This Gold Bat, Presented to Daubert by Brooklyn Fans on April 9, 1913, Brought Him the Batting Supremacy of the National League JAKE DAUBERT—A Self-Made Success The Romantic Career of Brooklyn’s Idol—Daubert, Like Ed Walsh, Began Life as a Coal Miner— How He Boosted His Batting Average a Hundred Points in a Year—Expects to End Where He Began—In a Mine By F. C. LANE HREE hundred and seven was my no reason to. Last year I admit I last season’s batting average but reached that mark, but everything broke T I am not a three hundred hitter. just right for me. To tell the truth I I would like to think I am, but I have was very lucky, for I know that my aver- 33 34 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE age batting gait is nowhere near three of every ball player’s ambition. There hundred. I think I am about a .250 hit- is a good reason for this. Success in ter. I cannot claim to be any more, but most occupations is not easy to define. of course I shall always do my best.” This is partly because every individual has his own idea of what success really A REMARKABLE LIFE STORY is, but more because there is no clear dividing line which separates the success- We were seated in the lobby of the ful from the unsuccessful man. In other Copley Square Hotel in Boston. The words, the average man never knows speaker was Jake Daubert, already ac- definitely whether or not he has reached knowledged by those who knew as one his goal. He may be successful in the of the greatest fielders in the game. With eyes of his associates without being a simple frankness which is character- aware of the fact, or he may be success- istic of the man, he had been recounting ful in his own eyes with no apparent the graphic story of his life; a story that cause for such opinion so far as anyone touched the lowest depths of despond- else can see. In the ball player’s case ency, yet reached at times to heights of there is no such doubt and uncertainty. promise that seemed dim and visionary For his special benefit, it would seem, an even to himself. The man who, at the age arbitrary sign has been established as of twenty-seven, had fought and over- definite almost as the dead line at Ander- come more difficulties than most men sonville Prison. This is the three hun- ever confront in a lifetime, was unfold- dred batting average. True, the batter ing the story of his career. It was a who slumps below this figure is not dramatic story, beginning with the time necessarily a failure, neither is the player when he was a poor breaker-boy in a who can hit and do nothing else neces- Pennsylvania coal mine, with never a sarily a success. But in his own eyes, hope that rose beyond the murky air of and the eyes of the public as well, the a typical mining village. Year after year big leaguer who can hit safely three of monotonous routine, varied only by times in ten is separated thereby from the danger of sudden death by cave-in, the great majority of his fellow players. or explosion, a story of ceaseless strug- The stars may shine below the range gle at the hardest and most hopeless of of vision. But you can’t see them till tasks seemed the limit of his hopes. they rise above the horizon. The .300 Then came the sudden shifting of the mark is the batter’s horizon. There may scene from this dreary atmosphere to a be star batters below that mark. But field where his peculiar talents should the public doesn’t see them till they climb win for him a measure of success far above the .300 mark. greater than he had ever dared to dream. Without conscious effort in a voice that DAUBERT VERSUS CHASE thrilled with earnestness he told his story until the listener shared in the modest It was in the spring of 1912 that Dau- triumph of the coal miner buried deep bert told me the story of his remarkable in the obscurity of his dreary calling rise into baseball prominence, a success who all at once found himself famous. that was nevertheless darkened by his But through his story there ran an under- fancied deficiency as a batter. A brief current of sadness. space of two years, however, is a long “I think I was naturally a pretty fair time in a game so full of uncertainties fielder and, of course, in the amateur as baseball, but it is safe to say that no games we had in the mining country I period, even in baseball, had witnessed a was as good a batter as the rest. But greater transformation in a player with that wasn’t saying very much. It is true acknowledged talents than the case of when I was a minor leaguer I seemed Daubert. The Brooklyn captain was fa- to be able to hit, but that doesn’t carry mous even before he entered the majors a man very far in the majors. And I as a wonderfully clever fielder. His tal- don’t mind saying that any ball player, ent was not obscured in the least when whoever he is, would rather be able to brought into relief against the back- hit than anything else.” ground of Major League superiority. In The three hundred mark is the goal fact his brilliant fielding has shone all JAKE DAUBERT—A SELF-MADE SUCCESS 35 the brighter through four years’ associa- tion with the stars of the diamond. With the passing of Hal Chase and his wiz- ardly fielding, Daubert has come into his own. No player ever basked in a greater popularity than Chase. For years the public was dazzled by his unrivaled skill. There was an ease, a grace, a glit- ter about his work which perhaps no other first baseman has ever equaled. But the very brilliancy of his exploits blinded the eye of the usually observing fan to a number of serious defects. The public is prone to lavish too much of its favor on the athlete who can do certain things connected with his work a little better than anyone else can do them. In their admiration for a popular idol they are all too inclined to lose sight of much more substantial merits or defects in the mere external. We have no criti- cisms to make of Chase, but, even before the popularity of the once great High- land star began to wane, we were priv- ileged to select Jake Daubert as the great- est first baseman on the diamond. We believe the public admired Chase for what he might have been as well as for his admitted matchless skill in fielding his position. We also believe the same public will appreciate Daubert rather for what he is, all the more so since his suc- cess has been won in the face of tre- mendous difficulties solely by sterling merit. Daubert has probably never made or never will make some of the sensa- tional plays which Chase alone could han- dle. But we believe he is a more valu- able all round player to-day than Chase was, even in his prime, and while his As He Looked the Day He Was Signed fielding may lack something of that fin- by Cleveland ish, or rather glitter, for which Chase was famous, the Brooklyn captain is un- acteristic modesty he set the .250 mark doubtedly one of the most brilliant first as his proper average. basemen the game has ever known. Why take Jake Daubert as a type of batting success? If you are trying to DAUBERT’S BATTING RISE WAS learn at first hand how championships RECENT are won, why not consider Ty Cobb, who has worn the batting crown for years? Two years ago, then, Daubert, while a or Napoleon Lajoie, who has won so wonderful fielder, was not a sensational many laurels they fairly clutter up the batter. He started his Major League walls of his trophy room? or that reso- career with an average of .266. The lute old warrior, Hans Wagner, and his second season he batted for .307. This ”Seventeen Seasons’ Success”? was very good, but even he himself, as DAUBERT PHILOSOPHY we have seen, considered it a pace which his fancied limitations as a batter would Any ball player would rather be a not allow him to maintain. With char- good batter than anything else. 36 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE I used to dream about hitting .300 other batters of his league, the undis- in the Majors, but I never expected to puted champion. get there. “I should think it would be an awful Two seasons I hit for .307, but I struggle to fight your way to the head of couldn’t believe I deserved that aver- the batting profession,” I once said to age. Joe Jackson, perhaps the greatest natural I felt sure it was far beyond my nat- batter who ever lived. “It is some job ural gait and counted myself very all right,” answered Joe, “but,” he added lucky to reach the mark once. significantly, “it isn’t so hard to get to I figured I was a .250 hitter, and the head of the procession as it is to that whatever success I might have keep there.” would be due to fielding.