Al Niemiec
Toronto Daily Star, May 9 1946
Here's an article from the May 9 1946 edition of the Toronto Daily Star about a baseball player who had returned from the war and wanted his old job back.
Al Niemiec (1911-1995) had two spells in the major leagues in the mid-1930s, playing nine games for the Boston Red Sox in 1934 and 69 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1936. He returned to the Red Sox organization in 1937 and then was traded to San Diego of the Pacific Coast League as part of a deal for Ted Williams. By the time of the Second World War, he had been playing second base for the Seattle Rainiers, another Pacific Coast League team, for three years.
According to Wikipedia, Niemiec won his suit for a year's employment under the GI Bill, which meant that hundreds of major and minor league players were paid despite being cut by their teams immediately after the war. In 1946, he was traded from the Rainiers to the Providence Chiefs, a team in a lower-level league, but he did not play for his new team, and his career was over at the age of 35.
Created August 29, 2025.