Earl Phillips “Red” Baldwin (1894-1956), Minor league catcher; family still in baseball

Red Baldwin in 1923

Red Baldwin was a professional baseball catcher who spent 15 seasons in the minor leagues. Baldwin's entire career playing for teams on the West Coast of the United States, mostly in the Pacific Coast League. He started with the Tacoma Tigers in 1916.

After the 1917 season, Baldwin signed with a winter league club based out of San Francisco, California named "Maxwell". He also played for a semi-professional team named the Oakland Native Sons. 

His baseball career took a hiatus during the 1918 season during his service in the 91st Division of the United States Army during World War I. He returned to baseball in 1919 and played in the PCL for the next 11 seasons. During that time, he played for the San Francisco Seals (1919, 1931), the Seattle Indians (1920, 1924–26), the Los Angeles Angels (1921–23) and the Mission Bells/Reds (1927–30).

After WWI, he signed with the NY Yankees in 1918, reported to their Spring Training, but was cut before opening day. He signed with the San Francisco Seals of the PCL where played 82 games and finished with a .217 batting average with 11 doubles, one triple and two home runs. He was a journeyman for the remainder of his career. 

Bill Plummer and Connor Menez

His family has been remained active in professional baseball to this day. Baldwin's brother-in-law was William Lawrence Plummer, who played with Baldwin from 1924 to 1925 on the Seattle Indians. His nephew, Bill Plummer, was a major league catcher from 1968 to 1978, and pro baseball manager and coach from 1980 to 2017 with the Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations as well as the independent Chico Heat and Yuma Bullfrogs. Bill Plummer was born in Oakland in 1947 and died in March 2024.

 

His grandson, Connor Menez, pitched for the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs between 2019 and 2022 and most recently played for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan and the Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League.

 

Sources: MLB, Wikipedia