Happy belated Birthday to the late and great Hall of Fame First Basemen, Jake Beckley. His career took place in the Dead-Ball Era in the late 1800s. Most of his career was with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys/Pirates and Cincinnati Reds.

Career Statistics (1888-1907):

.308 BA, 2,938 HITS, 87 HR, 1,581 RBI, 1,603 RUNS, .361 OBP

DURABILITY is a word you can use to describe Beckley. Of his 2,389 career games, all but nine of them were spent at First Base, which would remain a big league record until 1994, when Eddie Murray broke it. To this day, Beckley holds the record in Putouts with 23,767. Beckley, regarded as one of the best contact hitters of his time, was given the nickname “Eagle Eye.” Beckley hit over .300 thirteen times in his career. As we all know, the best players in his era were great baserunners, and Beckley was no exception. He could drop a sacrifice with the bat’s handle as a bunter while holding the thicker end. Fourteen times in his career, he hit Triples in the double digits and 19 for five straight seasons, 1891-1895. Career-wise, on a 162-game average, he scored 109 Runs a season, so I don’t need to explain further why Beckley was a great baserunner. It was a big deal back then in terms of slugging 1,581 career RBIs over a twenty-year career.

There are many forgotten all-time great players from the dead-ball era, and Jake Beckley is on the list. It took until 1971, almost 60 years after his death, for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame via the Veterans Committee.

References:

  1. Jake Beckley Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/becklja01.shtml
  2. Jake Beckley via Wikipedia: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/becklja01.shtml