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Birthday profile

Fred Merkle

Fred Merkle, American baseball player and manager (died 1956)

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Born
December 20, 1888
Died
March 2, 1956
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1888

About Fred Merkle

Carl Frederick Rudolf Merkle (also sometimes documented as Frederick Charles Merkle; December 20, 1888 – March 2, 1956), nicknamed "Bonehead", was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1926. Although he had a lengthy career, he is best remembered for a controversial base-running mistake he made as a rookie while still a teenager. Merkle played his first Major League game at the age of 18, with the New York Giants in 1907. Merkle became the Giants' regular first baseman by 1910 and contributed in that role to three straight pennant winners from 1911 to 1913. In April 1917, the Robins sold Merkle to the Chicago Cubs, the team against which he had made his infamous play in 1908, with whom he continued as the regular first baseman through 1920.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Fred Merkle timeline

  1. Merkle played his first Major League game at the age of 18, with the New York Giants in 1907.
  2. Merkle became the Giants' regular first baseman by 1910 and contributed in that role to three straight pennant winners from 1911 to 1913.
  3. In April 1917, the Robins sold Merkle to the Chicago Cubs, the team against which he had made his infamous play in 1908, with whom he continued as the regular first baseman through 1920.

The world when Fred Merkle was born

Fred Merkle was born in 1888. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Blizzard of 1888 paralyzes US East Coast
  • Technology milestoneKodak box camera — "You press the button, we do the rest"
  • Defining fadKodak camera craze
  • World population~1.48B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
  • U.S. population57.6M

1888 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Fred Merkle's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18882026
Population57.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.