Cliff Dapper

There will always be a place in baseball history for Cliff Dapper, even if he appeared in only eight major league games. He is best remembered for being involved in one of the quirkier trades in baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers sent him to the minor-league Atlanta Crackers in 1948 in exchange for Atlanta’s radio broadcaster, rather than a player. Not that there was any shame in that – the broadcaster was future Ford Frick Award winner Ernie Harwell. Six years earlier, Dapper had seemed primed to break out as a rookie catcher in 1942 for the Dodgers. After a brief early-season stint in Brooklyn, he spent the remainder of the season in the minor leagues and then enlisted in the US Navy. He lost three years of playing time to military service during World War II and never returned to the major leagues. Dapper played and managed for 12 more seasons in the minors, however, and stayed involved in baseball in one form or another for several more years.

Clifford Roland Dapper was born January 2, 1920, in Los Angeles, California. The Dapper family can be traced back to Austria-Hungary. Dapper’s father, Michael, was born in the Romanian town of Maramaros-Sziget.1 The town is now located along the border with Ukraine but in 1900 it fell within the Hungarian border. The Dappers were among the many ethnic German speakers who made up roughly 15 percent of the town’s population in 1900.2 According to the 1910 US Census, Michael Dapper emigrated to America with his family in 1903. By the time of the census, he was working with a brother in a sawmill in Los Angeles. In 1914, he married the former Carrie Losch. Michael Dapper changed careers to material moulding for a construction company, and the couple eventually had three children. Cliff was the second and the only boy (an older sister died at the age of five).

By his senior season at George Washington High School in Los Angeles, local scouts were very familiar with Dapper and the school’s baseball program, which was emerging as a baseball hotbed. It eventually produced 12 players who debuted in the major leagues between 1937 and 1951, including Mickey Owen and Jerry Priddy, as well as several other minor league players. Dapper also played basketball but excelled in baseball. He was the only sophomore on the varsity team, and he was named captain for his senior season.3 He was also named to the All-Los Angeles City High School team after his senior year.4

Many of the players from George Washington High also spent their summers playing for the local Leonard Wood Post American Legion team. Dapper caught for the 1936 team that finished as runners-up in the National American Legion junior baseball championship.5

As soon as school let out for the summer in June 1938, Dapper signed with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. The team promptly farmed him to the Bellingham Chinooks in the Class B Western International League. He started slowly at Bellingham, as one might expect for an 18-year-old playing among professionals for the first time. He received kudos for his hustle and quick learning, took over starting catching duties, and finished the year with a .217 average. He even hit a fourth-inning go-ahead home run to send the Chinooks to the finals of the WI League playoffs.6 Hollywood was pleased enough with what they saw during his short season and invited Dapper to spring training for 1939.

Dapper made the Stars in 1939 as a 19-year-old, though he would spend the year learning from veteran catcher Bill Brenzel. Right down to his surname, Dapper was a perfect fit in Hollywood. He stood 6-feet-2 and weighed a solid 190 pounds; on multiple occasions newspapers made mention of his good looks and even being a “heart throb.”7 One rumor from his first season in Hollywood (a very unsubstantiated one) was that he was keeping actress Jane Wyman company while her soon-to-be husband, actor Ronald Reagan, was off filming.8 And during his short major league tenure, he later received a vote in a 1942 contest held by The Sporting News to determine baseball’s best-looking player.9 Despite being in Hollywood, Dapper never caught the acting bug, though he is said to have appeared as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1942 Lou Gehrig biographical film The Pride of the Yankees.10

Stars manager Red Killefer was impressed enough with Dapper that he reportedly labeled him as the brightest catching prospect he’d seen in years.11 Dapper possessed a combination of catching and hitting that the Stars longed for on the roster. Even as the team’s second-string catcher, Dapper was drawing the attention of major league scouts, including veteran Yankees scout Joe Devine. “You can’t help but go for a youngster like Dapper. He’s full of fire and hustle behind the plate-like a bulldog shaking a rag.”12 The comment aptly described Dapper’s enthusiastic approach to the game, but it also could be applied to his personality. Dapper was reserved and quiet off the field, but it was a different story on the field. He was a fierce competitor who wasn’t afraid to give an umpire a piece of his mind, and he never backed down from a scrap.

