: NIsportsShamokin's forgotten son
Published: July 4, 2009
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share thisMost longtime residents of the Shamokin-Coal Township area have at least a cursory knowledge of Shamokin's most famous native son, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Stanley Coveleski.
If for no other reason, there's the Coveleski monument at the intersection of Market, Arch and Lincoln streets in front of the Independence Fire Company, which is a replica of Coveleski's plaque in the Hall of Fame.
More knowledgeable residents will also be able to tell you about Stanley's brother Harry, who had several fine seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and later ran a tavern in Shamokin for many years.
But somehow, another player with roots to the area who had a long, distinguished career in the major leagues, has all but been forgotten.
That would be Jacob Ellsworth Daubert, or just Jake Daubert, as he was known during his 15-year playing career with Brooklyn and Cincinnati in the National League. Daubert, in fact, had a career which rivals Stanley Coveleski's in both duration and achievement.
Daubert led the National League in batting in 1913 (.350) and 1914 (.329). He led the league in triples twice in the deadball era, in 1918 and 1922. He hit an amazing 165 career triples, had 2,326 career hits and a career batting average of .303. He hit .300 or better in 10 of his 15 seasons and was winner of the Chalmers Award in 1913, an early version of the Most Valuable Player award.
He held the National League record for career sacrifices until recently with 392.
A first baseman, he also led the NL in fielding percentage three times, in an era when first baseman had to be counted on to field bunts much more often than now, and was generally considered, along with Hall of Famer Hal Chase, the best defensive first baseman of the era.
Daubert is in both the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds Halls of Fame, and his overall numbers argue convincingly that he wouldn't be out of place in Cooperstown, although strangely, Daubert never received more than two votes in any voting for the Hall of Fame.
Daubert also figured prominently in one of the biggest stories in baseball history. His 1919 Cincinnati Reds were champions of probably the most famous World Series of all, the one tainted by the Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the American League champion Chicago White Sox
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