The native of
Pittsburg, Kansas, was a first cousin of MLB
infielder Don Gutteridge. He threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed . During a 14-year Major League career, Mueller played for the
Cincinnati Reds,
Boston Braves,
Pittsburgh Pirates and
New York Giants. After his playing career, Mueller
managed in
minor league baseball and
coached in the Majors for the Giants (1956),
Chicago Cubs (1957) and
Cleveland Indians (1966). But he became best known as the everyday catcher of the
1944 Reds. In , Mueller had warmed up for his iron-man role by catching in 141 games for Cincinnati, including every game from July 31 through the end of the campaign. Then, in 1944, he started and caught in every Red game — 155, including an official contest that was ruled a tie. While he did not catch every inning for the 1944 Reds (backups
Len Rice,
Joe Just and
Johnny Riddle handled 17
total chances in a total of 43 innings caught), Mueller caught 140 complete games and 1,329
innings; The following season, , Mueller was called to military service by the
United States Army — putting his consecutive game streak on hold until . He would extend it to 233 games through May 6, 1946, before finally taking a game off. The 1943, 1944 and 1946 seasons would be the only years in which Mueller would appear in more than 100 games. On June 13, 1949, he was traded to the
New York Giants for catcher
Walker Cooper. ==Career statistics==