The Stars had plans for Dapper to be their starting catcher in 1940, but less than three weeks into the season, a foul tip fractured his thumb. During his time off, he took in games from the stands behind home plate with his hand in a cast. True to Devine’s description, Dapper once attempted to open the gate that led from behind home plate to the field to join a fight that broke out during a game. His outburst led to a new rule at the ballpark stating that the gate behind home plate must remain locked during games.13 He returned to action after a month but played only 79 games during the year as his thumb healed.

After playing winter ball for Joe Pirrone’s All-Stars in the California Winter League following 1940, Dapper arrived the following spring claiming to be in the best shape of his career.14 He was again ready to assume starting catching duties in 1941. Dapper was a regular participant in winter leagues over the years, playing for Pirrone’s All-Stars and other offseason assemblages.

Before the 1941 season, the Chicago Tribune heralded that Dapper would be that year’s top hitter in the PCL.15 The year got off to a rough start for Dapper when, during a March exhibition game, he was again victimized by a foul tip, this time resulting in a dislocated finger. He returned in April, however, and after the first month of the season, he sat atop the PCL in batting at .419 (though only through 16 games played). Dapper was selected to the PCL All-Star game in July, the first such game for the league.16 He made the team as a reserve but ended up being the game’s top performer, driving in two of his team’s runs and scoring the third in a 3-1 win.

Dapper’s batting average cooled down to .277 by the end of the year, but Dodgers scouts Tom Downey and Ted McGrew had both kept tabs on him during the year and remained interested in signing him. Brooklyn purchased his contract in September for an undisclosed amount of cash reported at various times to be anywhere between $20,000 and $50,000.

Dapper traveled with the Dodgers to Havana, Cuba, for spring training in 1942. He was soon being touted as one of the top rookies in camp – newspaper reports were largely positive regarding both his fielding and hitting. The only knock mentioned was his difficulty throwing to second base on steal attempts. His throws had a sinking motion that often drove the ball into the dirt in front of the bag. Despite that concern, Dapper seemed to have become manager Leo Durocher’s top choice to be the backup catcher behind fellow George Washington High School alum Owen. “An old-fashioned ballplayer,” Durocher called him. “I tell him something, and he just nods his head or says, ‘Yeah.’ Quietest guy off the field I ever saw…But you should hear him give those umpires hell.”17

Yet despite Durocher’s praise, the Dodgers, who were looking to repeat as National League pennant winners, weren’t completely comfortable with having a second right-handed hitting batter as their number two catcher, let alone a 22-year-old rookie. Brooklyn obtained lefty-hitting veteran Billy Sullivan, Jr. to share catching duties before the season got underway.

To help teams deal with the military draft amid the 1942 season, the deadline to trim rosters to 25 players was extended to May 25.18  Thus, when the season began on April 14, Dapper was on the Dodgers’ roster as their third catcher. But opportunities to get into games were scarce. Dapper made his debut on April 19 as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning against the Phillies and popped out. He remained in the game and came to bat again in the ninth inning and got his first hit, a single, off Paul Masterson (the hit also resulted in his first RBI).

Dapper proceeded to have a solid two-week run with Brooklyn, with eight hits in 17 at-bats, including one solitary but lengthy home run. He also played errorless catching and threw out one of the two baserunners who attempted to steal against him. But when it came time to reduce rosters to 25 players, Dapper was a logical choice to be sent to the minors. A third catcher was nice for a team to have but not a necessity, and the Montreal Royals, a Dodgers farm club, were down a catcher after Herman Franks enlisted in the Navy.

Dapper didn’t let his demotion to Montreal discourage him; he made the International League All-Star team, the first time the league held such an exhibition.19 Dapper thus had the distinction of appearing in the first All-Star competitions for both the PCL and the IL. And though his stay in Brooklyn had been brief, the Dodgers thought enough of him that he was given a half-share of the team’s winnings for finishing second in the National League.20

As major leaguers began to answer the call to serve their country after the United States entered World War II, Brooklyn’s catching depth in particular was affected. Dapper joined Franks and Sullivan among the Dodgers receivers who departed for the military when he enlisted in the Navy in December. During his three years in the service, Dapper achieved the rank of Seaman First Class, serving in the Pacific theater. He was first stationed at the Los Alamitos Naval Training Station, then at the San Diego Naval Training Station, and finally at the Aiea Barracks in Hawaii. Teammates across the various stations for which he suited up included Bob Lemon, Billy Herman, Fred Hutchinson, and Bill Dickey. On May 28, 1944, Dapper caught a game for the San Diego Naval Training Station in Long Beach during the day, then drove 21 miles to Inglewood, California, to marry the former Stanna Curtis that evening.

