Tom Burr (baseball)
American baseball player (1893-1918)
Alexander Thomson Burr (November 1, 1893 – October 12, 1918) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in one inning of one game for the 1914 New York Yankees and was later killed in a military aviation training accident while serving with the U.S. Army Air Service in France during World War I. Born in Chicago, Burr was known as "Tom" to his friends. Press accounts throughout his life, as well as other memoirs, used this nickname, although many baseball references labeled him "Alex".
Biography
Burr attended The Choate School (later Choate Rosemary Hall), where he was a star pitcher. He then went to Williams College, although he turned professional before he ever played a collegiate game. Burr made the 1914 New York Yankees roster as a pitcher under manager Frank Chance. However, his only appearance for the Yankees came on April 21: playing one inning defensively as the center fielder, he had no fielding chances and did not have a plate appearance. Baseball records show he pitched in seven games for the minor-league Jersey City Skeeters during 1914.
Burr returned to Williams College after his professional career ended, although by some accounts he went into business instead of returning to school. He volunteered to serve in the war before ever graduating. He self-financed his trip to France where he volunteered as an ambulance driver before joining the aviation corps.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tom Burr (baseball)” is american baseball player (1893-1918). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Burr, baseball and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american baseball player (1893-1918)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
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 Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7815141. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1918 and 1914.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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 “Tom Burr (baseball)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tom Burr (baseball) primary sources, Tom Burr (baseball) archive and Burr 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 “Tom Burr (baseball)”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tom Burr (baseball)” 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.