Lear was born in
Greencastle, Pennsylvania, on January 23, 1891. He attended high school at
Mercersburg Academy, and he attended college at
Princeton University, pitching for the Tigers from 1910 to 1913. During the 1912 collegiate baseball season, Lear pitched every inning of the four Big Three (referring to Princeton, Harvard, and Yale) games, defeating
Yale University in both games and defeating
Harvard University in one. After graduating from Princeton, Lear fielded offers from the
New York Giants and other teams before signing with the
Cincinnati Reds on January 3, 1914. He was noted in his time as one of the early pitchers of the
knuckleball. He finished the 1914 season having pitched in 17 games for the Reds, starting four and finishing nine. He won one game, lost two, threw three
complete games, one
shutout, and had an
earned run average (ERA) of 3.07. Lear died on October 31, 1976, after being hit by a car while walking in
Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Greencastle, the city of his birth. ==References==