{{short description|American baseball player}} {{redirect|Alex Burr|the North Dakota Supreme Court Justice|Alexander Burr}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox baseball biography | name = Tom Burr | position = Outfielder<!--Pitcher--> | image = File:Tom Burr while playing for the Red Sox.jpg | bats = Right | throws = Right | birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|11|1|mf=y}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1918|10|12|1893|11|1}} | death_place = Cazaux, France | debutleague = MLB | debutdate = April 21 | debutyear = 1914 | debutteam = New York Yankees | finalleague = MLB | finaldate = April 21 | finalyear = 1914 | finalteam = New York Yankees | statleague = MLB | stat1label = Games played | stat1value = 1 | stat2label = Plate appearances | stat2value = 0 | teams = * New York Yankees ({{mlby|1914}}) }} '''Alexander Thomson Burr''' (November 1, 1893 – October 12, 1918) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in one inning of one game for the 1914 New York Yankees and was later killed in a military aviation training accident while serving with the U.S. Army Air Service in France during World War I. Born in Chicago, Burr was known as "Tom" to his friends. Press accounts throughout his life, as well as other memoirs, used this nickname, although many baseball references labeled him "Alex".
==Biography== thumb|275px|right|Tom Burr photograph from 1918 newspaper article on his death (Burr on right) Burr attended The Choate School (later Choate Rosemary Hall), where he was a star pitcher.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9182ce8c|title=Tom Burr {{!}} Society for American Baseball Research|website=sabr.org|access-date=2019-11-07}}</ref> He then went to Williams College, although he turned professional before he ever played a collegiate game. Burr made the 1914 New York Yankees roster as a pitcher under manager Frank Chance.<ref name=":0" /> However, his only appearance for the Yankees came on April 21: playing one inning defensively as the center fielder, he had no fielding chances and did not have a plate appearance.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1914/Mburra1020011914.htm |title=The 1914 NY A Regular Season Fielding Log for Tom Burr |website=Retrosheet |accessdate=April 5, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ripbaseball.com/2019/05/27/grave-story-tom-burr/ |title=Grave Story: Tom Burr (1893-1918) |website=RIP Baseball |date=2019-05-27 |language=en |access-date=2019-11-07}}</ref> Baseball records show he pitched in seven games for the minor-league Jersey City Skeeters during 1914.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=burr--001ale |title=Tom Burr Minor Leagues Statistics |website=Baseball-Reference.com |accessdate=April 5, 2024}}</ref>
Burr returned to Williams College after his professional career ended, although by some accounts he went into business instead of returning to school.<ref name=":0" /> He volunteered to serve in the war before ever graduating. He self-financed his trip to France where he volunteered as an ambulance driver before joining the aviation corps.<ref name=":0" /> He was killed shortly before the war ended in an airplane accident on October 12, 1918, while serving in the United States Army Air Service in Cazaux, France.<ref>{{cite news|title=Flaming Plane Falls in Lake With Chicagoan: Death of Lieut. Burr in France Described by Comrade|newspaper=The Chicago Daily Tribune|date=October 18, 1918|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013041803/http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Burr.Alex.Obit.html}}</ref> After colliding with a fellow pilot, Burr's plane crashed into a lake in flames; his body was recovered after 12 days.<ref name=":0" /> He had been serving in France since November 1917 and was 24 years old at the time of his death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foul-territory.com/al/tom-burr-memorial-day|title=Remembering Tom Burr and all who served on Memorial Day|date=2018-05-28|website=Foul Territory Baseball|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-07}}</ref>
Burr was interred in American Expeditionary Forces Cemetery No. 29. During the years after the end of World War I, this cemetery was deconsecrated. Some of the bodies exhumed—including Burr's—were repatriated. Burr's final resting place became Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tom-burr/ |title=Tom Burr |first=Rory |last=Costello |website=Society for American Baseball Research |accessdate=April 5, 2024}}</ref>
Burr was one of eight Major League Baseball players known either to have been killed or died from illness while serving in the armed forces during World War I. The others were Harry Chapman, Larry Chappell‚ Harry Glenn, Eddie Grant‚ Newt Halliday, Ralph Sharman and Bun Troy.<ref>{{cite web|title=World War I Deaths|publisher=Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice|access-date=June 8, 2014|url=http://www.baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com/world_war_i.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McMurray |first=John |title=When Wrigley Opened, Yanks Were Different. Well, Not Totally. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/sports/baseball/when-wrigley-opened-yankees-were-different-well-not-totally.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 20, 2014 |page=D3 |access-date=April 27, 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{baseballstats |br=b/burral01 |brm=burr--001ale |retro=B/Pburra102}}, or [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=burral01 Baseball Almanac]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burr, Alex}} Category:1893 births Category:1918 deaths Category:American military personnel killed in World War I Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in France Category:Baseball pitchers Category:Baseball players from Chicago Category:Jersey City Skeeters players Category:Military personnel from Illinois Category:New York Yankees players Category:United States Army Air Service pilots of World War I Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1918 Category:Williams College alumni Category:20th-century American sportsmen