Major League Baseball has always had a rich tradition of nicknames, as did "Gentleman Joe" Schepner.

Joe Schepner was born August 10, 1895, in Aliquippa, PA. In Aliquippa in 1916, New York Giants baseball manager John McGraw saw Joe play and sent him to the Albany Senators, where he played 120 games that year.

Joe spent nearly four years in the minor leagues, but, at age 24, arrived in the major leagues with the St. Louis Browns (nka the Baltimore Orioles) of the American League. It was on September 11, 1919, that Joe appeared in both games of a double header in Boston's Fenway Park, in the first game as a pinch hitter and in the second game as a replacement at third base.

That fall day in September 1919, Joe had the fortune of playing against one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture: Babe Ruth, who played left field in both games for the Red Sox, going 3-3 in the first game and 0-3 in the nightcap.

On September 25, 1919, the St. Louis Browns defeated the Chicago White Sox 3-1. Joe played third base and was 1-4. Playing for the White Sox that infamous day were several members of the "Eight Men Out" indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series: Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, and Lefty Williams. The rest of the "Eight Men Out" Eddie Cicotte, Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and Fred McMullin had the day off. All eight would be banned from baseball for their involvement in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Members of the White Sox who did not play that day were two MLB Hall of Famers: Eddie Collins and Urban Clarence "Red" Faber.

Joe played his last Major League game on the last day of the 1919 season, on September 28 against the Cleveland Indians in an 8-5 victory. Over his Major League career, Joe appeared in 14 games, with a .208 batting average in 48 at-bats and six runs batted in.

Joe's minor league career, before and after his appearance in the majors, included 17 seasons in the minors and appearing in 1,873 games. His minor league career included playing for the Albany Senators/Reading Pretzels (1916), the Rochester Hustlers (1917), the New Orleans Pelicans (1918), the Mobile Bears (1919), the Louisville Colonels (1920-24), the Birmingham Barons (1925-27), the Albany Nuts (1928), the Gadsden Eagles (1928), the Knoxville Smokies (1929), the Greenville Spinners (1930), the Vicksburg Hill Billies (1931), and the Vicksburg Hill Billies and Jackson Mississippians (1932). Joe had a lifetime batting average of .282.

Joseph Maurice "Joe" Schepner died July 25, 1959, at age 63, in Mobile, AL.