{{Short description|American baseball player (1865–1940)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox baseball biography |image=Park-Swartzel (crop).jpg |name=Parke Swartzel |position=Pitcher |bats=Right |throws=Right |birth_date={{Birth date|1865|11|21|mf=y}} |birth_place=Knightstown, Indiana, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|1940|1|3|1865|11|21}} |death_place=Los Angeles, California, U.S. |debutleague = MLB |debutdate=April 17 |debutyear=1889 |debutteam=Kansas City Cowboys |finalleague = MLB |finaldate=October 14 |finalyear=1889 |finalteam=Kansas City Cowboys |statleague = MLB |stat2label=Earned run average |stat2value=4.32 |stat1label=Win–loss record |stat1value=19–27 |stat3label=Strikeouts |stat3value=147 |teams= *Kansas City Cowboys ({{baseball year|1889}}) |highlights= }} '''Parke B. Swartzel''' (November 21, 1865 – January 3, 1940) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played one season in Major League Baseball for the American Association's Kansas City Cowboys in {{baseball year|1889}}. In addition to his one major league season, he played six seasons of professional baseball at the minor league level.
==Career== Born on November 21, 1865, as Parke B. Swartzel in Knightstown, Indiana, US, he began his first of professional baseball season in 1886, at the age of 20, with the Leavenworth Soldiers of the Western League.<ref name="retroswartzel">{{cite web|title=Parke Swartzel|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Pswarp101.htm|work=retrosheet.org|publisher=Retrosheet, Inc|accessdate=8 June 2010}}</ref><ref name="minorsswartzel">{{cite web|title=Parke Swartzel|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=swartz001par|work=baseball-reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|accessdate=8 June 2010}}</ref> He began the 1887 season with the Soldiers, however he is also credited with playing for the Lincoln Tree Planters, another Western League team.<ref name="minorsswartzel"/> For the 1888 season, Swartzel played for the Kansas City Blues of the Western Association, a class-A level league.<ref name="minorsswartzel"/>
His only season in Major League Baseball came in 1889 with the Kansas City Cowboys of the American Association.<ref name="retroswartzel"/> He made his major league debut on April 17, a 7–4 victory over the Louisville Colonels in the team's season opener.<ref name="retroswartzel"/><ref name="1889gamelog">{{cite web|title=The 1889 Kansas City Cowboys Regular Season Game Log|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1889/VKC201889.htm|work=retrosheet.org|publisher=Retrosheet, Inc|accessdate=8 June 2010}}</ref> The Cowboys finished the season with a win–loss record of 55–82 with two ties with Swartzel making 48 appearances as a pitcher, starting 47 and completing 45.<ref name="retroswartzel"/><ref name="1889season">{{cite web|title=The 1889 Season|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1889/Y_1889.htm|work=retrosheet.org|publisher=Retrosheet, Inc|accessdate=8 June 2010}}</ref> Swartzel had a win–loss record of 19–27, 147 strikeouts and a 4.32 ERA, in 410{{fraction|1|3}} innings pitched, and allowed a league-leading 481 hits, and 21 home runs, along with 334 runs, 197 earned runs and 117 bases on balls.<ref name="referenceswartzel">{{cite web|title=Parke Swartzel|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/swartpa01.shtml|work=baseball-reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|accessdate=8 June 2010}}</ref> He made his final major league appearance on October 14, a 7–5 victory over the Colonels.<ref name="retroswartzel"/><ref name="1889gamelog"/>
Swartzel returned the Blues for the 1890 and 1891 seasons, then split the 1892 season with the Rochester Flour Cities of the Eastern League and the Minneapolis Minnies of the Western league.<ref name="minorsswartzel"/> This was his last season, on record, of his professional baseball career, although he was noted to have been released by the Grand Rapids Rustlers of the Western League in May 1896.<ref name="minorsswartzel"/><ref name="globeswartzel">{{cite news|title=Comiskey's Boy Wonder To Play With Burlington|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059523/1896-05-29/ed-1/seq-7/;words=Swartzel+Park|accessdate=July 18, 2010|publisher=The Library of Congress|newspaper=The Saint Paul globe|date=May 29, 1896}}</ref> He died on January 3, 1940, in Los Angeles, California, US, and is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.<ref name="retroswartzel"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{Baseballstats|br=s/swartpa01|fangraphs=|cube=|brm=swartz001par}} *{{Find a Grave|53361894}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swartzel, Parke}} Category:1865 births Category:1940 deaths Category:Major League Baseball pitchers Category:Kansas City Cowboys (AA) players Category:Baseball players from Indiana Category:Leavenworth Soldiers players Category:Lincoln Tree Planters players Category:Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Category:Rochester Flour Cities players Category:Minneapolis Minnies players Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:19th-century baseball players Category:19th-century American sportsmen Category:People from Knightstown, Indiana