Johnny Burnett (baseball)
John Henderson Burnett was an American professional baseball player who was a utility infielder in Major League Baseball for nine seasons during the 1920s and 1930s. Burnett played second base, third base, shortstop, and outfielder for the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns.
Born in Bartow, Florida, he made his major league debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 22 on May 7, 1927 against the Philadelphia Athletics after graduating from the University of Florida. Burnett wore uniform number 1 in all eight of his seasons with the Indians. In, Burnett's first season as an everyday starter, he was batting above.300 into July when, on July 19, he broke his wrist and was sidelined for the season. Without Burnett, the Indians narrowly missed the playoffs after finishing eight games above.500. On July 10,, still playing for the Indians, Burnett had a major league record nine hits in eleven at-bats in an eighteen inning game against the Philadelphia Athletics. Burnett's record for hits in a game still stands today. He was also the first man to have more than 7 hits in extra innings. Since then, only Rocky Colavito in 1962, Cesar Gutierrez in 1970, Rennie Stennett in 1975, and Brandon Crawford in 2016 have collected 7 or more hits in 1 game.
In late, in the waning years of his career, after eight seasons with the Indians, Burnett was traded by the Indians to the St. Louis Browns for outfielder Bruce Campbell. Wearing number 4, Burnett played only one season for the Browns before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds near the start of the season for first baseman Jim Bottomley. Burnett never played a game for the Reds, and never played major league baseball again. His last game was on September 29,. Burnett died in Tampa, Florida on August 12, 1959 at the age of 54 from acute leukemia.
