Dutch Dotterer

The 6-foot tall, 210-pound catcher for the Jersey City Jerseys looked like a giant to the boy. It was Camera Day at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium in 1960. The Jerseys were the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A club. The catcher was Dutch Dotterer, a charming and intellectual athlete. Years later, Santa Ana High School’s Athletic Director, Frank Alvarado, would say, “Dutch was the kind of guy you could talk baseball with or the origins of the universe.”1 Journalist Mike Marley put it this way: “Dotterer wore the ‘tools of ignorance’ but, in his case, it was a disguise.”2

The boy was Frank Longo from Jersey City. Dotterer asked Frank, “How are you, son? Thank you for coming out.” “I could not believe I was speaking to a real professional baseball player,” Frank said. “And HE was thanking ME!” Dotterer wrapped his big throwing arm around the boy’s shoulders and they posed for a picture Frank’s dad took with his Seagull 4 camera. 

“What position do you play?” Dotterer wanted to know, to which Frank replied, “Catcher.” Dotterer said, “Son, the first thing you have to do as a catcher is catch the ball.” He handed Frank his well-worn catcher’s mitt to try on. What a moment!

Years later, Frank was behind the plate, catching for Marist, a private high school located in Bayonne, New Jersey. The game was being played in Roosevelt Stadium, where the Jerseys had held their Camera Day almost a decade before. “We need a catcher who can catch the ball,” Frank’s coach told him. Most high school fields had a backstop a few feet behind home plate, but Roosevelt Stadium was a professional field with a backstop that was far from the plate. Passed balls could be a major problem. When he crouched down behind home plate, Frank was not thinking that Jackie Robinson played his first professional game at Roosevelt Stadium and stood right there in the batter’s box three feet from where Frank crouched. No, he remembered Dutch Dotterer’s advice: “Make sure you catch the ball.”

***

Henry John Dotterer Jr. (pronounced DODD-a-rer) was born in Syracuse, New York, on November 11, 1930.3 He was the oldest of three children born to Henry Dotterer Sr. and Catherine Patricia Bradshaw, who were married one year earlier. His younger siblings were Tom and Nan.4 Henry Jr. was nicknamed “Dutch,” as were his father and, sometimes, his brother, a nickname often given to boys of Germanic descent.5

Dotterer’s father was a professional baseball player himself, having played five minor-league seasons until he suffered a career-ending back injury in 1934. After his playing days, Dutch Sr. worked in the tax assessor’s office in Syracuse and opened the Salina Liquor and Wine Store there in 1943 or 1944.6 He also became a scout for what was then the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A farm team, the Syracuse Chiefs, a position he held from 1945 until 1948. Scouting positions followed with the major-league Reds, the Cleveland Indians, and the New York Yankees.7 Dutch Sr. has been given credit for discovering Mel Hall and Andy Van Slyke.8 He was also instrumental in getting both of his sons and his grandson Mike signed to professional baseball contracts.

Dutch Jr. attended Christian Brothers Academy, a private Catholic school run by the Lasallian order, in Syracuse. He played basketball and baseball there – his father did not want him to play football.9 He graduated from CBA in 1948 and enrolled at Syracuse University. When the standout catcher led his SU team in batting average and runs batted in as a sophomore, he was bird-dogged by eight major-league clubs (according to the back of his 1958 Topps baseball card). However, the Cincinnati organization, with his father an area scout at the time, had the inside track. Scouts Frank O’Rourke and Sterling Fowble signed the boy on June 10, 1950. He was not labeled a “bonus player,” which, as the press reported, indicated that he received less than $6,000 for signing.10 He continued to attend college in the offseasons.11

