As manager Charles Columbus "Count" Campau (October 17, 1863 – April 3, 1938) was an American professional baseball outfielder.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1888 through 1894 for the Detroit Wolverines, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators.

Campau was also a player and sometimes a manager in minor league baseball for 19 years, including stints with the New Orleans Pelicans (1887, 1892–94, 1903), Kansas City Blues (1888, 1896, 1898), Detroit Tigers/Detroit Wolverines (1889–90, 1894–95), Seattle Yannigans/Rainmakers (1896), Grand Rapids Bob-o-links (1897), Rochester Bronchos (1899–1900), and Binghamton Bingoes (1901, 1903–05).

[4] After leaving Notre Dame, Campau helped Detroit's Cass Club team win several Michigan championships.

[1][2] According to at least one account, Campau and two other players held the world record for the fastest time, 14 seconds, in rounding the bases on a baseball diamond.

[7] The best evidence of Campau's speed and base-running intelligence may lie in a 1906 historical account by sportswriter Revere Rodgers.

In an article on remarkable incidents in baseball history, Rodgers wrote that Campau once scored a home run on an infield pop-up.

[4] Before the collapse, Campau appeared in 29 games for Savannah and compiled a .379 batting average with five doubles, six triples, three home runs, and 17 stolen bases.

In 84 games with New Orleans in the second half of the 1887 season, Campau compiled a .398 batting average and .626 slugging percentage with 19 doubles, 12 triples, 14 home runs and 83 stolen bases.

[4]After his outstanding performance in Savannah and New Orleans, Campau had an opportunity to sign with Philadelphia, but he later recalled that he did not think he was "strong enough" and accepted an offer from Jim Manning, manager of the Kansas City team in the Class A Western Association.

[4] Campau appeared in 42 games for Kansas City, compiling a .227 batting average but showed great speed with seven triples and 17 stolen bases.

[1] Kansas City released Campau in June 1888, and he then signed with the Detroit Wolverines, a team that had won the National League pennant in 1887 but had lost its star right fielder, Sam Thompson, to injury.

Campau proved to be a capable defensive replacement, compiling a .933 fielding percentage (16 points higher that the National League average) and contributing 10 outfield assists and 3 double plays.

[1] The 1889 Detroit club was, according to Campau, "one of the greatest minor league teams gathered" and "won the flag so easy that fans stopped going out to see the games.

[1] After beginning the 1890 season with Detroit, Campau returned to the major leagues with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association.

[2] During the month of July, Campau established a major league record (still intact) with 15 consecutive multi-hit games.

In late July, team owner Chris von der Ahe praised Campau as "the best captain I have ever had", "a general on the field and a gentleman off of it.

Von der Ahe tells his manager to do certain things and because he does it he is humiliated by being removed and a more 'agreeable' man put in his place.

[13]Shortly after being removed as manager, Campau hit an inside-the-park grand slam against the first-place Louisville Colonels that prompted a tremendous show of support from the St. Louis crowd.

Von der Ahe can't reach first place now, and is cutting off his highest salaried men.

[1] Although he had already shown great speed (100 stolen bases in 1887), Campau wrote that it was while playing at Troy that he "developed as a fast runner", often competing in foot races against other players.

Campau argued that batting averages had suffered and that moving the pitcher back would "electrify" the crowds and "enliven" the game with more hitting.

Campau later recalled that the costly error occurred when the sun was directly in his eyes in right field, and he had not even seen the ball until it was past him.

[17] With the exception of 64 games with the New Orleans club in 1903, Campau spent the rest of his career at Binghamton, finally retiring after the 1905 season.

Campau initially announced he would be tendering his resignation shortly after his escape, but reconsidered and reported for his umpiring assignment the next day.

Between 1906 and 1910, he handled the finances of horse racing tracks in Texas, Havana, Seattle, Jacksonville, Florida, and Salt Lake City.