From an early age, like most children at the time, George Toporczer was obsessed with baseball. In an interview, he admitted that for the last seventy five years scarce a day had gone by that he had not contemplated the sport. He stated that in spite of his obsession he was always picked last during childhood games because of his slight build and glasses. He went to school and became friends with actor Jimmy Cagney, staying in touch into the later portions of their lives. Toporczer said the first thing that hooked him on baseball was when he was six and went to the 1905 World Series. At the World Series he watched the Giants’ Christy Mathewson pitch three shutouts The experience was further reinforced by his two older brothers who, being diehard Giants fans, idolized the players, speaking of little else but the performance of their favorite team. The fanaticism of his older brothers soaked into young George and he too became a diehard Giants fan. He became so attached to the Giants that when they lost the pennant to the Chicago Cubs in 1908, due to Merkle\'s Boner, he cried himself to sleep. By the time he was ten he would walk the five miles from his house to the Polo Grounds. Although the one cent allowance that his father, a shoe and boot seller, was not enough to get him a ticket, he found a spot on Coogan\'s Bluff that he could take advantage of an open space in the roof of the Polo Grounds. \n', '

Unlike most of his peers, he was enthralled with what was known then as inside baseball which were the strategies and tactics of the "dead-ball" era. While still loving the Giant\'s players, Toporczer held a special admiration of the Giants’ manager John McGraw, who he considered the best of his time. Out of all of the Giants players, George\'s favorite was the left fielder, George Burns. When he was thirteen Toporczer got a job at a local saloon as a scorekeeper, writing down the scores of the baseball games in exchange for fifty cents and free meals. While in seventh grade George\'s history teacher formed a school baseball team but he was turned down from it because of his slight figure and his glasses. Even though he was not on the team, Toporczer still went to all of their games to cheer them on. At one of these games, he was the only one there to cheer the team on and the team was short one player so he was drafted into play centerfield. During that game he made a difficult catch and contributed two hits. Around this time Toporczer\'s father died and passed the business on to George\'s older brother. George had to forgo high school and help his brother run the shoe and boot store. By working at the store and picking up odd jobs on the side, \\ Toporczer was making more than enough to buy tickets and would regularly go to the Polo Grounds.\n', '

Born and reared in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, he never played high school or college ball and went directly from the sandlots to major league competition in 1921. Now known as George Toporcer, he split his first professional season between the Cardinals and the minor league Syracuse Stars, the Cardinals\' top farm team. He played all infield positions for the Cardinals, especially shortstop, and was the club\'s most-used midfielder in both 1922 and 1925. In 1928, Toporcer got into only eight games for the Cardinals, and spent the bulk of the year with their top farm team, the Rochester Red Wings.\n', '

Return to Specs Toporcer Autograph Profile