George's favorite was the left fielder, George Burns. When he was thirteen Toporczer got a job at a local saloon as a scorekeeper, writing down the scores of the baseball games in exchange for fifty cents and free meals. While in seventh grade George's history teacher formed a school baseball team but he was turned down from it because of his slight figure and his glasses. Even though he was not on the team, Toporczer still went to all of their games to cheer them on. At one of these games, he was the only one there to cheer the team on and the team was short one player so he was drafted into play centerfield. During that game he made a difficult catch and contributed two hits. Around this time Toporczer's father died and passed the business on to George's older brother. George had to forgo high school and help his brother run the shoe and boot store. By working at the store and picking up odd jobs on the side, \ Toporczer was making more than enough to buy tickets and would regularly go to the Polo Grounds. Playing career Major leagues Born and reared in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, he never played high school or college ball and went directly from the sandlots to major league competition in 1921. Now known as George Toporcer, he split his first professional season between the Cardinals and the minor league Syracuse Stars, the Cardinals' top farm team. He played all infield positions for the Cardinals, especially shortstop, and was the club's most-used midfielder in both and . In 1928, Toporcer got into only eight games for the Cardinals, and spent the bulk of the year with their top farm team, the Rochester Red Wings. In his eight-season major-league career, Toporcer was a .279 hitter with nine home runs and 151 RBI in 546 games. As a fielder, he appeared in 453 games, playing shortstop (249 games), second base (105), third base (95), first base (3) and right field (1). Minor league player-manager Following his major league career, Toporcer played for the Cardinals Triple-A affiliate Rochester on four straight pennant-winning teams (1929–1932), being named the International League MVP in 1929 and 1930. He became the Red Wings' manager in 1932, continuing to play and manage the team until 1934. He continued to play in the minors until 1941, typically serving