// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Billy Geer? A deer-ly loved person.

Billy Geer
Billy Geer
	Shortstop
	Born: New York, U.S.
	Died: September 30, 1928; Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
	Batted: Unknown Threw: Right
MLB debut
	October 15, 1874, for the New York Mutuals
Last MLB appearance
	May 10, 1885, for the Louisville Colonels
MLB statistics
Batting average	.214
Home runs	0
Runs batted in	33
	Stats at Baseball Reference
Teams
	New York Mutuals (1874); New Haven Elm Citys (1875); Cincinnati Reds (1878); Worcester Ruby Legs (1880); Philadelphia Keystones (1884); Brooklyn Atlantics (1884); Louisville Colonels (1885);

William H. Geer^[1] (died September 30, 1928),^[1] was an American Major League Baseball player who played most of his career as a shortstop for five seasons and a total of seven teams. He is most notable for his status as possibly the youngest player in Major League history.

Career

Geer made his professional baseball debut for the New York Mutuals of the National Association. The following season, while playing for the New Haven Elm Citys, he was arrested along with his roommate, Henry Luff, for burglary of several hotel rooms.^[2]

Later life and criminal career

After leaving baseball in the mid-1880s, Geer turned to check forgery. According to a biography published by the Society for American Baseball Research, he was arrested numerous times across the United States over the following two decades, frequently operating under aliases, and was convicted and imprisoned on several occasions. These included a sentence at Stillwater State Prison in Minnesota in 1892, followed by further prison terms in Virginia, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. While serving a sentence in Missouri, he was granted a pardon in 1928 because of a terminal illness, and died later that year.^[3]

Age controversy

At age 15 years 63 days, he is credited as the youngest player to ever appear in a Major League Baseball game. There is controversy about his age, or the fact that the National Association has not been officially credited as a "major league". Assuming the veracity of his date of birth, he didn't actually make his Major League debut until the age of 18 years, 3 months, when he played for the Cincinnati Reds of the National League in 1878.

References

1 2 "Billy Geer's career statistics". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
↑ Nemec, David; Dave Zeman (2004). The Baseball Rookies Encyclopedia. Brassey's. p. 8. ISBN 1-57488-670-3. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
↑ Carle, Bill. "Billy Geer". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved June 12, 2026.

External links

Career statistics from Baseball Reference · Baseball Reference (Minors) · Retrosheet · Baseball Almanac

[reference-1] 1 2 "Billy Geer's career statistics". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved November 14, 2008.

[rookies-2] Nemec, David; Dave Zeman (2004). The Baseball Rookies Encyclopedia. Brassey's. p. 8. ISBN 1-57488-670-3. Retrieved November 14, 2008.

[3] Carle, Bill. "Billy Geer". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved June 12, 2026.

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