Burns, George H.
Baseball
b. Jan. 31, 1893, Niles, OH
d. Jan. 7, 1978
The 6-foot-1½, 180-pound Burns was a right-handed first baseman who batted over .300 eight times, including marks of .352 and .358 without winning a batting title. However, he was named the AL's most valuable player in 1926, when he led the AL with 216 hits and 64 doubles. That was the season he batted .358.
Burns entered the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers in 1914. He went to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1918, when he had 178 hits to lead the league. Philadelphia traded him to the Cleveland Indians during the 1920 season. He went to the Boston Red Sox in 1922, returning to Cleveland in 1924.
He split the 1928 season between Cleveland and the Nw York Yankees and he retired after playing in just 38 games for the Yankees and Athletics in 1929. He had a .307 career average with 2,018 hits, including 444 doubles, 72 triples, and 72 home runs. He scored 901 runs and had 951 RBI.