After the war ended, the Dodgers faced a problem opposite to the one they had before the war: they had an influx of catchers returning from service. Despite playing regularly during his time in the service, Dapper was a bit rusty when he returned to organized baseball in 1946. He found himself at the bottom of the team’s catching depth chart and was sent to St. Paul in the American Association. After batting .210 through June, he was sent down another rung to the Mobile Bears in the Class AA Southern Association. Dapper returned to Mobile in 1947, when he apparently shook off the rust. He led the Bears to a 94-59 record and was named league MVP, finishing ahead of the league’s batting champion, Ted Kluszewski.

Following his triumphant season in Mobile, Dapper was promoted back to Montreal. It wasn’t a sure thing that he would suit up again for the Royals – he was expected to be a top choice in the offseason major league draft in November. Dapper was selected by Detroit, and he would potentially have been in the running to make the Tigers roster. However, the Tigers had been unaware of a rule that no more than one player could be drafted from the restricted list of any minor league team.21 Fellow Royal Al Gerheauser had already been selected before Dapper was chosen. Detroit’s pick was nullified, and Dapper joined Montreal.

Though he batted only .239 during the regular season, Dapper helped groom the Royals pitching staff – especially the team’s rising star pitcher, Don Newcombe. Dapper was behind the plate when Newcombe tossed a seven-inning no-hit game on August 15. According to Dapper, Newcombe was ecstatic to run into him years later at a reunion of Brooklyn Dodgers players. “[Newcombe] came up to me and gave me a big hug and said, ‘Cliff, you are the catcher that got me to the big leagues.’ That was very nice.”22

In May 1948, 21-year-old rookie Duke Snider was shipped down from Brooklyn and joined Dapper and Newcombe in Montreal. Snider and Dapper found a common bond of growing up in the Los Angeles area and became close friends. For years afterwards, the Snider and Dapper families paid each other visits. On one of their visits, Snider took an interest in the avocado grove that Dapper maintained on his property on the outskirts of Los Angeles.23 The two later started an avocado farm together in Fallbrook, located 55 miles north of San Diego. Dapper later nicknamed one of his sons Duker after him, and Snider was Duker’s godfather. Snider once mentioned his business partner and friend Dapper during a 1958 appearance on the popular TV gameshow What’s My Line? After he was identified as the celebrity guest, Snider was asked what he was doing during the offseason, and in response, he mentioned the avocado farm he ran with Dapper. One of the celebrity panelists, famed swimmer and actress Esther Williams, was delighted to hear Dapper’s name, for they had attended high school together.24

Even before the 1948 season started, it appeared doubtful that Dapper would return to Brooklyn. Incumbent catcher Bruce Edwards was an All-Star in 1947, and Dapper was behind both Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella in line for the second catcher spot on the roster. He was only 28, but the door had shut on Dapper’s chance to resume his big-league career. His time in the majors spanned only eight games, but he could take some solace in knowing that his .471 batting average set a record for a minimum of 15 career at-bats, a record which was still standing through the end of the 2025 season.

Sometimes when one door closes, another one opens. In July 1948, Brooklyn radio announcer Red Barber became ill, and the Dodgers needed a replacement to call their games. On the recommendation of Barber,25 team president Branch Rickey contacted Atlanta Crackers president Earl Mann to discuss obtaining Ernie Harwell’s services. Mann approved Harwell going to Brooklyn, but it wasn’t initially stated whether Mann had asked for anything in return. That September, it was announced that Dapper would be the new manager of the Crackers. Mann was aware of Dapper’s reputation in Montreal, both for handing pitchers and for being a positive influence in the clubhouse. He wanted the catcher to serve as the Crackers’ player-manager in 1949, replacing the well-liked Kiki Cuyler. It wasn’t revealed until a few years later that Dapper was released to Atlanta in exchange for Harwell.26

In a 2002 interview, Dapper discussed the trade and how he jumped at the chance to manage. “Branch Rickey called me and didn’t want me to be embarrassed by the trade…I wanted to take the job.”27 Dapper took over the reins of the Southern Association team at the age of 29, the youngest manager in the league,28 and possibly in Crackers team history.29

