Happy Birthday to the late and great Dan Brouthers, one of the all-time great baseball players who played in the 1800s. Brouthers played first base in the old National League for teams such as Troy Trojans, Buffalo Bisons, Detroit Wolverines, Brooklyn Grooms, Baltimore Orioles, and the Boston Beaneaters.

Career Statistics (1879-1896; 1904):

.342 BA, 2,303 HITS, 107 HR, 1,301 RBI, .423 OBP, 1,529 RUNS

  • Five-Time Batting Champion

Many baseball historians recognize Brouthers as the game’s first genuinely great slugger. His 107 Home Runs hit between 1879-1896 is the fourth of that time. It wasn’t just the home runs, though; he led in Runs and RBIs twice; HITS and Doubles three times; and leading in Average and On Base Percentage five times. He was also an excellent baserunner, hitting for 23 Triples in 1894.

When you look at his dominant offensive numbers, factoring in that he played in the “Dead Ball Era,” meaning the balls weren’t as hard, and the style of game was different back then, I think Brouthers is a player who could’ve hit 500 Home Runs easily, had he played or been alive thirty years later. Despite being deceased for nearly 100 years now, Brouthers still ranks 9th in all-time Batting Average, 8th all-time in Triples, and 15th all-time in On Base Percentage.

References:

  1. Dan Brouthers Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/broutda01.shtml
  2. Dan Brouthers via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Brouthers