Lester Stanley “Les” German broke into professional baseball with a bang in 1890. The 21-year-old played for Billy Barnie’s Baltimore Orioles, a team that had dropped out of the American Association and after the 1889 season and joined the Atlantic Association, a minor league.
German was 35-9 in August when the American Association’s Brooklyn Gladiators folded in August, the Orioles returned to the association, and German returned to Earth; posting a 5-11 record for the big league Orioles.
German was a minor league workhorse for the next two and a half seasons. He was 35-11 for the Eastern Association champion Buffalo Bisons in 1891; he appeared in 77 games and pitched 655 innings for the Oakland Colonels in the California League in 1892, and was 22-11 for the Augusta Electricians in the Southern Association in July of 1893 when his contract was purchased by the New York Giants.
Les German, 1894
German would never win in double figures again; In five seasons in the National League he was 29-52, including a 2-20 mark with the 1896 Washington Senators.
It was German’s next career that earned him the most notoriety. A crack shot, German became one of the most famous trapshooters in the country for the next thirty years. He won numerous championships and was often featured in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show with Annie Oakley.
A National Sports Syndicate article in 1918 said “Lester German is the Ty Cobb of trapshooters.” The article said that beginning in 1908, when official records were first kept, German had maintained a “remarkable average,” shooting a t a better percentage than any other professional marksman.
Les German, 1918
As German’s reputation as a shooter grew, his legacy as a pitcher became inflated.
A mention of his baseball career in a 1916 issue of “The Sportsmen’s Review”, credited German, and his 9-8 record, with “leading the Giants,” to their 1894 Temple Cup series victory over the Baltimore Orioles, there was no mention of Amos Rusie’s two shutouts . A 1915 article in The Idaho Statesman inexplicably said German “headed the National League in both pitching and fielding” in 1895—German was 7-11 with a 5.54 ERA and committed 2 errors in 45 chances on the mound; he also made eight errors in 11 games he filled in for the injured George Davis at third base.
German operated a gun shop and continued to organize and participate in shooting tournaments until his death in Maryland in 1934.
Baseball History Daily 
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