It may have been a bad omen when the Crackers failed to hold an 11-run lead and lost Dapper’s first game as manager. His hustle and enthusiasm were lauded, but his approach didn’t always work well with the Crackers. His reserved personality off the field made him appear standoffish with teammates, and his intense competitive spirit came off as pushing players too hard. Following one streak in the summer when the Crackers dropped 12 out of 15 games, Atlanta writers opined that the team had “come apart at the seams.”30 Atlanta finished in fifth place, and Dapper was not retained as manager. Atlanta had been a learning experience, and sportswriter Ed Danforth had prophetic words about Dapper’s future. “Dapper has a future as a manager and can charge off his Ponce de Leon [Atlanta home ballpark] experience as education.”31

As a player-manager not being retained for the upcoming season, Dapper was allowed input regarding the team to which he would be sold.32 He was presented a chance to return to the Hollywood Stars, and he jumped at the opportunity to head back to the West Coast and closer to home. Since Dapper had left the Stars after 1941, the team had affiliated with the Dodgers as a farm club. After Branch Rickey left the Dodgers and joined the Pirates in 1950, he arranged for many of his farm clubs to follow him, including the Stars. Dapper remained with the team in 1951 after they started a working agreement with Pittsburgh. He was evidently informed by Rickey that he would be considered for a management position in the Pirates organization.33 When the Pittsburgh farm club in Eugene, Oregon, was looking for a new skipper in June, Dapper received a second chance to lead a club. He took over as the manager and starting catcher for the Larks in the Class D Far West League.

After finishing the first half of the season in last place in July, the Larks improved to third place in the season’s second half. The Far West League ceased operations following 1951, and Dapper was reassigned to manage and catch for the Billings Mustangs in the Class C Pioneer League. The Mustangs never finished worse than third during their three seasons with Dapper at the helm, and he was still fair with the bat as well. Dapper finished in a virtual tie in the 1952 Pioneer League batting race, and he swatted three home runs in a game in 1954. When the Billings Mustangs established a team Hall of Fame in 1977, Dapper was one of its first inductees.34

Dapper returned to Eugene in 1955, now in the new Class B Northwest League, and led the inaugural Emeralds squad to the league’s first title. He spent one more year in Eugene, then managed a Philadelphia farm team in Salt Lake City in the Pioneer League while playing in 44 games. In his second stint as a manager, Dapper still maintained his never-lose attitude, but he also learned to become a leader and mentor to players. Former players later remembered him as a “give-no-quarter competitor,”35 but Phillies pitcher Art Mahaffey was among those who also credited Dapper with helping in their development. “When I pitched…He would call every pitch and tell me how they were breaking.”36

Dapper retired after the 1957 season and turned his focus to the avocado farm that he shared with Duke Snider. Snider relinquished his share of the business in 1965, but Dapper remained on the ranch with his wife, Stanna, and their daughter and three sons. He became heavily involved with state avocado growers’ councils, but Dapper couldn’t completely leave baseball behind. He helped run city league teams and American Legion teams in Fallbrook, and he occasionally paired up with Snider to run baseball camps in the area. When Buzzie Bavasi, the former GM for the Montreal Royals and executive vice president of the Dodgers, was hired to run the expansion San Diego Padres in 1968, he called on former Dodgers friends like Snider and Dapper to help run camps and scout talent in their areas.

On September 15, 2002, the Detroit Tigers held “Ernie Harwell Day” in honor of the longtime voice of the Tigers. One of the special guests brought in for the event was Cliff Dapper, the baseball player for whom he had been traded 54 years earlier. The two had never previously met, and Dapper enjoyed their introduction immensely. “It was the biggest thrill I have ever had in baseball. I still feel honored that I was traded for a great radio announcer.”37

Dapper’s wife of 64 years, Stanna, passed away in 2008. Cliff Dapper passed away in his sleep on February 8, 2011, a little over a month after turning 91. Stanna and Cliff are both buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

As of 2026, Cliff Dapper is the only active baseball player ever to be traded for a radio announcer.38 It’s doubtful that anyone will ever join him in this exclusive group.

Acknowledgements

This story was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Photo credit: Cliff Dapper, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and sabr.org/bioproject. The Lahman Baseball Database was used to verify Dapper’s status as the career batting leader for 15 or more career at-bats.

Johnson, Lloyd, ed. The Minor League Register, (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 1994).

McNeil, William. The California Winter League: America’s First Integrated Professional Baseball League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2002).

