eugene bremer

Eugene Bremer was a pretty successful pitcher in the Negro American League of the 1940s.  He played mostly for Cincinnati and Cleveland teams, and his name was usually spelled “Bremmer” in the black press.  He suffered a fractured skull in the 1942 car accident that devastated the Cincinnati Buckeyes and killed Ulysses Brown and Raymond Owens.  There was a wartime rumor that Bremer, along with Cleveland Buckeyes teammates Parnell Woods and Sam Jethroe, would be getting a tryout with the Indians, but of course this never materialized.

It has long been thought that at the end of his career Bremer briefly entered organized baseball with the Cedar Rapids Rockets of the Class C Central Association in 1949, where, as James Riley writes, he compiled “an uncharacteristically poor 2-7 record with a 6.38 ERA” (Biographical Encyclopedia, p. 105).

Rod Nelson, however, noticed some discrepancies between the “Gene Bremer” listed in SABR’s minor league database and the “Eugene Bremmer” of the Negro leagues.  It looked to me like they were two different players, as the Negro leaguer was supposed to have started his career with the New Orleans Crescents in 1932, while the minor league DB has its Gene Bremer born in 1928.  

A quick check at Newspaperarchive.com revealed that the 1949 Cedar Rapids Rockets employed 20-year-old twins from Moville, Iowa, named Jack and Gene Bremer.  Here they are at their debut, with their parents:



A closer look at SABR’s minor league DB shows that the 2-7, 6.38 record in 1949 actually belonged to Jack Bremer; Gene’s pitching record isn’t given, presumably because he didn’t appear in enough games.

The Social Security Death Index has a record for Gene Bremer, born September 21, 1928, died July 9, 1994, with his last residence being Moville, Iowa.  It’s possible his twin Jack is still alive, as there is no record for him.

As for the Negro league pitcher, I found the following records that corresponded to the death date found in Riley (June 19, 1971), though the birth date is different:

SSDI: Eugene Bremer, born 18 July 1916; SSN 434-05-6693 issued in Louisiana before 1951; died June 1971; last residence Cleveland, Ohio.

Ohio Deaths: Eugene J. Bremer, 54, married; “Non-white”; residence Cleveland, Ohio; died 19 June 1971, Cleveland, Ohio; certificate #049166.

I also found a record in the 1920 census for “Eugene Bremer,” black, 3 years old, living in New Orleans with his parents Joseph and Amanda Bremer, three sisters, a grandmother and a cousin.

So the Negro leaguer Eugene J. Bremer probably spelled his name with one “m,” and definitely did NOT pitch for Cedar Rapids in 1949.

UPDATE 2:34 p.m.  Here is Eugene Bremer (left) with teammate George Jefferson, from a website about the Cleveland Buckeyes.

 

UPDATE 5-29-2020 I wanted to post the photograph (with caption) of Bremer’s teammate Raymond “Smoky” Owens mentioned by Bob Poet in the comments. Owens was killed, along with Ulysses “Joe” Brown, in a car wreck involving several Cleveland Buckeyes players in 1942.

(Chicago Defender, May 25, 1940, p. 24)

Here is the same photo, published in the Cleveland Call & Post:

(Cleveland Call & Post, May 25, 1940, p. 6)

 

Comments

[Gary Ashwill]

Hi Dody, yes, that's Eugene Bremer with the Broadview team in the late 1930s. They also brought in Lionel Decuir to catch for him.

[Dody Weninger]

Hi! I just wanted to add to your puzzle...I bought an old baseball uniform a couple years ago. It was a Broadview Buffalo's from Saskatchewan Canada. The first integrated team in Canada in the late 30's. A quick Google search gives you the details.
A Gene Bremer played for them. He was brought up from the States. Time-wise it looks like it could be the same man.
What do you think?

[Bob Poet]

Thanks to you Gary and to Alex Painter and James Tate for Owens and the Three Bears photos.

Still believe somewhere out there is a pic of Owens as a West All-Star in 1939.

[Gary Ashwill]

Hi Bob, you're right--although Owens has always (at least since Riley) been listed as a lefty, it appears that he was a righthander (as was Sarvis). As for their heights, that's a thornier question. The WW2 draft cards for the three (all filled out in Jacksonville on October 16, 1940, just a few months after the photo you're talking about was published in the Chicago Defender & Cleveland Call & Post) list Henry at 5'5", 148; Sarvis at 5'10", 190; Owens at 5'7", 180. (They are definitely the right draft cards, too.) FWIW, Riley lists Henry at 5'4", 135--combined with the draft card it would appear he was probably shorter than the 5'6" listed for him at Seamheads & bb-ref.

[Bob Poet]

Hi Gary -- I'm looking for a credible photo of Raymond "Smoky" Owens, who was one Bremer's Cincinnati-Cleveland Buckeye teammates killed in the 9/7/1942 auto accident you mentioned.

Seamheads has Owens as a 5'7" 180 lb lefty but the only "known" photo of him shows a taller, leaner right handed pitcher. I believe the photo is from the 1940 Cleveland Bears and the two other pitchers in the shot are said to be Preacher Henry RR 5'6", 140 and Andy "Smoky" Sarvis ?? 5'10" 190. The player beside them, said to be Owens, is taller (and bears a likeness to Doc Gooden, IMHO). An identical photo of Owens is cropped from the aforementioned shot and labeled as Owens while on the 1938 Jacksonville Red Caps, but that's unlikely because Owens, Sarvis and Henry did not play for the Red Caps together or at the same time except for the 1940 Cleveland Bears.

What's especially vexing is Ray "Smoky" Owens was the starting pitcher for the West All-Stars in 1939! In Yankee Stadium, no less! (2nd East-West game that year). And STILL no photo? Hard to believe... gotta be one out there somewhere!

[Gary Ashwill]

Bremer was also listed with the Louisville Buckeyes pitchers in the Defender in late April. I don't know if he actually appeared for Louisville before showing up with New Orleans.

[Bill Mullins]

Eugene Bremer (the NL) played for New Orleans Creoles in 1949.

Per Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/26/1949: "Leading lights with the Creoles are Buddy Armour, Al Pinkston, Nathaniel Peeples [Peoples?], Eugene Bremer, Frank Evans, Joe Wiley and Marvin Terrell." [from an article about a Double Header to be played that day at League Park between the Creoles and the Brooklyn Cuban Giants]

An earlier article (6/21/1949) said that Willie Jefferson and Tony Stone were to play with the Creoles, and Len Lindsay and Benny Marshall would be iwth the Brooklyn team.