Dotterer got off to a good start in professional ball, working his way up in the low minors from 1950 to 1952, first at Lockport (Class D), then Ogden (Class C), then Burlington (Class B), where he was a first team all-star selection in the Three-I league.12 Reds farm director Bill McKechnie had this to say: “He’s one of the best young catchers in the farm system . . . The kid’s got one of the best arms I’ve ever seen.”13 When he got to the big leagues, Dotterer gunned down one out of every three base-stealers. However, before he got his chance in the majors, the US Navy interrupted Dotterer’s baseball career from February 24, 1953, through October 23, 1954.14

From various newspaper accounts, it seemed that Dotterer lived an almost Forrest Gump-like life. He told reporters that he was a pool table repairman and played pool with Willie Mays while they were in the service; that while he was in the farm system in the spring of 1956, he chatted with Fidel Castro; that he and the future American Bandstand host Dick Clark were roommates at Syracuse University; and that he roomed with tell-all author Jim Brosnan when they played for the Reds.15 The trouble is that it’s impossible to know if those stories were fact or legend.

However, there is one story that is fact. While on military leave in September 1954, Dotterer, a bullpen catcher with the parent club at the time, participated in a promotion cooked up by Cincinnati’s general manager, Gabe Paul. Paul offered $25 to any of his catchers who attempted to catch a ball dropped from a helicopter hovering about 557 feet above the outfield – and $200 if they caught it.16

Before the scheduled game between the Redlegs17 and the visiting New York Giants, Andy Seminick and Ed Bailey failed, but Dotterer and third-string catcher Hobie Landrith each caught a ball tossed by longtime Cincinnati beat writer Earl Lawson from the whirlybird. The pregame show garnered a lot of press, but with versions of the event as numerous as the dents left in the turf before the two balls were caught.18

When his military service ended, Dotterer tuned up by playing 1954-55 winter league ball in Colombia for the Vanytor team.19 He began 1955 with Nashville in the Southern Association (Class AA). One month later, he was sold to the Memphis Chicks, a Chicago White Sox affiliate in the same loop.20 Dotterer helped Memphis capture the flag before the Reds bought him back.

That winter he played for Lácteos de Pastora in the Occidental League in Venezuela.21 While there, he met Maria Pacada. They married on Christmas Eve but divorced not long thereafter.22  For the 1956 season, Dotterer was assigned to the Havana Sugar Kings, Cincinnati’s International League Triple-A affiliate in Cuba. By the time he reached his 26th birthday, Dotterer still had not played in a major-league game.

When Cincinnati kept Bailey and veteran Smoky Burgess on its roster in 1957, Dotterer found himself back in Double-A Nashville. With an eye to his future after baseball, and armed with the Spanish he learned while playing south of the border, Dotterer completed his bachelor’s degree in 1957 and earned his master’s degree in 1958 in what has been variously reported as either International or Latin American Relations.23 He planned to go into the import-export business, he said, when he retired.

Meanwhile, things began to turn for Dotterer on the field. He played 129 games for the power-packed Vols and slashed .303/.387/.444 with career-bests in OPS (.831), home runs (9), and RBIs (79). He was elected unanimously to the all-star team by the 16 voting sportswriters.24 The Redlegs’ brass liked what they saw.

Dotterer made his major-league debut on September 25, 1957. With his team down, 7-0, against the Chicago Cubs, Dotterer entered the game in the fifth inning as a pinch-hitter for Claude Osteen. With one out, he lifted a foul fly to left field off Moe Drabowsky, scoring Roy McMillan (who had tripled). Dotterer remained in the game and caught Dave Skaugstad, who also made his debut that day. Cincinnati rallied but fell short, 7-5.

Two nights later, Dotterer got his first start. He went hitless in three at-bats against Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves, but he ran his streak to catching eight scoreless innings before the Braves pushed two runs across the plate in the fifth inning and won, 2-1. On Saturday, he caught Johnny Klippstein’s complete game one-hitter; this ran Dotterer’s new string to 12 scoreless signal-calling innings against the World Series-bound Braves. The streak ended at 18 innings the following day.

