Baby Doll Jacobson
The center fielder for one of the best outfields in history, Baby Doll Jacobson teamed with Ken Williams and Jack Tobin on the St. Louis Browns for five years. He was a large man who covered the outfield well, holding the American League record for putouts for 24 years. Cast adrift by Detroit as a rookie, Jacobson went on to post a .311 average in more than 1,400 major league games.
| Career Batting Stats |
| G |
AB |
H |
R |
HR |
RBI |
SB |
AVG |
SLG |
OBP |
OPS |
OPS+ |
| 1472 |
5507 |
1714 |
787 |
83 |
821 |
86 |
.311 |
.450 |
.357 |
.807 |
111.2 |
|
Where does Baby Doll Jacobson rank among baseball greats?
Baby Doll Jacobson ranks #46 among the Top 50 all-time at CF. Rankings ⇒
Baby Doll Jacobson Teammates
Best Season: 1920
Baby Doll finished in the top ten in almost every offensive category. He hit .355 with 216 hits, and 122 RBI. He played every game for the Browns.
Born
William Chester Jacobson was born on August 16, 1890, in Cable, IL.
Died
January 16, 1977, Orion, IL
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Major League Debut
4 14,
Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1915
Sam Rice
Rogers Hornsby
Joe Judge
George Sisler
Dave Bancroft
Dazzy Vance
Charlie Jamieson
George Kelly
Baby Doll Jacobson
Written in 1911 by composers Nat Ayer and Seymour Brown, Oh You Beautiful Doll quickly became a popular tune. While playing for the Mobile Sea Gulls of the Southern League in 1912, Bill Jacobson hit a home run and a band located in the grandstands played the song. The following day, the Mobile Register printed Jacobson's picture above a caption that read: "That Baby Doll." The name stuck.
Source: Steve Steinberg of SABR
Uniform Numbers
None were used during his career.
Similar Players
Bing Miller, Joe Vosmik
Related Players
Jack Tobin, Ken Williams, Howard Ehmke, Bing Miller
Batting Feats
Notes
Jacobson faired better than his outfield partners Tobin and Williams in MVP voting. In 1924, Jacobson finished eighth, and the next year he was seventh.
Transactions
August 18, 1915: Traded by the Detroit Tigers to the St. Louis Browns for Bill James and Grover Lowdermilk; June 15, 1926: Traded by the Philadelphia A's with Slim Harriss and Fred Heimach to the Boston Red Sox for Tom Jenkins and Howard Ehmke; June 15, 1926: Traded by the St. Louis Browns to the Philadelphia Athletics for Bing Miller; June 12, 1927: Purchased by the Cleveland Indians from the Boston Red Sox; August 5, 1927: Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Athletics from the Cleveland Indians.
Replaced
Armando Marsans, a light-skinned Cuban, who played eight seasons in the American League, National League, and Federal League. According to some sources he was the first Cuban to play in the major leagues in the 20th century.
Replaced By
By 1926, the Browns had broken up the Williams/Jacobson/Tobin outfield, with Tobin having been shipped to Boston. In June, Jacobson was traded to Boston as well, for center fielder Bing Miller. Jacobson finished '26 as the Red Sox strating center fielder, but lost his job in 1927 to Ira Flagstead. Baby Doll was then sold to the A's in June of '27.
Best Strength as a Player
A large man at 6'3", Jacobson still had the best range in the American League, leading the loop in putouts several times. He was also a very good hitter, though he never hit for much power. He never embraced the idea of swinging for the fences, choosing to hit like a deadball era player into the 1920s.
Largest Weakness as a Player
Jacobson was not a patient hitter.
Learn More about Baby Doll Jacobson
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