Max Baer

At 50 years old, Max Baer has this physical status:

Maximilian Adelbert Baer (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was an American boxer who competed from June 14, 1934 to 1935, 1936.

By The Ring Magazine, his fights were twice (1933 triumph over Max Schmeling and 1935 loss to James J. Braddock) rated Fight of the Year.

Baer served as a boxing referee and appeared on film or television occasionally.

He was the brother of heavyweight boxing champion Buddy Baer and the father of actor Max Baer Jr.

Baer is ranked #22 on Ring Magazine's list of the 100 top punchers of all time.

Early life

Jacob Baer (1875–1938), and Dora Bales (1877–1938), both born in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 11, 1909, 1909. His father was the son of Aschill Baer and Fannie Fischel, who were Jewish migrants from Alsace-Lorraine and Bohemia, respectively; his mother was of Scots-Irish descent. Frances May Baer (1905–1991), his younger brother, Bernice Jeanette Baer (1911–1987), was his uncle, and his adopted brother, August "Augie" Baer (1915–1986). Jacob Baer was the head of the Graden Mercantile Co. in Durango, Colorado, for a time.

The Baers sailed to the West Coast in May 1922, having been ill with Frances' rheumatic fever and Jacob's elevated blood pressure. Several job opportunities opened up around the San Francisco Bay Area due to Jacob's experience in the butcher industry. Max began working in Hayward as a delivery boy for John Lee Wilbur's first job. Wilbur owned a grocery store and purchased meat from Jacob.

Before moving to Livermore in 1926, the Baers lived in Hayward, San Leandro, and Galt. Livermore was a cowboy world surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of rangeland that supplied fresh meat to the local area. Jacob leased the Twin Oaks Ranch in Murray Township, where he raised more than 2,000 hogs and worked with daughter Frances' husband Louis Santucci. Baer has often credited his development of his strong shoulders, from being a butcher boy, carrying heavy carcasses of meat, thrilling cattle in one blow, and working at a gravel pit in January 1939.)

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Professional boxing career

Baer began working in 1929 and was rising steadily in the Pacific Coast ranks. Baer was almost out of boxing for good when a ring tragedy just over a year ago.

Frankie Campbell was defeated in San Francisco on August 25, 1930, for the unofficial Pacific Coast champion. Campbell clipped Baer and Baer to the ground in the second round, bringing the whole thing to a halt. Campbell stepped into his corner and waved to the crowd. Baer was getting the count, according to him. Baer soared at Campbell, landing a right to Campbell's turned head, throwing him to the ground.

Campbell told his coach, "Something feels like it snapped in my head" after the round, but the team went on to win rounds 3 and 4. Tillie "Kid" Herman, Baer's former employee and mentor who had changed camps overnight and was now in Campbell's corner, screamed and jeered Baer as Baer advanced to the 5th round. Baer soon had Campbell against the ropes, causing rage and determined to end the match with a knockout. The only thing holding Campbell up was the ropes as he blasted him with punch after punch. Campbell collapsed to the ground by the time referee Toby Irwin called the fight. According to reports, Baer's own seconds ministered to Campbell, and Baer stayed by his side until an ambulance arrived 30 minutes later. "Ber "visited the stricken warrior's bedside," where he offered Frankie's wife Ellie the hand that struck her husband. She took the hand and the two people remained speechless for a moment. "I'm so sorry," Baer said. "It even could have been you," says the narrator. She replied, "She replied.

Frankie Campbell was pronounced dead at noon the next day, with a lit candle laced between his fingers and his wife and mother beside him. Baer bowed inconsolably upon learning of Campbell's death. Dr. Tilton E. Tillman "declared death" by a series of blows on the jaw and not by any blow on the back of the head," and that Campbell's brain had been "knocked completely loose from his skull by Baer's blows.

In the ring, Baer was regarded as a "killer" by Campbell. Baer's return to Ernie Schaaf on August 31, 1932, heightened the sensation. In a decision made during Max's Eastern debut bout at Madison Square Garden on September 19, 1930, Schaaf defeated Baer.

The end of the return bout is represented by an Associated Press article in the New York Times' September 9, 1932, sports section.

After that bout, Schaaf complained of headaches every day. Schaaf died in the ring on February 11, 1933, five months after the Baer war ended. Primo Carnera's left jab was taken in the ring. The majority of sports journalists also stated that Schaaf had meningitis, or brain swelling, and that he was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he touched gloves with Carnera. Schaaf's obituary revealed that "right before his bout with Carnera, Schaaf went into exile in a religious retreat near Boston to recover from a meningitis outbreak." Even though Campbell was ostensibly indestructible and remained a devastating power in the fight, his death and allegations surrounding Schaaf's demise had a major influence on Baer. Baer Jr., his uncle, actor/director Max Baer Jr. (who was born seven years after the incident): The incident (who was born seven years ago):

Baer was charged with murder in the case of Campbell. Although Baer was eventually cleared of all charges, the California State Boxing Commission kept him out of any in-ring operation within the state for the next year. Baer earned money from his previous victories to Campbell's family, but he lost four of his next six fights. When Jack Dempsey took him under his wing, he did a lot better job.

Baer defeated and stunned (by a technical knockout) German heavyweight and former world champion Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium on June 8, 1933. Schmeling was favored to win, and Adolf Hitler was Adolf Hitler's favorite fighter. Schmeling was chastised by the Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer for fighting a non-Aryan, as Baer's father was Jewish, dubbed "racial and ethnic disgrace."

