Tag: baby doll jacobson

At 6’3″, Baby Doll was easy to spot in a lineup.

I went home for Thanksgiving.  Home as in where I grew up.  It was straight out of a TV show with me staying in my old room and even sleeping in my old bed.  I didn’t remember it creaking so much.

Outside of the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, the significant part of the weekend was when we visited Baby Doll Jacobson’s grave site.  As I’ve mentioned here before, I found out over Christmas holiday two years ago  that I am a distant relative of Baby Doll (though we’re still figuring exactly how).  My brother and I decided that we would take the time we had together and go visit his grave,

With a little research, we figured out exactly which cemetery he was buried.  Turns out, it was only 15 miles from where I grew up and I’ve been by there many times.  Once there, it took us only 10 minutes or so of looking over gravestones to find Baby Doll’s.

The cemetery where BDJ is buried

The epitaph on the gravestone was simple yet any baseball fan who knew his history would recognize who this person was.  On a gravestone engraved with two crossed bats, a ball and a glove, it said:

William Chester “Baby Doll” Jacobson

Aug. 16, 1890

Jan, 16, 1977

Major & Minor Leagues 21 Yrs American League

L.B.A. 311 & Held 13 Fielding Records

I don’t know why but the first thing that hit me when I saw this was his date of death.  It amazed me that someone who played baseball as early as 1915 was still around when I was a teenager.

There was also a bronze star next to the gravestone with World War 1917-1918.  Since then, Baby Doll’s son has confirmed that he had enlisted in the Navy at that time.  Something I did not know.

Since Saturday, I’ve been in more contact with Baby Doll Jacobson’s close relatives and they all seem like good people.  Occasionally, an interesting tidbit about Baby Doll’s life will come out (like the Navy story) which is this is all about.

Finally, I’d like to point you to some articles written back in the days when Baby Doll Jacobson was playing.  His grandson, Abe Hammar was gracious enough to send me the scanned copies.  They are a treasure trove in my opinion, not just for those interested in BDJ but for those into baseball history and for that matter, the history of sports press.  Here is a sample:

You can see the full gallery of articles that Hammar sent me here (click the images to enlarge in order to read the articles).  Very interesting indeed.  Again, many thanks to Abe!!

TBZ reader Marty Napier sent this photo to me.  It is of the St Louis Browns outfield of 1917.  On the left is rightfielder Tod Sloan.  On the right is Baby Doll Jacobson who played center.  In the middle, we’re not sure.

Tod Sloan happens to be Marrty’s grandfather.  A quick look at Baseball Reference shows that Sloan played 3 seasons between 1913-1919 and 1917 was indeed his big season where he played close to a full year hitting .230 with 32 runs.  Interestingly, he was hit by pitch seven times that year. 

Baby Doll Jacobson holds a special place in my heart.  You can read why in this article I wrote previously. 

I think it’s a fantastic photo.  Even at first glance, it didn’t take long for me to pick out Baby Doll.  At 6′ 3″, he was one of the tallest players in pro ball in that era. 

As for the mystery man in the middle, I suggested to Marty that perhaps it might be Burt Shotton who was the third starting outfielder on the 1917 Browns.  Marty conceded that might be the case but did say that he didn’t look like Shotton’s likeness in later photos when he was a manager.  Any guesses by anybody?

Many thanks to Marty for sharing this photo!!

Those who read my previous post about Baby Doll Jacobson know that over the Christmas holiday, I found out that I am related to the former outfielder who played 1915-1927.  That was quite exciting for me.  But there was more to the story.

This is in my brother Bill’s words:

We drank a bottle of wine at Christmas from the Lavender Crest winery, which is the new winery near Colona. I think the wine we drank may have even been their “Colona Red”. The label talks about the town of Colona and some of its famous residents of the past, including Baby Doll Jackson. On a visit to the winery about a year ago, I pointed out the mistaken last name to them, and they already knew about it. They had gotten their information on a website about Colona that had the wrong name on it. Anyway, I think that started the whole converstion about Baby Doll Jacobson at Christmas.

I should pay more attention to my family conversations.  Must have been too busy drinking Glogg or something. 

Well, Lavender Crest is still sellling Colona Red but has corrected Jacobson’s last name on the label.  Sort of.  Thanks to Bill for sending me the photos of the wine label.

As you can see, the Baby Doll’s last name is misspelled.  But at least it’s the right name now.  Gracious, you would think if they were that excited about having someone from their small town, they would do their research and get the name right and then when they get it right, they would spell it right.  Just takes a simple Google search. :)

Never did ask Bill if the wine tasted good.  He’s the wine connoisseur of the family.

On a side note, through The Baseball Zealot, I’ve connected up with a great-grandson of Baby Doll Jacobson.  We’ve corresponded a few times and it turns out it seems he still has family in the area I grew up. 

I’m back from a short hiatus.  I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season.  We went to my mom’s for a few days to celebrate.  Which brings me to my story. 

We were sitting around the table after eating our Christmas dinner and we got on topic on of relatives and our family tree.  Mom happened to mention that Dad (who had passed away a couple years ago) was related to Baby Doll Jacobson. 

For those not familiar with early baseball history, William Chester (Baby Doll) Jacobson was an outfileder between the years of 1915-1927 and posted a .311 batting average.  He held numerous fielding records (since broken).  He also had the distinction of being the biggest player in the league at the time at 6’3″ and 215 lbs.

Unfortunately, Mom didn’t have much more information like how exactly Baby Doll was related to us.  I do know he was born in Cable, Illinois not too far my hometown. 

Maybe someday I’ll take the time to find out more.