Players using assumed names were common enough during professional baseball’s first four decades that some players still exist in the record books as separate individuals.
John Berkel is one such case. He has four separate listing on Baseball Reference.
The “official” record for John H. Berkel begins in 1910 with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association and ends in 1914 with the Fort Forth Panthers of the Texas League.
That was the second half of his career.
Under the name John Bierkotte he started playing pro ball with the Mattoon-Charleston Canaries in the Kitty League when he was 20 years old.
A slick fielding, weak hitting shortstop and third baseman, Berkel, as John Bierkotte, played with the Jacksonville Jays and Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League from 1907-1910 (further complicating the trail of Berkel-Bierkotte is that Baseball reference lists him as “Bierkortte” on the Jays’ 1909 roster with a unique player listing).
John Bierkotte with the Augusta Tourists, 1909
On June 30, 1910 John Bierkotte was acquired by Atlanta from Augusta.
John Bierkotte made his debut with the Crackers on August 1. On August 2 the Atlanta Constitution said:
“John Berkel. You fans will have to learn to call our new shortstop by that name, for that is really his name…When he first broke into baseball he was trifle afraid he might not make good and rather than cause the laugh to be thrown on him, he decided to change his name. This he did, and he chose Bierkotte, a weird name, as the one.”
John Berkel 1910
Berkel received high marks for his fielding but struggled at the plate and hit only .207 for Atlanta. At the end of the 1910 season he was sold to Albany in the South Atlantic League. From there he went to the Scranton Miners in the New York Penn League in 1912. The “official” listing for Berkel only adds 10 games with Fort Worth in 1914.
The rest of his career is under the listing “Berkel.”
Berkel spent 1914 on the West Coast, playing for the Fresno Packers of the California State League. After those 10 games in Fort Worth he played for the Decatur Commodores in the Three-I League, and then was sold to the Peoria Distillers in the same league. Berkel was offered a contract by Peoria for 1915, but chose to retire and move to the west coast.
The Berkel trail runs cold until 1926 when he turns up as a 40-year-old infielder for the Spokane Eagles in the semi-pro Idaho-Washington League.
Berkel continued to live in Spokane until his death in 1975. There is no record of why he chose the name Bierkotte.
Baseball History Daily 