Baby Doll
Where
would baseball be without nicknames?
Bygone
baseball by C. Philip Francis
Introduction:
One lovely, spring Sunday morning my wife and I were visitors at a church
near Branson, Missouri, and after the regular service, we were invited to join
the congregation for the monthly potluck. After
dinner newcomers were asked to introduce themselves, tell about their jobs,
hobbies, and any particular interests. I
mentioned that I was a lover of baseball, and wrote a weekly column on old time
baseball that is printed in several newspapers and also sent to fans around the
country.
After
the meal we were ready to leave when a lady came up to ask if I had ever heard
of Baby Doll Jacobson. “Sounds
familiar, but really don’t know much about him,” I replied.
She explained that Baby Doll was her uncle, and that he had played in the
big leagues years ago and has since died. The
lady was proud of her uncle, and delighted to explain how the nickname of Baby
Doll was forever affixed to her uncle. She
said it happened after a long Jacobson home run a lady in a front row seat
jumped up and yelled out, “You’re a baby doll”, and the name stuck.
Before
we left the church Jacobson’s relative told me that Baby Doll had a son who
lived somewhere in Illinois although she was not sure where.
She did give me the son’s name and the possible town where he resided,
and so I wrote to Ted Jacobson in this manner:
TED JACOBSON – THE SON OF FAMOUS
BASEBALL PLAYER BABY DOLL JACOBSON followed by the questionable address.
As it turned out the niece did err with the street, town, and zip code,
but before long I received a letter from Ted Jacobson who wrote, “Your letter
reached me in five days proving that even with the wrong address MY DAD LIVES ON
IN THIS AREA!
*
After Baby Doll retired from baseball, he and a friend attended an All-Star game in St. Louis where Jacobson starred for almost ten years. Following the game the men found their way into a tavern, and as Baby Doll tells it,
“We went into a little place by the ballpark for a glass of beer. As the bartender walked up my friend asked if he remembered my friend beside me – Bill Jacobson.”
“I
recall a Baby Doll Jacobson, but never knew a Bill Jacobson.”
“This
IS Baby Doll!” my companion roared back.
“Well,
why didn’t you call him by his right name in the first place?” asked the
barkeep.
As
someone once said, “Where would baseball be without nicknames?”
Baby Doll has remarked on his “real” name, “If I don’t have that
nickname, my name would be mud just as Willie Jones would be forgotten if he
hadn’t been called ‘Puddin’ Head.’”
One could add many more treasured monikers that add a dash of panache to
the game such as Shoeless, Oil Can, and Death to Flying Things among many, many
others.
(2)
Just
how did Bill Jacobson become better known as Baby Doll?
Was it as described by the niece in Branson, or as noted in a 1995 issue
of Baseball Digest that responded to a letter asking for data on Jacobson with
“female fans thought he looked so handsome that they called him Baby Doll.”
Jacobson
himself gave us the real lowdown as written in several interviews.
Baby Doll explained when, where, and how he picked up his unique
nickname,
“It
was about 1912 and the property of the New York Giants at the time.
We were working our way north after spring training, and the club stopped
off at Mobile in Alabama for a game. On
the first pitch they played ‘Oh, You Beautiful Doll.’ And just a couple of
minutes later I led off and hit the first ball over the fence.
(Note: It is believed to be
the first ball ever to go over the distant centerfield wall.)
“A
lady behind home plate stood up just as I finished circling the bases, and
yelled out, ’You must be that Beautiful Baby Doll they were just singing
about.’”
“Well,
from that on I’ve been Baby Doll.”
William
Chester Jacobson was born in Cable, Illinois on August 16, 1890, and grew up on
a farm in the area called Quad Cities, west of Chicago near the Mississippi
River. In 1909 the 19-year old
young man, now tall and slender, began his baseball career with Rock Island in
the Three-I (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa) League.
In 48 games he hit only .185,
even less the next season in 16 games, but there would be better times ahead.
Today
major league baseball clubs have an annual draft of high school and college
players, and then pay huge amounts of money for the players’ signatures on
those desired contracts. Considering
the cash now involved, the youngsters are then spoon-fed through the minor
league apprentice system so that the parental club can quickly begin to recoup
their substantial investment. In
the “old days” such as during the times of William Chester Jacobson the
rookies learned their trade by many arduous and toilsome years in the bush
leagues often going from town to town on broken-down busses.
