Dan Brouthers - WikiHQ

Dennis Joseph "Dan" Brouthers (; May 8, 1858 – August 2, 1932) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball whose career spanned the period from to , with a brief return in . Nicknamed "Big Dan" for his size, he was and weighed , which was large by 19th-century standards.

Recognized as the first great slugger in baseball history, and among the greatest sluggers of his era, he briefly held the career home run record from to , with his final total of 106 tying for the fourth most of the 19th century. His career slugging percentage of .520 remained the Major League record until Babe Ruth overtook him in the 1920s. At the time of his initial retirement, he also ranked second in career triples (205), and third in runs batted in (1,296) and hits.

A dominant hitter during the prime of his career, he led (or was in the top of) the league in most offensive categories, including batting average, runs scored, runs batted in (RBI), on-base percentage and hits. He won five batting titles – the most of any player in the 19th century – and his career .342 batting average ranks 12th all-time. Brouthers is one of only 31 players in baseball history who have appeared in Major League games in four decades.

He was also an active players' union member, and was elected vice president of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players. In 1945, Brouthers was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Early life

Brouthers was born in Sylvan Lake, New York, to Michael and Annie Brooder, Catholic immigrants from Ireland; upon arriving in New York, Michael Brooder had been recruited to Dutchess County to work in open pit iron mines in the town of Beekman. Brouthers may have been named after Saint Denis, as a local Catholic church by that name was founded in the same year. Brouthers had siblings named Martin, Ellen, and Margaret. The spelling of the family's name gradually shifted from Brooder to Bruder to Brouthers by 1880. The family eventually moved to the nearby hamlet of Fishkill Plains before settling in the village of Wappingers Falls where Michael found safer work at a textile printing mill.

Brouthers played organized baseball beginning in childhood, from playing in the local sandlots to the semi-professional Actives of Wappingers Falls. On July 7, , while running the bases, he collided at home plate with a catcher, named Johnny Quigley, of the Clippers of Harlem. Quigley was knocked unconscious, having suffered a traumatic head injury, and later died from these injuries on August 12. The 19-year-old Brouthers was cleared of any wrongdoing by the authorities.

Major League career

Troy

Brouthers made his Major League debut on June 23, , for the Troy Trojans, and contributed a single in a come-from-behind victory against the Syracuse Stars.

Buffalo

Brouthers got his first chance to be an everyday player in , when he was signed by the Bisons, the team that he did well against the previous year. That season he batted .319, and played with them until the team folded after the season. In his first season with the Bisons, he led the National League (NL) in home runs and slugging percentage. The team finished with a record of 87 wins and 36 losses, in second place behind the Chicago White Stockings by  games.

During the off-season, on November 11, , The Executive Council of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players‚ formed in 1885 as the first organized players' union, met and re-elected John Montgomery Ward as president, and elected Brouthers as vice president. the Wolverines finished in first place, besting the Quakers by games. Brouthers batted .338, and led the league in runs scored with 153, doubles with 36, and on-base percentage, while again finishing in the top 10 in most offensive categories. and went on to face the St. Louis Browns in a best-of-15 post-season tournament, the "World's Series". The Wolverines sealed a series championship with their eighth victory in 11 games; however, the two teams finished the series anyway, with Detroit winning 10 games to the Browns' five. Brouthers only played in one of those games, getting two hits in three at bats.

Following the season, on November 17, , members of the NL officially recognized the Brotherhood and met with a Brotherhood committee that consisted of three players – Ward‚ Hanlon and Brouthers. Brouthers' numbers declined as well, as he did not produce at the same level of his previous seasons. Even with the lower numbers, he still led the league in runs scored with 118, and doubles for the third year in a row. Brouthers signed with the Boston Reds, and batted .330 while leading the league in on-base percentage and slugging. finished in first place, games ahead of the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders.

The Players' League lasted just the one season, and the Reds merged into the American Association, carrying many of the championship team's previous players. Again, the team won the league's championship, finishing games ahead of the St. Louis Browns. Brouthers led the league in batting average (.350), on-base percentage and slugging, while finishing second in triples with 19, sixth in doubles with 26, and third in RBIs with 109. The Orioles won the league's championship that season, and it was Brouthers' last full season in the majors, as he again produced great numbers, batting .347, finishing seventh in total bases, fifth in RBIs (128), fourth in doubles (39), and fifth in triples (23).

Early in the season, Baltimore sold Brouthers to the Louisville Colonels for $500, as his skills seemed to have diminished, and he only played in 24 of Louisville's games that season; he came back to hit .309 for them, ending the year with a .300 overall mark.

Later life and legacy

thumb|left|Brouthers' grave at St. Mary's Church Cemetery in Wappingers Falls

Brouthers played minor league baseball for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Eastern League, where he won a batting title with a .415 average.

Brouthers died at the age of 74 at his home in East Orange, New Jersey, and is interred at St. Mary's Church Cemetery in Wappingers Falls, New York. In , Brouthers and several other stars of the era prior to 1910 were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. In 1999, a survey of the Society for American Baseball Research ranked him as the sixth-greatest player of the 19th century.

References

External links

Dan Brouthers at SABR Bio Project