Despite the fact that the Great Depression, which had then be fully operational, had reduced the income of the majority of the population, sixty thousand people attended the war. As the match progressed, NBC radio broadcasted millions around the country. Baer, a Jewish immigrant, wore trunks with the Star of David, a symbol he wore in all his future bouts. He dominated the rugged Schmeling into the tenth round when Baer knocked him down and the referee suspended the match. Schmeling's defeat was "not a loss, that was a disgrace," columnist Westbrook Pegler said, while journalist David Margolick predicted that Baer's victory would "symbolize Jewry's fight against the Nazis."

Baer was a hero among Jews, those who identified with Jews, and those who decried the Nazis. Schmeling may have saved the lives of many Jewish children during the war while still serving his country, according to biographer David Bret.

Greta Garbo, an American film actress, regarded Baer's defeat of Schmeling as a "mini-victory" over Nazism, and she invited him to visit her while filming Queen Christina in Hollywood. However, Baer's being allowed on the set was deemed a "crilege" in Hollywood, and even MGM's chief, Louis B. Mayer, was refused access to Garbo's set because she demanded absolute anonymity while acting. The couple's friendship developed into a love that continued until he returned to New York to prepare for his next fight, this one against Primo Carnera.

Baer defeated the mighty reigning world champion Primo Carnera of Italy, who weighed in at 267 pounds, at the outdoor Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City, New York, on June 14, 1934. Baer slashed the champion 11 times before the match was called off in the eleventh round by referee Arthur Donovan to save Carnera from further punishment. Both the knockdowns occurred in rounds one, two, ten, and eleven, which Baer dominated. The intervening rounds were competitive. Carnera slipped to the canvas on several occasions and was wrestled to the canvas several times, and there is some doubt about the number of knockdowns scored. Baer will retain the world heavyweight title for just 364 days after this dominant win over Carnera.

Baer defeated James J. Braddock, one of the most bizarre boxing upsets in history, in Long Island City, New York, on June 13, 1935, when Baer shocked him down-and-out boxer James J. Braddock in the so-called Cinderella Man match. Baer was hardly prepared for the fight. Braddock, on the other hand, was training hard. "I'm training for a fight, not a boxing competition, a clownin' contest, or a dance," he said. "Whether it's one round or three rounds or ten rounds, it will be a fight and a contest all the way." A Max Baer or a Bengal tiger looks like a house pet when you've been through what I've been through in the last two years. He could come at me with a cannon and a blackjack, and it would still be a picnic compared to what I've had to face." The night he stepped over the ropes to Braddock, ever the showman. "Dr. Braddock toppled the blue bathrobe from his pink back," he was the sentimental favorite of a Bowl crowd of 30,000, the majority of whom had bet their money 8-to-1 against him."

Max "undoubtedly incurred the fine for underestimating his opponent ahead of time and going to too much time clowning." Braddock emerged the winner in a unanimous decision at the end of 15 rounds, defeating Baer 8 rounds to 6 in the "most surprising upset since John L. Sullivan was down before Gentleman Jim Corbett's thrusts were restored in the nineties." Braddock took heavy abuse from Baer, but he kept coming at him until he wore Max down.

In the 2005 film Cinderella Man, the brawl was featured. Russell Crowe portrayed Baer in Craig Bierko and Braddock.

To Joe Louis, Baer and his brother Buddy lost. Louis knocked Baer down twice in the third round of Max's September 1935 match, the first time he had ever been knocked to the ground in his career. Max's knee was recovered in the fourth round by a tumultuous left hook, and the referee called the match shortly after. Baer fought Louis with a fractured right hand that never recovered from his brawl against James J. Braddock's injury. Max was practically helpless in the Louis fight without his big right hand. On WNBT-TV in New York, Baer defeated Lou Nova in the first televised heavyweight competition fight.

After scoring a first-round TKO over Pat Cominsky in a fight at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey, on September 26, 1940, Baer was proclaimed the World's "White Heavyweight Champion of the World" by a belt, but it was a publicity stunt. Cominsky would not have gained the belt if he beat Baer, and it was not advertised as being for the white heavyweight championship.

The belt was a publicity stunt staged out by boxing promoter Mike Jacobs into a rematch with current champion Joe Louis. Jacobs did not give Baer another fight with Louis. Baer retired after his second bout, on April 4, 1941, when he lost to Lou Nova on a TKO in the eighth round of a scheduled 10-rounder at Madison Square Garden. Nova had a shot at Joe Louis but lost by TKO in the sixth round of a scheduled fifteen-round match held at the Polo Grounds in New York to the champion by TKO.

Baer boxed in 84 professional matches from 1929 to 1941. All in all, his record was 71-13. Fifty-three of those victories were disqualified, making him part of the only group of boxers to have won 50 or more bouts by knockout. Ernie Schaaf, Walter Cobb, Kingfish Levinsky, Max Schmeling, Tony Galento, Ben Foord, and Tommy Farr defeated him. From June 14, 1934, to June 13, 1935, he was the World Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Baer, a 1968 graduate of The Ring magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame (disbanded in 1987), was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2009, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In "The 50 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time," Ring's 1998 Holiday Issue ranked Baer #20. Baer is ranked number 22 in Ring Magazine's 100 Greatest Punchers (which was released in 2003).

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