Art Jahn

“To my mind Jahn is the brainiest batter in either of the major leagues today. I make no exceptions and do not hesitate to predict that within a few years Art Jahn will have the baseball world raving about him. He will be one of the greatest hitters the game ever knew in years to come. … Every inch of him is a man as well as a ball player and has those splendid qualities that so many of us old timers and almost all recruits lack at least in part, courage, cleverness, loyalty and common sense.” So said future Hall-of-Fame player and manager “Rabbit” Maranville in 1925 just after he was released as manager of the Chicago Cubs.1 Obviously, that prediction didn’t quite come to fruition. But it is surprising that Jahn didn’t get more of a chance to shine in the major leagues with the stats he achieved.

***

Arthur Charles Jahn was born in Struble, Iowa, a very small town in northwest Iowa in Plymouth County. The town had 137 people in 1900 and only 72 as of 2024. He was born on December 2, but there are differences regarding the precise birth year. His birth record, his grave marker, and the first edition of MacMillan’s baseball encyclopedia lists it as 1897; newspaper sources of his time have it as 1896, while Jahn’s Social Security record, his death certificate, Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org have it as 1895. His parents were Diedrich “Dick” Jahn and Fredricka “Ricka” Kinge Jahn. Both were born in Germany, immigrated with their families when they were children, and met and married in Iowa. At the time of Art’s birth, there was a brother and two sisters living with his parents.

In December 1918, Jahn married Marie Buhlmann, whose parents had immigrated from Sweden and lived in Iowa. According to the 1920 census, Jahn was working as a U.S. mail carrier in Plymouth, Iowa. In 1922, they had a daughter named Helen. Five years later Marie Jahn was granted a divorce on grounds of desertion.2

Jahn got into semipro baseball in 1921 when he answered an ad in a Sioux Falls newspaper for ball players to play in Alvord, Iowa. He became the team’s third baseman and star. Fred Carisch, manager of Sioux Falls Soos in the Class D Dakota League, noticed him and signed him for the 1922 season. Jahn stood 6 feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, was dark-complexioned with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He batted and threw right-handed. The local newspaper was very supportive of the signing. “Jahn is recognized as one of the great semi-pro infielders of the northwest. He is a real star and has attracted great attention.”3 Jahn played the outfield for the Soos and was the most valuable player on the team. He batted .357 and had a slugging percentage of .583 in 94 games. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in the annual minor league draft and paid the Sioux Falls team $1,000, the standard fee for a player drafted from a Class D team.4

Bill Powell, a former major league pitcher with the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds, along with his brother Otto, an automobile businessman from the Pittsburgh area, owned the Flint Vehicles of the Class B Michigan-Ontario league. They used their connection with the Pirates to persuade them to release Art Jahn and other players to Flint for the 1923 season.5 Jahn responded with a standout season. After getting off to a slow start, he batted .345 in 132 games, good for second highest the league only behind his Vehicles teammate Frank Luce’s .382. Jahn also led the league with 18 home runs, and 290 total bases.6

In February 1924, despite his mother’s reservations and discouragement of him playing baseball for a living, Jahn came to realize that he had the skills to make it to the major leagues and signed his Flint contract. He felt he could be the best hitter in the league if he applied himself.7 He, however, had to settle for being the best hitter on the team, leading the club in hits, doubles, and slugging percentage while leading the league in total bases. He batted .317 and slugged .520 in 132 games.

Despite his numbers, he was still a member of the Vehicles in 1925. But Jahn was finally getting notice. He hit two massive home runs that rivaled the ones hit by Babe Ruth. On May 30, Jahn hit a 450-foot home run8 and two weeks later he hit another 425-foot blast.9 By the end of June Jahn was batting .344 with a slugging percentage of .538 in 55 games.

In June 1925, the Vehicles sold Jahn’s contract to the Chicago Cubs. The price was not disclosed, but it was a “splendid goodly amount.” George Gibson, the assistant manager of the Cubs, had followed the Vehicles around the circuit for eight days before making the deal.10 To help Flint replace Jahn in their outfield, Cubs club president Bill Veeck Sr. sent the Vehicles what he said was a “giant batsman, the best in the minor circuits.” This so-called giant batsman was an unknown named Morley Mars who was a total bust who could not field or hit and was returned to the Cubs within a week.11

