John Bialecki was born in 1888 in Toledo to Michael and Michalina Kaminski. The family resided on Mettler St., near St. Hedwig’s parish. He married Anna Bielawski and they had six children together.

A quick look at John’s life indicates he lived a fairly normal, blue collar working and family life within Toledo Polish community. Search for John with his given name and instantly, you can almost find that he worked as a machinist or in factories, had children, a wife named Anna, and children. Read his obituary and you learn he was a semi-professional baseball player starting in 1910. He played using the name of Jack Schaefer. He began playing in Detroit, then in 1913 he played within a Canadian Leagues. His last two years, he played in Bloomington, Illinois.

Professional ball players 100 years ago did not make much money. They were not given contracts nor were they paid if they were not suited up and on the field. So it was not a reliable way to support a family financially. So John did what he needed to do–played each season he could and picked up a factory work or a machinist job after each season.

On 25 March 1922, the Kingston, Ontario newspaper, the Daily Standard, published an article about the upcoming season’s Brantford team, the Brants:

“For catching staff there is Mickey Lalange himself to say nothing of Hartline and Hess, while Ted Anderson, Whitney Dewhurst and Jack Smith will try out for a position on the first sack. For section there’ll be Robert Prysock and our old friend, Sullivan, and for short there are Beecher and a lad named James L. Ryan. Willis Butler is slated for third, while in the outfield Lalonge will be able to put Jack Schaefer, E. Perth, Burchell, McGuire and Friend Wenstrum.”

In 1924, Jack went to Bloomington and in June of that year, Jack suffered a bout of appendicitis and was out to recover from surgery for a while. Bloomington Pantagraph wrote of him on 27 June:

Jack Schaefer Improves

Other Fan Fare

Outfielder Jack Schaefer has practically recovered from his recent operation for appendicitis, according to a card received from the fence-buster yesterday by Treasurer Walter Armbruster, and he hopes to be back in the game in two weeks, he writes. Of course, it may be longer, but Jack is anxious to get back on the payroll of course, and then, he likes Bloomington, and it would not be surprising to see him turn up by the middle of July.

In late 1924, John/Jack played in a semi-pro All Stars game with the Detroit Tygers¹ on October 10. The Port Huron Times Herald wrote of the nail biter game that was tied in by the third. Detroit lost the game to a score of 8 to 5.

Jack Schaefer Scores

When the All Stars went to bat in the third they broke the tie again. Jack Schaefer doubled to rightfield after one was down and scored when Cole threw wild to second.

Jack’s stats for the game are below. He was at bat three times, hit two runs, and had one home run.

Jack played one more season with Bloomington and retired. The family by then was living on Buckingham St. and were members of St. Anthony’s. He continued on working in factories or as a machinist until his death on 4 January 1947 at the age of 58. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery next to his wife, Anna.

Jack’s overall stats for his career are available online here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=schaef002jac

¹ Initially when the Detroit Tigers were formed, the press referred to the team as the Tygers as Ty Cobb was an original member of the club.