Willie Kamm

William Edward Kamm (February 2, 1900 – December 21, 1988) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a third baseman in Major League Baseball from to .

Major league career Born in San Francisco, California, Kamm was the first player in major league baseball history to be contracted from the minor leagues for $100,000.

Kamm had his best season offensively in 1928 when he posted a .308 batting average along with 84 runs batted in. He finished fifth in the American League Most Valuable Player Award voting, despite the fact that the White Sox finished the year in fifth place. He was traded to the Cleveland Indians in the middle of the 1931 season, where he continued to perform well in the field. In , Kamm set a single-season record for third basemen with a .984 fielding percentage, which stood for fourteen years until it was surpassed by Hank Majeski in . He retired as a player after the 1935 season.

Kamm was considered a master of the hidden ball trick. On April 30, , in a game against the Cleveland Indians, Kamm was involved in a rare triple play that involved a hidden ball trick. The Indians had baserunners on second and third bases when Carl Lind grounded out to the shortstop, who then threw to first base to retire the batter. Johnny Hodapp, who had been the baserunner on second base, erroneously thought the runner on third base, Charlie Jamieson had scored, so he advanced to third base on the ground out. Kamm retrieved the ball from the first baseman and tagged both runners at third base, whereupon the umpire ruled Hodapp out. Kamm then hid the ball under his arm and waited for Jamieson to step off the base. When he did so, Kamm tagged him out to complete the triple play.

Career statistics In a thirteen-year major league career, Kamm played in 1,693 games, accumulating 1,643 hits in 5,851 at bats for a .281 career batting average along with 29 home runs and 827 runs batted in. Kamm led the league in fielding average eight times, including six times in a row, and in putouts seven times. Kamm still holds the American League single-season record for putouts by a third baseman with 243 set in , and ranks eighth overall in putouts by third basemen. He also led American League third basemen four times in assists and twice in range factor. He is the only player to have ever accomplished the feat twice, with 62 runs batted in during the 1926 season, and 75 runs batted in during the 1931 season.

Kamm died at age 88 in Belmont, California.