In the 6-0 win on Saturday, Dotterer collected his first big-league hit – an RBI single off Warren Spahn. “It was a big hit,” Dotterer said, “because my mother was watching the game on television back in Syracuse.”25 Playing the entire series in Milwaukee was “Birdie’s gift to me,” he said, referring to his manager, Birdie Tebbetts.26

Over his career, Dotterer hit well against Spahn, the winningest big-league pitcher in the 1950s. In 27 at-bats, he had nine hits. On April 25, 1959, he reached Spahn for two hits and a walk, including a single that broke a 4-4 tie to give Cincinnati a lead they never lost in a 7-6 win. On July 9, 1960, Dotterer got a pinch-hit single off Spahn to score Frank Robinson with the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning in Cincinnati’s 6-5 win.

Although he came north with the club in 1958, Dotterer saw limited action with Bailey and Burgess still in front of him. “With most any other team,” Tebbetts said, “he’d be a regular catcher.”27 Dotterer was cut on May 14 and was assigned to the Seattle Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League (Class AAA). He was brought up when rosters expanded in September and over his final 21 plate appearances of the season (admittedly, a small sample size), Dotterer batted at a .368/.429/.579 clip. On September 16, he caught both ends of a twi-night doubleheader and got four hits on the day, including his first major-league homer off Johnny Podres as Cincinnati swept the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 1959, Paul hired Mayo Smith to manage the Reds. After Burgess was traded, the right-handed-hitting Dotterer – whom Smith “coveted” when he managed the Phillies28 – began the season as lefty Bailey’s platoon mate.

Bailey got off to a slow start in ’59 (.210 on May 17) while Dotterer jumped out at a .375 clip with a homer and six RBIs through June 4. His best game came on June 21. Dotterer had a walk, single, double, and homer (the second time he took Podres downtown), four runs scored and an RBI in the Reds’17-3 shellacking of the Dodgers. By season’s end, Dotterer posted major-league career highs in at-bats (161), hits (43), doubles (7), batting average (.267), runs (21), and RBIs (17). He batted .363 against lefties and .296 with runners in scoring position. His fielding percentage of .992 was a smidge above Bailey’s .990 (both catchers were above the league average of .989). “I knew I could play in the big leagues,” Dotterer said.29

With the club struggling at the All-Star break – 35-45, in seventh place – Paul fired Smith and replaced him with Fred Hutchinson. Hutch was a tough but admired skipper, and the players quickly acquired his “competitive fire.”30 Umpires threw Hutchinson out of 49 games over his 12-year managerial career (plus five times when he was a player).31 The only three times that Dotterer was ejected from a game in the majors occurred when Hutchinson was his manager.

During the season and a half when Dutch played for Hutch, other relatively mild-mannered teammates caught the fever as well. Frank Robinson was ejected three times, compared to only six other early showers in his entire 21-year career. Bailey was also tossed three times; he had only five others in his 14 years. For perspective, the closest any other NL club came to Cincinnati’s 25 ejections in 1960 was the Pittsburgh Pirates with 14.

On September 14, 1959, both Bailey and Hutchinson were thrown out by umpire Jocko Conlan for arguing a called third strike on Bailey. Dotterer replaced Bailey and drove home two runs to help first-year Red Jim Brosnan – the reveled (or reviled) author of The Long Season – pick up his sixth consecutive win.32

While Dotterer played for Cincinnati in 1959, the Havana Sugar Kings won the International League championship and then the Junior World Series. The games in Havana during the JWS were marked by a heavy armed forces presence in the wake of Castro’s ascent to power. In the subsequent winter season, Dotterer teamed up with Cuban natives Cookie Rojas, Leo Cárdenas, and Tony González from the Sugar Kings, along with players from other big-league clubs including Camilo Pascual (another product of Cuba) and George Altman. Together they led the Cienfuegos Elephants to the Cuban Winter League championship, followed by a 6-0 sweep in the 1960 Caribbean Series (the last time that tourney was staged until 1970).33

Before the 1960 season began, Dotterer married Arlene Olive Boykowich from Saskatoon, Canada. As their first child, Michael, later explained, Arlene was intrigued by the good-looking athlete that she saw doing handstands on the beach in Vancouver during her spring break from the University of Alberta two years earlier.34

In 1960, the Reds elected to carry three catchers – Bailey, Dotterer, and veteran Frank House. Paul acquired House as trade bait because, he said, “Catchers are a scarce commodity”35 – a clever strategy in light of the intensifying talk at the time regarding either expansion or the proposed Continental League, which was Branch Rickey’s alternative idea when the Major Leagues dragged their feet on expansion.

On June 10, in Los Angeles, Dotterer hit a grand slam off Sandy Koufax and the Reds won, 4-3. (To correct those accounts that have reported it was the only grand slam allowed by Koufax, this knock was Dotterer’s only grand slam but was one of six that Sandy allowed in his 12-year career.36) However, with the backstop congestion, Dotterer came to the plate only 94 times that season.

After the July 30 game – Dotterer’s 100th game in a Reds uniform – he was sent to Cincinnati’s Triple-A club in Jersey City to make room for 20-year-old catcher Joe Azcue, whom Gabe Paul had known since Azcue was 15 years old.37 (The Sugar Kings had been “spirited away” from the unrest in Cuba and relocated in Jersey City just a short time before Dotterer arrived.38) Dotterer led the Jerseys in batting average (.321) and ranked second in on-base percentage (.378) and OPS (.809).

But Dotterer’s time with Cincinnati ran out. On October 15, 1960, he was traded to the Kansas City Athletics for reserve catcher Danny Kravitz. It was Paul’s last deal before he took the GM job with the expansion Houston Colt .45s in November. The following season, Hutchinson and the Reds brought home the National League flag for the first time in 21 years. Unfortunately, Dotterer, whose earliest and continuing professional experience had been with the Reds, was not there to enjoy it.

In Kansas City, it looked like Dotterer would challenge A’s regular catcher Pete Daley for everyday playing time. However, in Venezuela that winter with the Rapinos, he injured his leg. Frustration may have been building up; Dotterer incurred two fines in Venezuela, one for an argument with his manager and one for disputing an umpire’s call, according to The Sporting News.39

For the December 14, 1960, expansion draft – the majors’ first ever – the Athletics left both Dotterer and Daley unprotected, and they were both selected by the Washington Senators. The Nats also drafted two other catchers – Gene Green and Haywood Sullivan.40 Manager Mickey Vernon initially told the press that Dotterer had the inside track for playing time, but soon Vernon was not pleased with any of his four receivers.41 “The good hitters couldn’t catch, and the good catchers couldn’t hit,” Vernon said.42

On April 30, 1961, Dotterer collected his final big-league hit, a double on an 0-2 pitch to drive home the Nats’ second run. He also called a good game against Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and company to spark the Senators’ 2-1 win over the Yankees, who later that year took the World Series from his former club, the Cincinnati Reds, four games to one. In May, when Washington needed to make room for prospect Chuck Hinton, Dotterer was released and acquired by the Nats’ Class AAA club – the Syracuse Chiefs. The native Syracusan was home again.

Meanwhile, Dutch’s younger brother Tom, a three-sport athlete at Christian Brothers Academy who was signed by Cincinnati and played eight seasons in the minors, was nearing the end of his pro baseball career at about the same time. Tom did not make it to the big leagues but his headshot did – Topps printed Tom’s photo above Dutch’s name on the front of Dutch’s 1961 baseball card (#332).43 On September 5, 1962, Tom was picked up by the Syracuse Chiefs, where he was reunited on the diamond with his older brother. The hometown heroes combined for four hits in their first game together.44

Frank Pollock, GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs (the Milwaukee Braves’ Class AAA club), tried hard to lure Dotterer from the Chiefs in 1962, but to no avail.45 Dotterer called it quits after his two seasons with the Chiefs.

