Joe Riggert

Joseph Aloysius Riggert (December 11, 1886 – December 10, 1973) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball. He played for the Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn Robins, St. Louis Cardinals, and Boston Braves. Riggert also had a long minor league baseball career and accumulated a total of 2,717 hits in the minors. He stood at and weighed 170 lbs.

Career Riggert was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. He started his professional baseball career in 1909, at the age of 22. The following season, he was the star of the Kansas State League. Playing for the Lyons Lions, he batted .362 and slugged .594 with 13 home runs; those three stats were each league-leading totals. Riggert was drafted by the Boston Red Sox that fall. He made his major league debut on May 12, 1911, and spent the season as a reserve outfielder. He hit just .212. One newspaper wrote that he was probably the fastest player in the league. This earned him another shot in the major leagues. However, Riggert again failed to stick; he hit just .203 in 1914 for the National League's Brooklyn Robins and St. Louis Cardinals. in 1916, he led the league in triples; and in 1918, he led the league in hits, doubles, home runs, and total bases. After his 1918 performance, Riggert was acquired by the Boston Braves. He had the best major league season of career in 1919, batting .283 in 63 games. Around 1921, the live-ball era arrived. Riggert was passed by other players and was no longer one of the premiere minor league sluggers. However, he continued to put up good numbers every year, and in 1924 he got his 2,000th minor league hit at the age of 37. Riggert finished out his career with two seasons in the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League. In 1927, at the age of 40, he hit .314. In 2003, baseball writer Bill James named Riggert as the best minor league baseball player of the 1910s.

Riggert died on December 10, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri, one day before which would have been his 87th birthday.