Jahn ingratiated himself with management on the first day he arrived in Chicago. While meeting with President Veeck, Jahn was asked how much money he thought he was worth. Jahn replied, “I wouldn’t want to set a price on my value. I came up here to try to make good. If I am successful, I know I’ll get a good contract. I leave the matter up to you.” He received a contract that paid him over $200 more a month than he was being paid in the minors and $50 more than a common rookie.12

Jahn made his major league debut with the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals at Cubs Park on July 2. He batted fifth in the lineup and played left field. His first at-bat came in the second inning against Cardinal pitcher Flint Rhem and got an infield single. For the game, he went 1-for-4 plus a sacrifice. He scored one run and struck out once. He had three put outs. During a span of six games in late August he had two four-hit games and two three-hit games. Jahn finished out the year playing 58 games mostly replacing Butch Weis as the regular left fielder. He batted .368 when runners were in scoring position while driving in 37 runs. He appeared at the plate six times with the bases loaded getting three hits. Overall, he had a batting average of .301 and a slugging percentage of .416 in 226 at-bats.

After that season, Jahn returned to Flint to spend the winter. He took a job as a recreational assistant at the Industrial Mutual Association, an automotive employee benefit organization. He worked in the billiards department, helped manage the dance floor, and organized bowling tournaments.13

At the time of Jahn’s signing, Bill Killefer was the Cub’s manager, but within a few days Killefer was out and Maranville was in. All looked bright for Jahn, he was performing well for a manager that highly touted his abilities. But Maranville was fired in early September and during the off-season Joe McCarthy was hired as manager. The Cubs brought in a more experienced outfielder, Pete Scott of Kansas City, and traded for future Hall-of-Famer Hack Wilson, leaving Jahn the odd-man-out. After clearing waivers, he was optioned to the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) to complete an earlier trade for second baseman Clyde Beck.14

He finished the 1926 season with another fine set of stats. He batted .337 in 175 games for the Angels. Jahn, who had the biggest hands in baseball, could hold six baseballs in his right hand without dropping them. Jahn had developed a reputation for hitting the ball hard up the middle. Very seldom did he hit under the ball. But again, the Cubs chose to pass on Jahn when they sold him to the Angels for 1927. 15 Jahn continued his good hitting in 1927 with a batting average of .343 with 351 total bases.

Jahn’s performance drew the attention of the New York Giants selecting him in the post–1927 season minor league player draft on October 20. The club purchased Jahn’s contract from the Angels for $2,500 down and $2,500 more if he made the regular season roster. The Giants completed the transaction on May 1,16 but did not use him much. Jahn only appeared in 10 games, posting an (8-for-29) .276 batting average. Lefty O’Doul was the regular left fielder in the early part of the season before his injury and then there was Jim Welsh and future Hall-of-Famer Mel Ott ahead of him on the depth chart. Jahn didn’t see much action on the field, but he was arguably the best poker player on the team. Roscoe McGowen, a reporter at the New York Daily News, observed that Jahn was always calm, had a great poker face, had an all-encompassing observation of the cards, played with efficiency but without color or dash.17 Manager John McGraw said later that it was unfortunate that he could not give Jahn more of a chance to play.18 Jahn was able to hit his first and only home run of his major league career against Brooklyn’s Jumbo Elliot at the Polo Grounds. It was a solo shot in the sixth inning of a 2-1 Giant’s victory on May 2.19

By the end of May, the Giants offered to sell Jahn back to the Angels for $10,000, the Angels countered with $5,000, and the deal fell through.20 The last-place Philadelphia Phillies subsequently picked up Jahn on waivers and immediately installed him in left field. As of July 2, his batting average with the Phillies was .270. But Jahn then suffered a shoulder injury that hampered him for the rest of the season. He made only five additional starts and appeared in only 12 other games. Over that span, Jahn collected four hits and batted .138.21 He finished the campaign batting (21-for-94) .223. At the end of the season Jahn’s contract was sold outright to the PCL Portland Beavers.22

The demotion brought the brief major league career of Art Jahn to a close. In 104 games played for three different clubs, he posted a .278/.317/.375 slash line with 55 RBIs and 45 runs scored, modest numbers at best for an outfielder in the high-offense National League of the period. But he had been decent defensively, charged with only three errors in 197 fielding chances.

Coming back from an exhibition game during spring training in 1929, Jahn, along with five of his Portland teammates, was involved in a fatal automobile accident. Teammate Denny Williams was killed and Jahn suffered serious injuries to both shoulders.23 Art continued to play, but with great pain and could hardly throw the ball back into the infield. In July, he was sold to a rival PCL club, the San Francisco Seals.24 He finished the season with a (188-for-619) .304 batting average in 174 games combined. In 1930 he played 18 more games for the Seals before being released.