After his retirement, Dutch Jr. teamed up with his other ballplaying family member, Dutch Sr. On August 26, 1963, his 59-year-old father and he – a mere 32 years old at the time – were named to the “Old-Timers” team selected to face the “11 All-Time Chiefs,” a group of Syracuse legends including Hank Sauer, Red Barrett, and Jimmy Outlaw. Dutch Sr. played second base and Dutch Jr. caught as the All-Timers defeated the Old-Timers, 3-0, in an exhibition game attended by 6,051 fans at MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse.46

For a short time, Dutch Jr. worked as a field representative for an oil company until he left Syracuse and moved to Minneapolis and San Francisco to work for Gunlocke Furniture Company.47 After he and Arlene divorced in 1972, Dotterer moved to Reno, Nevada, with their son Mike, who had been born on December 14, 1960. Arlene and their daughter Margo, who had been born on October 15, 1964, relocated to Sacramento. Dotterer lived in Reno, working at various jobs, including one with Armanko Furniture Company, until about April 1976. He and Mike then moved to California’s Orange County.48

Mike Dotterer, a star football player and baseball player in high school, was accepted at Harvard, to which his father had urged he apply. But Mike chose Stanford University instead, to be a running back alongside a fellow named John Elway.49 Yankees scout Dutch Dotterer Sr. had a hand in drafting both Mike and Elway for the organization – Mike in 1979 (26 picks ahead of Don Mattingly) and again in 1983 (he signed neither time), and Elway in 1981 (he did sign and famously played one year in Oneonta before switching to football).50

After moving back to California, Dotterer taught bilingual education at Santa Ana High School for 16 years, from 1977 until 1993.51 He also coached baseball and football and served as the chess club advisor.52 On July 24, 1986, Dotterer married Nary Loeung, a Cambodian-born refugee who, with her son Dara, evacuated their homeland when her husband was killed during the revolution led by Pol Pot.53 They lived in Garden Grove, California, and moved back to Syracuse in 1993 when Dotterer retired from Santa Ana High.54

All his life, Dotterer was a bibliophile – he loved to read and collect books. In Syracuse, he opened a bookstore called Bear Street Books and Music right next to the family’s liquor store on Salina Street, where his brother, Tom, had worked since before their father died.55 For years, until Dutch died, the Dotterer brothers – intellectual and entertaining peas in a pod – worked side by side. At the liquor store, Tom set up a chalkboard out front and every day he posted a new riddle or joke; at the bookstore, Dutch talked the ears off his customers.56

Henry “Dutch” Dotterer Jr. was inducted into these shrines:

• The Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame (2005) – joining his father, who had been inducted in 1992;
• The Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame (2007) – the same class as Ron Guidry and Fred McGriff, three years after his father’s induction, and 10 years before Tom’s;
• The Lasallian Hall of Fame (2010) – eight years after Tom.

The athlete/scholar/raconteur died on October 9, 1999, at age 68, from complications of diabetes. He is buried in Assumption Cemetery in Syracuse.57

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Cassidy Lent, manager of reference services at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, for supplying copies of news clippings from the Dotterer files.

This biography was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and checked for accuracy by members of SABR’s fact-checking team.

Photo credits: Dutch Dotterer Jr. at Roosevelt Stadium courtesy of Frank Longo. Dutch Dotterer card, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used ancestry.com, baseball-reference.com, thebaseballcube.com, statscrew.com, retrosheet.org, and deanscards.com.

Notes

1  “Former Santa Ana Coach Dotterer Dies at 68,” Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1999: D10.

2  Mike Marley, “Reno’s Dutch Dotterer and His Amazing Career in Pro Baseball,” Nevada State Journal (Reno), July 28, 1974: 22.

3 The 1930 date appears in several documents available at ancestry.com, but too, his birth date as November 11, 1931, is found in other places including retrosheet.com and, interestingly, on his gravestone: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48974540/henry-john-dotterer.

4 Thomas Bradshaw Dotterer (1935-2024) – See https://www.tjpfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Thomas-Dotterer/#!/Obituary; and, Nan Patricia Dotterer (1940-2024) – See Nan P. Lund Obituary, Syracuse Post-Standard, June 25, 2024: A7.    

5 Nicknaming a German person “Dutch” is believed to have derived from “a corruption of” Deutsch, or it was given to descendants of countries that were once part of the larger German Empire, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. See James K. Skipper Jr., “An Analysis of Baseball Nicknames,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, 1981, https://sabr.org/journal/article/an-analysis-of-baseball-nicknames (accessed online on July 8, 2025); and Stanley Grosshandler, “Where Have Those Grand Old Nicknames Gone?” SABR Baseball Research Journal, 1978, https://sabr.org/journal/article/where-have-those-grand-old-nicknames-gone (accessed online on July 8, 2025). Accessed October 29, 2024. The nickname is, of course, not limited to baseball. In his autobiography Groucho and Me (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1959), entertainer Groucho Marx explained that “comedians using German accents were called Dutch comics” (p. 90).

6 See Henry J. (Dutch) Dotterer Obituary, The Sporting News, August 20, 1990: 41; and, Dick Case, “Shooting Victim: I’m Not Done Yet,” Syracuse Post-Standard, January 29, 2013: A-2.

7 See Henry J. (Dutch) Dotterer Obituary, The Sporting News, August 20, 1990: 41; and, SABR MLB Team Employee Database available at www.sabr.org. Accessed December 22, 2024. His career as a scout appears to be linked to Gabe Paul’s career, the general manager of those three organizations. See “Caught on the Fly,” The Sporting News, January 17, 1962: 30.

8 See Henry J. (Dutch) Dotterer Obituary, The Sporting News, August 20, 1990: 41; and Robert A. Baker, “‘Dutch’ Dotterer, Baseball Scout for 50 Years, Dies,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July18, 1990: B4.

9 Dutch Dotterer, Lasallian Athletic Hall of Fame. https://www.cbasyracuse.org/media/5mrbzinc/dutch-dotterer.pdf. Accessed February 16, 2025.

10 See “Dotterer, Orange Catcher, Signed by Cincinnati,” Syracuse Post-Standard, June 11, 1950: 40; and, Hugh Fullerton Jr. (Associated Press), “Sports Roundup,” Berkshire Evening Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), June 23, 1950: 20.

11 “Catcher Dutch Dotterer Will Join Chiefs Today,” Syracuse Post-Standard, May 14, 1961: 31.

12 Associated Press, “All-Star Loop Team Is Named,” Anderson (Indiana) Daily Bulletin, October 9, 1952: 29.

13 Associated Press, “Bill Jr. Is Mother Hen of Cincy Reds’ Farms,” Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal, August 17, 1952: 3-C.

14 US Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010. Accessed through ancestry.com on December 23, 2024.

15 See, e.g., Skip Nipper, “Nashville’s ‘Dutch’ Dotterer (Or Was It Tommy?),” Baseball in Nashville, March 17, 2020. https://baseballinnashville.com/2020/03/nashvilles-dutch-dotterer-or-was-it-tommy. Accessed November 21, 2024; Fernando Dominguez, “Images of a Life on the Field,” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1992: C1; and, Mike Marley, “Reno’s Dutch Dotterer and His Amazing Career in Pro Baseball,” Nevada State Journal (Reno), July 28, 1974: 22.

