year history at Fox News" at the time of his ouster. He is the author of numerous books and hosted The Radio Factor (2002–2009). O'Reilly is a conservative commentator.

Orange Phelps was an American businessman and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he attended colleges in the Midwest where he played baseball before moving to Oregon. Phelps settled near Portland in Hillsboro where he opened the first movie theater and later served as a mayor of that city and on the city council. He continued in the movie business until the 1970s and also opened the first drive-in theater in the county.

William George Rumler, known as James Rumler during the 1918 season, and Red Moore during the 1921 season, was a professional baseball player, whose career spanned 19 seasons, three of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the St. Louis Browns. He played catcher, and outfielder. Over his major league career, Rumler compiled a combined batting average of .251 with 15 runs scored, 43 hits, seven doubles, four triples, one home run, and 32 runs batted in (RBIs) in 139 games played. After making his MLB debut in 1914, he spent the next season in the minor leagues. He returned to the majors in 1916, and again for a final time in 1917.

Homer Vernon Smoot, nicknamed "Doc", was an American professional baseball player. He played five seasons in Major League Baseball, for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, from 1902 until 1906, primarily as a center fielder. He threw right-handed but batted left-handed.

Robert Brown Thomson was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player nicknamed "The Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants, Milwaukee Braves (1954–57), Chicago Cubs (1958–59), Boston Red Sox (1960), and Baltimore Orioles (1960). His pennant-winning three-run home run for the Giants in 1951 is popularly known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" and is one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It overshadowed his other accomplishments, including eight 20-home run seasons and three All Star selections. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me", he said. "It may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody."

George Lawrence Thorogood is an American musician, singer and songwriter from Wilmington, Delaware. His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone". He has also helped to popularize older songs by American icons, such as "Move It on Over", "Who Do You Love?", and "House Rent Blues/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer".

August Joseph "Gus" Williams, Jr., known also as "Gloomy" Gus Williams, was a German American professional baseball player whose career spanned 10 seasons, five of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the St. Louis Browns (1911–15). Over his major league career, Williams batted .263 with 171 runs scored, 367 hits, 58 doubles, 31 triples, 12 home runs, 147 runs batted in (RBIs), and 95 stolen bases in 410 games played. Williams career started out in 1909 with the Monmouth Browns of the Class-D Illinois–Missouri League. After playing in the minor leagues for two seasons, Williams made his major league debut in 1911. He had another stint in the majors in 1912. In 1913, Williams served as the Browns regular outfielder. He was a dead-ball era power hitter for the Browns, ranking in the top-10 amongst American League hitters in home runs during the 1913 and 1914 seasons. He led the league in strikeouts in 1914. Williams would make his last appearance in the major leagues during the 1915 season. He would go on to play in the minors with the Toronto Maple Leafs (1915), Nashville Volunteers (1916), Louisville Colonels (1917), and Indianapolis Indians (1918). In the minors, he compiled a career batting average of .293 with 838 hits in 759 games played. Williams also played semi-professional baseball after leaving the professional circuit. He batted and threw left-handed. During his baseball career, Williams stood at 6 feet (180 cm) and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg).