I have a mystery that I can't solve regarding the old Dodger Jake Daubert. It all started when my son brought home an old flea market book about the Dodgers entitled, "The Brooklyn Dodgers, An Informal History" written by Frank Graham and published by Putnam in 1945.
I looked at the book, read a few pages, checked out the pictures and put it on the bookshelf thinking that I would read it when I had more time. Well one thing led to another and the book sat on the shelf forgotten for two or three years.
A chance conversation about baseball with a co-worker named John, a former SABR member and baseball historian, reminded me about the book. That evening I opened the book and started reading.
Inside the front cover was a written inscription in faded fountain pen. The inscription read, "To a swell guy, Jake Daubert. Leo Durocher". I thought that it was really great to have what appeared to be a Leo Durocher autograph.
I took the book to work the next day and showed it to my friend John. He informed me that not only did I have a Durocher autograph, but Jake Daubert was a turn-of-the-century batting champion for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
This is where the mystery deepens. The book was published in 1945. After some Internet research, I found out that Jake Daubert had died in 1924 due to some surgical complications from an appendectomy. Now, how could Leo be writing to someone who had been dead for 21 years? Did Jake have a son? A relative with the same name? Was the inscription a forgery? Why would someone create a forgery that could easily be proven a hoax? Was the Durocher autograph a phoney too?
It was easy enough to get a copy of Leo Durocher's autograph. I looked on eBay and found a few baseball cards with pictures and facsimile autographs. The problem was that either Leo changed his signature drastically over the years, or Topps signed the cards themselves because the young Leo autograph looked nothing like the Old Leo autograph. My autograph looked like the old Leo. It was a great looking bold signature in a smooth rounded style.
And that is where my mystery stood until the day I was reading my local paper and a story about the Rutgers University baseball team caught my eye. There it was -- batting third for Rutgers was a power hitting third baseman named ... you guessed it, JAKE DAUBERT! I called the Sports Information Department and asked them about the connection between the Rutgers Jake Daubert and the Dodgers Jake Daubert. I was told a couple of newspaper reporters had been asking the same question and as far as they knew, Daubert, who was from Toms River, New Jersey, might be a distant cousin to the Dodger Daubert but young Jake wasn't even sure about the connection.
My bubble had burst. I was sure I had a lead that would answer the Jake Daubert mystery. But it was not to be. I still occasionally open the book and stare at the inscription hoping some inspiration will suddenly make everything clear to me, and I'm sure someday it will.
» Mark Koch is a life long baseball fan who saw his first major-league game at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City in the late 1950's when the Dodgers would play one game against each NL opponent in preparation for jumping to Los Angeles in 1959.
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Posted July 2, 2002.
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