Mickey Doolan
The prototype good-field, no-hit shortstop, Mickey Doolan was blessed with a remarkable ability to snap the ball accurately to first base from the most difficult of positions. Sportswriter Fred Lieb once remarked that Doolan "could throw standing on his head" and favorably compared his defense to that of his elite contemporaries, Honus Wagner and Joe Tinker. Lieb's comparison holds up under scrutiny. Between 1906 and 1913, Doolan led the National League in putouts four times, assists five times, double plays five times, and fielding percentage once. According to Bill James' Win Shares system, the Philadelphia captain was the NL's preeminent fielding shortstop four times.
Doolan was born Michael Joseph Doolittle in Ashland, Pennsylvania, on May 7, 1880, to James and Anna (Kennedy) Doolittle. His adopted surname was variously spelled "Doolan" and "Doolin" throughout his 71 years. Mickey suffered a childhood injury to his throwing arm and had to overcome residual stiffness. Unable to make the long overhand throw from shortstop to first base, he compensated by developing a "snap" throw, wristing the ball from a side-arm to three-quarters orientation. It worked. As a teen Mickey played amateur ball throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, and in 1900 and 1901 he played shortstop for Villanova College, where he also acquired an education in dentistry (which, of course, earned him the ubiquitous nickname of "Doc").
Because baseball was Doolan's passion, his off-season occupation had to take a backseat for the time being. From 1902 through 1904 he played for Jersey City of the Eastern League, which was managed by future Phillies manager Billy Murray. In 1903 Mickey was the regular second baseman, contributing solid defense and a respectable .287 batting average as Jersey City captured the pennant, registering 92 wins against only 33 defeats for a lofty .736 percentage. Doolan's performance convinced Brooklyn to draft him, but the Superbas erroneously drafted Pop Dillon instead. Mickey returned to Jersey City, which subsequently traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for Bill Keister and $2,500.
Becoming Philadelphia's everyday shortstop in 1905, Doolan responded by hitting .254, 24 points above his career average. Despite his weak bat, the three men who managed the Phillies over the next nine seasons penciled his name into the lineup every day, and in 1909 he was even named team captain, a position he held through 1913. His best year at the plate in the majors was 1910, when he logged personal highs for at-bats (536), hits (141), doubles (31), batting average (.263), and on-base percentage (.315). Yet those modest marks represented rarified air for Doolan, who was one of the truly bad hitters of an offense-starved era. Incapable of hitting for average or power, Doolan's 1911 campaign, in which he batted .238 with a .313 slugging percentage, was more typical of his output. By 1913 his batting average had plummeted to .218 with a woeful .270 slugging percentage.
After the 1913 season Doolan agreed to join a world tour organized to promote the great American game overseas. Modeled on a similar excursion in the late 19th century, the trip included such luminaries as Connie Mack, Charles Comiskey, and John McGraw. In an odd premonitory run-in prior to the tour's departure, the Phillies attempted to prevent Doolan from leaving unless a life insurance policy for $10,000 was taken out by the ballplayer to indemnify the club. A leader of the Players Fraternity, Doolan balked at the stipulation and maintained that he was legally a free agent. At the last minute McGraw, who had been interested in acquiring Doolan to play third base for the Giants, agreed to pay the premium on the player's behalf.
When the grand world tour docked in New York harbour at the completion of the trip, Mickey Doolan was one of two players to sign on the spot with the neophyte Federal League. The Baltimore Terrapins offered Doolan a salary of $6,000, a better than 70% increase on his 1913 pay and a sum no National League club was prepared to match. It is unknown whether Phillies owner William Baker offered any salary increase whatsoever. Baker's reputation spurs doubt. Mickey had received only one raise since 1908, when the Phillies hiked his salary to $3,500 a year prior to the 1911 season.
Doolan played one full season with Baltimore, then hooked on with the pennant-bound Chicago Whales when the last-place Terrapins cut him late in the 1915 season. After the collapse of the Federal League, Doolan was awarded to the Chicago Cubs, for whom he saw limited action in 1916 before his inclusion in the midseason trade sending Heinie Zimmerman to the Giants for Larry Doyle. In McGraw's employ at last, he played infrequently in New York, as well, and was back in the minors by 1917. Signing as player-manager of the International League's Rochester Hustlers, Doolan guided the team to fifth place, an improvement of eight games and two places in the standings over the previous season, but he was nonetheless let go after the season. He returned to the NL as a second baseman for Brooklyn in 1918, appearing in 92 games and batting a mere .179 with just 10 extra-base hits in 308 at-bats.
Following stints in the International League with Reading and Jack Dunn's powerhouse Baltimore Orioles, Mickey reemerged in the majors in 1926 as a coach for the Cubs, a role he held through 1928. After spending a year away from the game to focus on his dental practice, Doolan served three years as a coach for the Cincinnati Reds, leaving the majors for good after the 1932 season. With his baseball career behind him, Doolan practiced dentistry until 1947. Upon retiring, he and his wife, Emma, relocated to Orlando, Florida, where Mickey suffered a stroke in late 1949. A subsequent leg injury left him a partial invalid. Acute appendicitis beset Doolan in late October 1951; the appendix ruptured and he succumbed to the resultant peritonitis early in the morning of November 1. Emma survived Mickey by just over three months, passing away in February 1952. They had no children.
Note: A slightly different version of this biography appeared in Tom Simon, ed., Deadball Stars of the National League (Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, Inc., 2004).
Sources
The Baseball Encyclopedia, Eighth Edition. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1990.
Bready, James H. Baseball In Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1998.
Fraser Light, Jonathan. The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1997.
Johnson, Lloyd and Miles Wolff. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Baseball America, Inc., Durham, North Carolina, 1997.
O'Neal, Bill. The International League: A Baseball History 1884-1991. Eakin Press, Austin, Texas, 1992.
Okkonen, Marc. The Federal League of 1914-1915: Baseball's Third Major League. SABR, Pittsburgh, 1989.
Pietrusza, David. Matthew Silverman, Michael Gershman (editors). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. Total Sports Publishing, New York, 2000.