16 Other clubs had pulled this stunt before, whether to settle a debate, to show off a new catcher, or to get their name in the Guinness Book of World Records. See Zack Hample, The Baseball (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 54-58; and, Scott Allen, “Baseball’s Oddest Arms Race Featured Balls Thrown from the Washington Monument,” Washington Post, May 31, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/05/31/washington-monument-baseball-catches. Accessed November 22, 2024. (Hample himself caught a baseball dropped from a helicopter 1,050 feet above LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, the greatest height ever recorded. Blair Johnson, “Zack Hample’s Helicopter Drop Catch,” Yahoo! Sports, July 16, 2013. https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/yahoo-sports-minute/zack-hample-helicopter-drop-catch-075433600.html. Accessed December 28, 2024).

17 In reaction to America’s aversion to the word “Reds,” which in that time period suggested either “Communism” or “Russia” with whom the US was engaged in a Cold War, the franchise changed its nickname to “Redlegs” from 1953 to 1958, according to baseball-reference.com.

18 One version says that Seminick and Bailey declined Paul’s offer, but most versions said they simply did not catch the tossed balls; one press report claims Dotterer won $200 plus Paul’s $25 offer, and others said $500 for catching the ball; and in another Landrith claimed that he (Landrith) received $500.

19 Tom Swope, “Gabe Hunting for Talent in Winter Loops,” The Sporting News, November 10, 1954: 17.

20 “Dotterer Sold to Chix by Vols,” Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee), May 8, 1955: 2-C.

21 Olaf E. Dickson, “Dodgers’ Demeter Ties Homer Mark,” The Sporting News, February 1, 1956: 25-26.

22 Henry John “Dutch” Dotterer, National Baseball Hall of Fame Player Questionnaire, accessed through ancestry.com on December 19, 2024.

23 Accounts of Dotterer’s academic degrees vary. In 1961, the local Syracuse Post-Standard wrote that his master’s degree was “in the political science field” (May 14, 1961, p. 31); in 1972, a press release presumably prepared by Dotterer or his company’s human resources department stated that he received a master’s degree “in international relations in 1958” (“Former Cincinnati Red New Armanko Executive,” Nevada State Journal, November 16, 1972: 39); his 1999 obituary said “language” was the degree. Syracuse University declined requests from the authors to verify the dates and titles of Dotterer’s degrees.

24 George Leonard, “Seven Vols Named to All-Star Team,” The Sporting News, July 17, 1957: 39.

25 Frank Eck, “Dotterer Ready But No Opening,” Ogden (Utah) Standard Examiner, March 31, 1958: 3B.

26 Eck, “Dotterer Ready But No Opening.”

27 Eck, “Dotterer Ready But No Opening.”

28 Earl Lawson, “Dykes Wins Praise, But Mayo Gets Nod as Redlegs’ Manager,” The Sporting News, October 8, 1958: 6.

29 Marley, “Reno’s Dutch Dotterer and His Amazing Career in Pro Baseball.”

30 Jim Caple, “100-Year Legacy of Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson,” SportspressNW.com, August 12, 2019. https://www.sportspressnw.com/2243828/2019/100-year-legacy-of-seattles-fred-hutchinson. Accessed November 17, 2024; see also Jim Brosnan, The Long Season (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1960), 199, 232.

31 Statistics for player and manager ejections used for this article were accessed from “Ejection Information” on www.retrosheet.org. But see https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/mgr_ejections_career.shtml (“Career Leaders & Records for Manager Ejections”); the number of career ejections listed for Hutchinson there is 45. Accessed November 18, 2024.

32 Brosnan was traded to Cincinnati on June 8, 1959; Brosnan tracked the 1959 season in his book, The Long Season.

33 Leo J. Eberenz, “Cuba Caribbean Kings for Fifth Year in Row,” The Sporting News, February 24, 1960: 18.

34 New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967; Dr. Linda Salvin’s Psychic Psolutions Podcast, “1984 Superbowl Champion Mike Dotterer,” Spreaker, February 20, 2024. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/1984-superbowl-champion-mike-dotterer–58790419. Accessed 12/7/2024: @4:52.

