Dan Brouthers Essentials
Positions:
Bats: L Throws: L
Weight: 207
Born: Year: 1858 in Sylvan Lake, NY USA
Died: 8 2 1932 in East Orange, NJ USA
Debut: 1879-06-23
Last Game: 10/4/1904
Hall of Fame: Inducted as a Player in 1945 by Old Timers
Full Name: Dennis Joseph Brouthers
“Dan Brouthers was the greatest hitter I ever saw. Lajoie is a good and wonderful hitter, and so was the late Ed Delahanty, but for straightaway slugging, I think the equal of big Dan never lived. He used to take a nice healthy swing at it, and I tell you that when Brouthers rapped the ball on the nose that she sped with the force of Gatling gun. Getting in the way of one of Brouther’s shots generally meant the loss of a hand for a time.” ~ John McGraw
One of baseball’s first great sluggers, Dan Brouthers routinely dominated MLB’s offensive leaderboards over an 18-year career (1879-96). The 6-foot-2 inch, 210-pounder paced the league in the following categories on numerous occasions: AVG (5 times), XBHs (5), SLG% (7), OPS (8), and offensive WAR (8). Big Dan also finished among the NL’s top-three in home runs five times and triples on seven occasions. Years later, John McGraw asserted that “against the present-day pitching and the modern lively ball, [Brouthers] would have hit as many home runs as anybody.”
All told, the sturdy first baseman amassed 2,303 hits—462 doubles, 206 triples, and 107 HRs among them—1,301 RBI, 1,529 runs, 257 SBs, and an otherworldly .342/.423/.520 slash-line. Brouthers’ career stats, if broken down into 162-game intervals, would average out to 45 doubles, 20 triples, 10 HRs, and 126 RBI per year.