Following
his difficult times in Rock Island, Bill Jacobson began his long trek to the big
leagues during the next seven years with stopovers in Battle Creek (MI), Mobile
(AL), and Chattanooga (TN) prior to his major league debut on April 14, 1915
with the Detroit Tigers. There was
a teammate who played in the outfield who became one of the great players of
baseball of all time – Ty Cobb. Baby
Doll’s son, Ted, is very proud to say that his dad played with Detroit as a
backup to Cobb.
Jacobson
did not stay long with Tigers so after 37 games with Detroit, he was traded to
the St. Louis Browns where he finished the season with a mediocre .211 batting
average.
(3)
Thus
it was back to the minors, this time to Little Rock (AR) where he then hit a
robust .346 in 139 games. His
career was now about to take off.
Bill
became the regular centerfielder for the Browns in 1917, but first his country
had other plans as it went to war. He
enlisted in the US Navy, and did not play in 1918. The war ended in November 1918 allowing Jacobson to return to
St. Louis to continue his regular position in center field for the 1919 season.
Jack Tobin had joined the Browns in 1916 and Ken Williams in ’18.
The 5-foot, 8-inch and 142-pound Tobin was from St. Louis, played right
field, and became a fine leadoff batter. Williams
was from Grants Pass, Oregon, and became the left fielder.
Jacobson and his two flankers became one of the most celebrated outfield
trios in baseball.
They
were together for the five-year period from 1920 thru 1924 with all three
hitting .300 or more with the exception of Tobin’s .299 in ’24.
Baby Doll had seven consecutive seasons with a .300 or more.
His best year was 1920 when he hit .355 with 216 hits and 122 RBI’s.
At
215 pounds and six feet, three inches, Jacobson was not your average fleet
middle outfielder, but at one time owned 13 fielding American League records.
A former umpire once remarked that Baby Doll could easily handle anything
hit deep while the other two played closer to the infield.
The
Brownie threesome was broken up in 1925 when both Jacobson and Tobin lost their
jobs, but continued as part-time players. In
June of 1926 Baby Doll was traded to the Red Sox, and after a year in Boston, he
had brief stopovers with Cleveland and the Philadelphia A’s before the man
with the fascinating sobriquet hung up his big league glove in 1927.
He was not over with baseball, however, as he spent the next four years
wearing the minor league uniforms in Baltimore, Chattanooga, Indianapolis,
Toledo, and finally Quincy of the old Three-I League where it all began.
Baby
Doll’s son, Ted, never saw his father play organized baseball, and said of his
dad, “It was hard to get him to talk about it.
I think he felt kind of talked out…because all his neighbors and the
other farmers always wanted to talk about his career. It don’t think he really reveled in the limelight or
sought it.”
About
the same time Bill Jacobson was starting 11-year stretch in the majors, a young
man from Baltimore with the name of George Herman Ruth was also to commence his
baseball life. Ted recalls one of
his father’s few stories. “Babe
was still pitching at that time, and with Baby Doll at bat he lined one straight
back at the pitcher’s stomach. Ruth
tried to catch the ball with his bare hand, but his thumb was bent back and had
to leave the game. My dad always
enjoyed saying, ‘That was the day I batted Ruth out of the game.’”
(4)
William’s
remaining years were spent farming, fishing, and watching games on his
television. When Baby Doll was 80
he flew to St. Louis to attend a sports banquet where he was given a nostalgia
award. There were many celebrities
present, but the old time St. Louis Brown’s ballplayer was given what was his
last hurrah – a standing ovation, perhaps the largest of the evening.
Baby
Doll’s life was now shutting down. He
lost his best friend, and then came surgery and a health care center.
William Chester died “quietly and dignified” on January 16, 1977 at
the age of 86. Everything is gone,
of course. The St. Louis Browns
finished the 1953 season, and then moved to Baltimore as the Orioles.
Their old stadium, Sportsman Park, was reduced to a littered and
abandoned field and finally a boy’s club.
Ken
Williams had 14 years in the big leagues and closed his career with a .319
batting average. After two years in
the minors Williams returned to Grant Pass where he died in 1959 at the age at
68. Jack Tobin finished his
13 big league years in 1927 with a .309 average, and coached and scouted for the
Browns. He was 77 when he died in
1969.
None
of the three outstanding St. Louis Browns outfielders of the 1920’s ever
appeared in a World Series, but came close in 1922 when they finished the season
only one game behind the mighty Yankees.