Nelson Burbrink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nelson Edward Burbrink (December 28, 1921 - April 11, 2001) was a Major League Baseball catcher. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs as an amateur free agent before the 1941 season. He finally made it to the major leagues at the age of 33 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
After being called up to the big leagues in June of 1955, Burbrink shared catching duties with teammate Bill Sarni for the remainder of the season. He made his major league debut on June 5 during a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. He appeared in 58 games for St. Louis, going 47-for-170 (.276) with 0 home runs, 15 runs batted in, and 11 runs scored. He had a .333 on base percentage and a slugging percentage of .335.
Defensively, he recorded 261 putouts, 24 assists, 6 errors, and participated in 4 double plays. His fielding percentage was .979, slightly under the league average that season.