Jahn caught on with the Little Rock Travelers of the Class A Southern Association and played there the rest of the 1930 season and all of 1931. Overall, he played 187 games and batted .317 and slugged .424. While in Little Rock, he married his second wife, Juanita Amanda Bohn. In 1932 he gave up professional ball and operated a bowling alley. He also played in the Little Rock amateur city leagues.25 The next year he tried his hand at managing, leading the Longview Texas Cannibals of the Class C Dixie League for 48 games before being replaced.

In 1934, he and his wife moved to El Reno, Oklahoma, where he worked for the Southwest Utility Ice Company and managed the local sandlot team. In 1938, he guided that team to the state championship. Jahn also ran Jerry’s, a local bar that he later purchased in 1939, renaming it Art’s Place Tavern. Jahn also carried one of the highest bowling averages in the state.26 In 1946, he moved back to Little Rock and worked as a night clerk at a hotel.

Jahn was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital in Little Rock on December 31, 1947, due to a cardiac condition and passed away from pneumonia on January 9, 1948. He was 52 years old. He was survived by his second wife Juanita, daughter Helen, two brothers, and two sisters. He was buried in Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock.27

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Photo credit: Art Jahn, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Ancestry.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Google Maps, Retrosheet.org, and Arthur C. Jahn’s Hall of Fame Library player file. This file only contained a copy of the player’s death certificate.

Notes

1 “Jahn Will Be Sensation,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Daily Argus-Leader, September 10, 1925: 14.

2 “Art Jahn Divorced by Wife in Iowa,” Oakland Tribune, May 12, 1927: 31.

3 “Art Jahn to Join Soo Team,” Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, March 16, 1922: 9.

4 “Receive Check for Art Jahn,” Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, November 1, 1922: 16.

5 Sesh, “News and Views of Sportdom,” Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader, February 13, 1923: 9.

6 Harry Dayton, “Just a Little Dope,” Flint (Michigan) Sunday Journal, September 16, 1923: 26.

7 Harry Dayton, “Jahn … Sign Vehicle Contracts,” Flint Journal, February 25.1924: 14.

8 “Art Jahn Believed to Have Set B.B. Record,” Flint Daily Journal, June 1, 1925:10.

9 “Jahn hits Ball Hard’, Grand Rapids Press, June 16, 1925: 20.

10 Harry Dayton, “Art Jahn, Flint Outfielder Is Sold,” Flint Daily Journal, June 30, 1925: 12.

11 Harry Dayton, “Just Dope,” Flint Daily Journal, July 14, 1925: 12.

12 Harry Dayton, “Just Dope,” Flint Daily Journal, July 8, 1925: 14.

13 Harry Dayton, “Just Dope,” Flint Daily Journal, October 2, 1925: 29.

14 “Angels Get Jahn in Clyde Beck Deal,” Oakland Tribune, March 15, 1926: 14.

15 Matt Gallacher, “Art Jahn Is Sold to Los Angles Club,” Los Angles Evening Express, December 27, 1926: 24.

16 “To Keep Jahn,” Los Angeles Evening Express, May 2, 1928: 35.

17 Roscoe McGowen, “Cool, Calm and Collected,” New York Sunday News, May 6, 1928: 32.

18 Stan Baumgartner, “Phils Claim Jahn,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 1, 1928: 22.

19 Roscoe McGowen, “Jahn Get Circuit Clouts,” New York Daily News, May 3, 1928: 35.

20 “Angels Balk at Jahn Deal,” Detroit Free Press, May 31, 1928: 17.

21 “Phil Short Bits,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 1928: 18.

22 Frank Getty, “Many Trades Feature Minor League Meeting,” Pittsburgh Press, December 6, 1928: 41.

23 “Ballplayer Dies in Auto Smash,” Sunday (Portland) Oregonian, March 24, 1929: 1.

24 L. H. Gregory, “Gergory’s Sport Gossip,” Sunday Oregonian, August 25, 1929: 49.

25 “Ex-Traveler Setting Hot Pace,” (Little Rock) Arkansas Gazette, June 11, 1933: 11.

26 Marie W. Lynn, “Jahn Had Biggest Hands,” El Reno (Oklahoma) American, April 30, 1942: 3.

27 “Illness Fatal to Art Jahn,” El Reno (Oklahoma) Daily Tribune, January 11, 1948: 8.