[1] Nicknamed "Pick" (short for the freshwater fish pickerel),[2] Fisher was an all-around athlete who played football, basketball, baseball, and competed in track events, though his father permitted sports only if the farm work was done.

[3] After stellar performances on the college mound,[4] he was offered a position pitching with a semi-pro team in Valleyfield, Quebec in the summer of 1907.

[6] Fisher jumped at the first major league opportunity to come his way, thinking it might be the only offer he would get, and his contract was sold to the New York Highlanders (Yankees).

[7] Dubbed the "Vermont Schoolmaster" because he taught Latin at Newton Academy in New Jersey during his first offseason,[8] Fisher pitched for New York from 1910 to 1917,[9][10] spending 1918 in the Army stationed at Fort Slocum off New Rochelle.

[11] As a rookie, the newspapers were frequently comparing Fisher to Highlander's spitball pitcher Jack Chesbro,[12] and early in his tenure with the Yankees Fisher was also cited by Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie as one of the 12 best pitchers in the American League, both players also listing Ed Walsh, Russ Ford, Walter Johnson and Smoky Joe Wood.

[15][16] Fisher was known for his stamina as a pitcher, considered a "workhorse" for the Yankees,[17] but the following year, 1916, a bout of pleurisy resulted in crippling his effectiveness, and causing him to miss about a month of the season.

[24] About the time of his discharge from the Army, Fisher was selected off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds, taking a $3,100 cut in pay from his $6,700 with the Yankees.

[37] Fisher thought the Michigan position held greater long-term promise and accepted the job, believing that he would be given his release from Cincinnati or placed on the list of voluntarily retired players (both of which were subsequently reported in the local papers).

[38][39] Part way into Michigan's playing season, other teams began contacting Fisher inquiring as to his availability to pitch and coach during the summer, Rickey's St. Louis Cardinals among them.

[41] He learned that he was being placed on the list of those ineligible to play, the Reds citing his having given them only seven days notice, rather than the required ten, prior to leaving the club.

[47] About 1944, as part of a promotion for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Fisher received in the mail a silver lifetime pass to any major league ballpark in the country.

[49] In 1951 Fisher was called to Washington, D.C., to testify about his blacklisting in a House Judiciary Committee investigation into the alleged monopoly of power in professional baseball.

The team returned from Japan in October 1929 aboard the SS Shinyō Maru, sailing from Yokohama to San Francisco.

[56] During the 1940s he was hailed by sports writers as "the Fielding Yost of the diamond"[57] and by Esquire Magazine as a close second to Jack Barry of Holy Cross as the top college baseball coach in the country.

[68] In the summer of 1982, Fisher was invited to the yearly Old-Timers' Day[69] at Yankee Stadium, his first visit to the famous facility which had been built after he'd left the team.

[70] He received two standing ovations from the fans, second only to Joe DiMaggio,[71] and threw out the opening pitch for that day's Yankees-Rangers game.

In the 2010 American League Championship Series, Texas Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee gave quite a performance using a cut fastball taught to him by "Ace" Adams, who had learned the pitch from Fisher at Michigan after the latter's retirement.