Henry John Steinbacher was born March 22, 1913, in Sacramento, California. He was the second son of Charles, a teamster of German and Mexican parentage, and Anna (Sbarboro), the daughter of Italian immigrants. Steinbacher married the former Frances Laverda Sciaroni of Sutter Creek, California, on October 21, 1933.

Hank Steinbacher amassed 170 hits in his three-season big-league career while playing for the White Sox between 1937-39. Fully 10 percent of them came in a seven-game flurry in June and July 1938. In that spate, the 25-year-old lefty hitter came to the plate 34 times and pounded out 17 hits, including four doubles, a triple, and a home run. He knocked in nine runs, scored nine, walked three times, and hit a sacrifice fly. Overall, he batted .567 and slugged .867. Within that fusillade was a record-tying day on June 22, 1938. At Chicago’s Comiskey Park, the White Sox outfielder matched the American League mark by going 6-for-6 against the Washington Senators in a 16-3 Sox win.

Steinbacher finished that campaign, his second, with a .331 average to go with a .459 slugging percentage. Yet he never again had it so good. After starting the 1939 season poorly, he was benched and then released. He returned to the PCL.

Steinbacher’s professional career ended abruptly when he was inducted into the Army in May 1945 during WWII. Having returned home to Sacramento after his service, Steinbacher became a police officer in 1947, eventually partnering with another ex-Sacramento Solon player, Gene Babbitt, in the Sacramento Police Department’s Car No. 5.

(excerpted from SABR, BR Bullpen, and Wikipedia)