Alexander (Al) Schacht(1892–1984) was an American professional baseball player and coach. After his sporting career ended, he became a restaurateur.

Born in New York City, a shoulder injury cut short his career in the major leagues as a pitcher with the Washington Senators from 1919 to 1921. He won 14 games and lost 10.

He turned to humor along with fellow sidelined baseball player Nick Altrock and the pair developed a comedy routine that lengthened their days in professional baseball.

Fans loved their antics which included Schacht wearing a swallowtail tuxedo jacket and top hat – now items that are displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame – to eat dinner on the home plate between innings.

Altrock would wrestle himself and pretend to spike himself with his own cleat.

Their salaries rivalled the great players of the era including Babe Ruth, who was a huge fan, but the pairs’ capers ended after ten years when they broke up their act.

Schact went on to become a pantomimist, delighting fans in many World Series and All Stars Games, performing in nearly every city in the majors and minors and entertaining troops in Europe, Africa and Asia during WWII.

After the war, the ‘Clown Prince of Baseball ‘retired from his solo career as a baseball entertainer and opened an eponymous steakhouse on 52nd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York.

Dishes were named after baseball players and the restaurant was packed filled with sports stars and other celebrities. Occasionally, Schachter would climb onto the little stage and perform his old routines, much to the delight of patrons.

The restaurant’s exterior appears in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starring Audrey Hepburn.

Schacht’s sense of humor never left him. Of Jewish heritage, he wrote in his memoir called I Always Had More Fun Than Anybody:’ There is talk that I am Jewish – just because my father was Jewish, my mother is Jewish. I speak Yiddish and once studied to be a rabbi and a cantor. Well, that’s how rumors get started.’

Schacht married his wife Mabelle, a singer, and they eventually moved to Connecticut. He died in 1984.