Jake Daubert - Baseball Career

Baseball Career

In 1908, Daubert was signed by the Cleveland Indians. However, Daubert never played for Cleveland as they released him shortly thereafter. He left Cleveland and signed with the Nashville club of the Southern Association. He spent the remainder of the season with Nashville.

Daubert returned to Ohio for the start of the 1909 season. After playing the first part of the season with Toledo of the American Association, Daubert went back to Tennessee and joined the Memphis club. Like Nashville, Memphis' team played in the Southern Association. While playing for Memphis, Larry Sutton, a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers, observed his play. Shortly thereafter, the Dodgers purchased Daubert's contract and brought him to Brooklyn for the 1910 season.

While Daubert hit just .264 in 1910, he hit over .300 in each of the next six seasons. On May 6, 1910, Daubert recorded 21 putouts in a single game, one short of the major league record.

In 1911 and 1912, Daubert placed ninth and eighth in the Chalmers Award voting. The following year, he won the award. On August 15, 1914, Daubert tied Cy Seymour's MLB record with four sacrifice bunts in one game. In 1916 he batted .316 and Brooklyn won their first NL pennant; but he hit only .176 in the 1916 World Series and Brooklyn lost the series to the Boston Red Sox.

Daubert hit .261 in 1917, but the following year he hit .308 and led the NL in triples. When the season was cut short due to World War I and the influenza epidemic, major league owners prorated player salaries. Daubert, who had been among the founding members of the Players' Fraternity, sued for the balance of his salary. Eventually, Jake recovered most of the $2,150 he was due. After the dispute started, Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets traded him to Cincinnati for outfielder Tommy Griffith. Once in Cincinnati, Daubert served as the Reds' captain for the remainder of his career.

In 1919, although he hit only .276, Daubert was second in the league in runs scored and third in triples. The Reds won their first pennant since the inaugural season of the American Association in 1882. In the 1919 World Series, noted for the Black Sox Scandal, he batted .241. In the 9-1 Game 1 victory, he had three hits including a triple, and he had two hits and scored twice in the final 10-5 victory in Game 8.

Daubert hit over .300 in the next three seasons. In 1922, Daubert hit for a .336 average, led the NL in triples and had a career-high 12 home runs. By 1923, at age 39, he was the oldest regular position player in the major leagues, and he hit .292 that season.

Daubert also excelled in sacrifice hits. His career total of 392 sacrifice hits is second in MLB history, behind Hall of Famer Eddie Collins.

In his career, he had 56 home runs, 1117 runs, 722 runs batted in, 250 doubles and 251 stolen bases. When he left Brooklyn for Cincinnati, Daubert held the Brooklyn franchise record for games played at first base (1206). The record was broken by Gil Hodges in 1956.