Elmer R. Burkart, a former pitcher for the minor league Orioles and ticket manager for the major league Orioles, died Feb. 6 of heart failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 78.
He was ticket manager from 1954 until he retired in 1963. He then was a real estate broker in the Padonia Road office of O'Conor Piper & Flynn. He had been semiretired since 1990.
The right-hander pitched for the International League Orioles from 1938 to 1944 and for the Philadelphia Phillies during parts of the 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939 seasons.
He also played for Columbus and Milwaukee of the American Association, ending his career with the latter team in 1946. He then became general manager for several minor league teams.
"I played with Elmer in those early years," recalled J. Gordon Mueller of Chase, a pitcher for the minor league Orioles. "He was a good pitcher and very hard-working. In 1942, we were playing Rochester, and it was the last inning with bases loaded. He threw 10 pitches and struck out three players and saved the game. He was intimidating when on the mound and threw hard."
Known as "Moose," Mr. Burkart was described by Mr. Mueller as "gruff on the outside but a real softy on the inside. He was a great guy, just a terrific person."
Mr. Burkart's parents emigrated from Sweden to Philadelphia, where he was born and reared. He was a 1936 graduate of Army High School, where he played baseball, football and basketball.
"His mother was a great cook and baker, and she'd make him come in and help when all he wanted to do was play ball on a sandlot across the street," said his wife of 55 years, the former Kathleen Brown. "He turned out to be a pretty good baker," she said.
They met when he was playing baseball in her native Montgomery, Ala.
"My father was a baseball fan, and when I brought Elmer home to meet my family, he [her father] dragged his chair right up next to him on the porch and talked baseball all night. I might as well have gone to bed," she recalled.
She said that in the off-seasons, Mr. Burkart was a salesman for S & N. Katz in its Charles Street and Eastern Avenue jewelry stores. "They begged him to give up baseball and come work for them full time," Mrs. Burkart said. "They were amazed how he could take a watch apart and put it back together with his huge hands."
Mr. Burkart was a member of the Maryland Professional Baseball Players' Association, the Oldtimers Baseball Association of Maryland and the Optimist Club.
Other survivors include a son, E. Robinson Burkart Jr. of Niceville, Fla.; a daughter, Kathleen B. Robbins of Chester Springs, Pa.; a sister, Dorothy B. Demario of Philadelphia; and five grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 17025, Baltimore 21203.
Services were held Feb. 10.