O’Neal, Bill, The Pacific Coast League: 1903-1988 (Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1990).

Notes

1 Michael Dapper’s 1914 marriage license shows that he wrote down his birthplace as Landsfield, Ohio.  The location may have been listed to hide his Austrio-Hungarian roots.

2 Wikipedia page for Maramaros-Sziget, https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ramarossziget#cite_note-10, accessed February 23, 2026. Translated from 1900 Hungary census records located at https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/NEDA_1900_01/?pg=361&layout=s

3 Hollywood Citizen-News, April 5, 1938: 17.

4 “All-Star Nines Selected,” Daily News (Los Angeles, California), May 2, 1938: 13.

5 “Los Angeles Drops Legion Series,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1936: 24.

6 “Chinooks Beat Leafs; Yakima Wins,” Bellingham (Washington) Herald, September 18, 1938: 8.

7 “Sport Rays,” Bellingham Herald, March 26, 1939: 10.

8 “Ed Sullivan,” Hollywood Citizen-News, August 14, 1939: 4.

9 Carolyn Pinkus, “From the Feminine Viewpoint,” The Sporting News, December 31, 1942: 16.

10 Dapper also appears in the 1950 baseball film, “Kill the Ump.” Link to Dapper’s page on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6602262/?ref_=fn_t_1

11 “Brownies May Send Another Player Here,” Bellingham Herald, March 26, 1939: 10.

12 Bob Ray, “The Sports X-Ray,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1939: 9.                                    

13 “Pacific Coast League,” The Sporting News, May 2, 1940: 11.

14 “Twinks ‘Swim’ in Workout,” Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1941: 29.

15 Arch Ward, “In the Wake of The News,” Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1941: 19.

16 Al Wolf, “South Favored to Slug Way to All-Star Win,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1941: 27.

17 J. Roy Stockton, “Two Players Worth $16,000,000,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 26, 1942: 16.

18 “Draft Losses Cause Loops to Extend Roster Deadline,” Elmira Star-Gazette, May 14, 1942: 28.

19 “Expect 10,000 to Witness 1st All-Star Clash,” Bayonne (New Jersey) Times, July 8, 1942: 8.

20 “Dodgers Split Melon 44 Ways,” The Sporting News, October 1, 1942: 21.

21 “Kennedy of Cleveland May Turn out To Be Prize 1948 Draftee,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), November 11, 1947: 16.

22 Steve Scholfield, “Dodger Great on The Mend,” North County Times (Oceanside, CA), June 20, 2003: 35.

23 “Dapper’s 3-ac. Grove Led Duke to Avocado Production Here,” Fallbrook/Bonsall Enterprise, (Fallbrook, California), October 22, 1959: 13.

24 YouTube link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-EOuuX3HwQ

25 “Harwell to Assist Connie Desmond”, Staten Island Advance, August 4, 1948: 20.

26 “Ernie Harwell Went to Brooklyn in Deal for Former Cracker Pilot,” Atlanta Constitution, December 21, 1951: 15.

27 Steve Scholfield, “Dapper Surprises Harwell,” The Californian (Temecula, California), September 18, 2002: 17.

28 F.M. Williams, “Crackers Open in Birmingham,” Atlanta Constitution, April 15, 1949: 8.

29 If Dapper was the team’s youngest manager to that point. Gene Mauch broke the mark four years later when he was hired at the age of 27 for his first managing role.

30 F.M. Williams, “Crackers Face Second Division,” Atlanta Constitution, July 6, 1949: 4.

31 Ed Danforth, “An Ear to The Ground,” Atlanta Journal, December 6, 1949: 30.

32 Al Wolf, “Sportraits,” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1950: 52.

33 Dick Strite, “Highclimber,” Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon), July 19, 1951: 17.

34 “Mustangs’ Hall of Fame Includes Shepherd, Brett,” Billings Gazette, August 12, 1977: 32.

35 “Cobb Field Chronicles,” Billings Gazette, July 2, 2007: 27.

36 Roy Anderson, “Mahaffey Credits Cliff Dapper,” Billings Gazette, April 17, 1961: 8.

37 Scholfield, “Dapper Surprises Harwell.”

38 Perhaps the closest parallel came in May 1960, when the Chicago Cubs sent their manager, Charlie Grimm, up to the broadcast booth, exchanging positions with Lou Boudreau. However, that move was within the same organization (note also that the Atlanta Crackers were unaffiliated until 1950).