35 Earl Lawson, “Paul Concedes House May Find Another Home Before ’60 Race,” The Sporting News, December 2, 1959: 18.

36 The others were by Bob Schmidt (8/31/58), Hal (Raymond) Smith (9/22/59), Dick Stuart (6/19/60), Charlie James (9/21/62), and Frank Bolling (9/22/65).

37 Bill Nowlin, “Joe Azcue,” Society for American Baseball Research. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/joe-azcue/#_edn7. Accessed November 18, 2024.

38 Nowlin, “Joe Azcue.”

39 Olaf Dickson, “Strong Pitching, Hot Rookies Lift Pastora’s Hopes, The Sporting News, November 16, 1960: 23.

40 Eric Thompson, Baseball’s Lost Tradition – The 1961-1962 Seasons: The Untold Story of Baseball’s First Self-Imposed Expansion (Raleigh, North Carolina: 2014), 11, 14. The A’s, who lost both Dotterer and Daley, re-loaded by trading for Haywood Sullivan from the Senators and purchasing Joe Pignatano from San Francisco before the 1961 season began.

41 Shirley Povich, “‘Nice Guy’ Vernon Warns Nats: ‘Don’t Let Tag Fool You,’” The Sporting News, January 4, 1961: 25.

42 Shirley Povich, “Senators Plug Big Gaps at 3 Key Positions,” The Sporting News, February 14, 1962: 28.

43 See https://www.deanscards.com/search?s=dotterer.

44 “Dotterer Brothers Star: Buffalo Downs Chiefs Again” Syracuse Post-Standard, September 6, 1962: 29.

45 Neil McCarl, “Ball Leafs Make Pitch for Dutch Dotterer,” Toronto Star, February 12, 1963: 9.

46 See Bill Reddy, “6,051 Cheer as Baseball Old-Timers Return,” Syracuse Post-Standard, August 27, 1963:14; “Schumacher, Gee Will Pitch for Old Timers,” Syracuse Post-Standard, August 21, 1963: 12.

47 “City Life: Reflections,” Oneonta (New York) Star, August 1, 1963: 5; “Former Cincinnati Red New Armanko Executive,” Nevada State Journal.

48 See “Former Cincinnati Red New Armanko Executive”; Marley, “Reno’s Dutch Dotterer and His Amazing Career in Pro Baseball”; and, “Here’s Another Candlestick Wind Tale,” Nevada State Journal, April 18, 1976: 22.

49 “CFBPA Podcast: Alumni Member of the Month, Mike Dotterer,” College Football Players Association, June 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y529nNKnbMo. Accessed February 19, 2025: @3:20.

50 See Ralph Wiley, “Would He Rather Be a Unitas or a Mantle?” Sports Illustrated Vault, April 11, 1983. https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/04/11/would-he-rather-be-a-unitas-or-a-mantle. Accessed December 21, 2024; and, Kevin Kerrane, Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting (New York & Toronto: Beaufort Books, 1984), 291. Mike was drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League in 1983, with whom he signed; he received a ring when the Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.

51 Henry “Dutch” Dotterer Obituary, Syracuse Post-Standard, October 11, 1999: B-4.

52 Santa Ana High School Yearbooks (Ariel) (accessed through ancestry.com).

53 Nevada Marriage Index, 1956-2005 (accessed through ancestry.com); Gloria Wright, “‘Dutch’ Dotterer’s Life Was One for the Books,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, October 14, 1999: B3, B5.

54 See Dominguez, “Images of a Life on the Field”: C16.

55 Gloria Wright, “Shopkeeper Turns a Phrase While He Tends the Store.” Syracuse Herald-Journal, October 21, 1997: C-1.

56 Wright, “Shopkeeper Turns a Phrase While He Tends the Store”; Dominguez, “Images of a Life on the Field”: C1.

57 Henry “Dutch” Dotterer Obituary, Syracuse Post-Standard, October 11, 1999: B-4; “Former Santa Ana Coach Dotterer Dies at 68,” Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1999: D10.