Erskine Mayer
American baseball player
Jacob Erskine Mayer (born James Erskine Mayer, January 16, 1889 – March 10, 1957) was an American professional baseball player who played for three different Major League Baseball teams during the 1910s. In his eight-year career, Mayer played for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Chicago White Sox.
A right-handed pitcher, Mayer's repertoire of pitches included a curveball which he threw from a sidearm angle. As a result of his curveball, then Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson called Mayer "Eelskine" because the pitch was "so slippery."
Mayer won 20 games in a single season in both 1914 and 1915. He appeared in the 1915 World Series as a member of the Phillies and in the 1919 World Series as a member of the White Sox, a series noted for the Black Sox Scandal.
He was 91–70 in his career, with a 2.96 ERA. He was one of the all-time best Jewish pitchers in major league history through 2010, 3rd career-wise in ERA (behind only Barney Pelty and Sandy Koufax), 7th in wins, and 10th in strikeouts (482).
Early life
Mayer was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was Jewish. His paternal grandparents were Jews who immigrated to the US from Germany, and his father Isaac was a concert pianist and music teacher, and composed an opera in Hebrew. His maternal grandmother traced her ancestry back to the Mayflower, and converted to Judaism. His mother was born Henrietta Frankel.
The public source identifies “Erskine Mayer” as american baseball player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Erskine, Mayer and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Erskine Mayer”, the useful work is to connect “american baseball player” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5395839. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1957, 1914 and 1915.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Erskine Mayer”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Erskine Mayer primary sources, Erskine Mayer archive and Erskine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Erskine Mayer”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Erskine Mayer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.