Ray Fisher was also barred from baseball (at least for a time)

Submitted by ChalmersE on

Michigan's own Ray Fisher was barred from baseball in 1921 as a result of contract negotiations between the then Reds' owner and himself. His suspension was "lifted" by Bowie Kuhn although he did have some MLB coaching gigs after he retired from Michigan and before Kuhn acted. Fisher, by the way, coached Michigan's baseball team for 38 years, compiling a .696 winning percentage and winning the NCAA championship in 1953. For those who want the whole story -- or at least most of it -- here's a Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) article on Fisher and the suspension:   http://research.sabr.org/journals/ray-fisher

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Bluegoose

December 14th, 2015 at 5:47 PM ^

Ray was still there. We knew he was a legendary old coach, but we had no idea of his story. He was a remarkable character then, and his story underscores just how remarkable a guy he was.

 

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Parkinen

December 14th, 2015 at 6:18 PM ^

Ray was a remarkable man. My mother, who died a few years ago at the age 98, lived with the Fishers and kept house for them for room and board back in the 30's. There is a great reference to him in an article in the May 30, 2011 New Yorker written by Jeffrey Toobin. The article is about Fred Wilpon current owner of the Mets and president of Sterling Equities. Wilpon played BB at Michigan and Ray was his coach. Wilpon was, in high school a classmate of Sandy Koufax. Wilpon recruited Kolfax to the high school team. Wilpon was a pretty good player according to Koufax and ended up getting a partial scholarship to Michigan. Wilpon blew out his arm as a sophomore but "Fisher made sure that the school converted his athletic scholarship into an academic grant, and he was able to graduate on time in 1958". In 2008 Wipon donates most of the $9.0 million to renovate Fisher field. Play it forward.



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