Johnny Dickshot
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...icksjo01.shtml
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Johnny Dickshot:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...ohnny_Dickshot
"Johnny Dickshot played six seasons in the major leagues, and the last was his best as he posted a .302 batting average with 10 triples and 18 stolen bases. When he was a player he attracted attention by calling himself "the ugliest man in baseball", and he continues to get attention due to his unusual last name."
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Johnny Dickshot Stats
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pla...hp?p=dicksjo01
Excerpt from the www.baseball-almanac.com article:
"After starting the 1936 season in Pittsburgh, Johnny Dickshot was sent to Buffalo, where he hit .359 and led the International League with 33 steals. After 2 subpar seasons with the Pirates, Dickshot returned to the International League in 1939 and won the batting title by hitting .355 for Jersey City. In 1942 Johnny joined the Hollywood Stars (Pacific Coast League). He began the 1943 season with a 33-game hitting streak and went on to post a .352 average that year for the Stars. That performance earned him another shot at the majors. The Chicago White Sox regular left fielder in 1945, Johnny hit .302 (third-best in the American League), finished 4th in the league with 10 triples, and ranked 5th with 18 stolen bases. Still, he lost his job when younger players returned from the war."
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The Ugliest Man in Baseball
https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/t...n-in-baseball/
Excerpts from the order-of-the-jackalope.com article:
"It’s a name you’ve seen before. Maybe it was on Buzzfeed’s “Baseball Player of Porn Star?” quiz...But there’s more to a man an unfortunate name and an even more unfortunate nickname."
"At some point in Johnny’s childhood his family changed their name from the Lithuanian “Dicksus” to the more American-sounding “Dickshot.” Later, Johnny would claim the change was inadvertent, that he just got tired of correcting sportswriters who couldn’t be bothered to spell his name correctly. Though that wouldn’t explain why his parents and sisters changed their names, too."
"When Johnny was a lad, some of the older boys in his neighborhood made a little game out of throwing beer bottles at his head. One bottle struck him so hard that he was in a coma for three days, and his skull was so badly fractured that surgeons had to repair it with a silver plate. Years later, teenage Johnny was idly tossing a hammer in the air (as one does) and it landed on the plate in his head with no ill effect. This incident apparently convinced him to take up baseball, since he figured if a hammer couldn’t hurt him a line drive wouldn’t either."
"Johnny was actually a pretty good baseball player – he had always been an active child, and he’d grown into a tall, athletic young man. His role model was legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfield Paul Waner, who was famous for his power hitting, and equally famous for showing up to games so drunk he could barely stand."
"In September the Rock Island Argus noted:... [Dickshot] was recently picked on the All-Ugly team of the Southern league. A fan walked up to Dickshot at Little Rock and asked to shake hands with him… Then he wanted to lead the outfielder over to the stand, explaining “I want my wife to see you, so she’ll appreciate me.”
"In the 1937 season, the “The Waukegan Wow” finally got a chance to show his stuff, and what he showed was… not good. He got off to a smashing start by bashing three home runs in early season games, but then slumped hard, finishing the season with a middle-of-the-road .254 batting average, an anemic .323 slugging percentage, an equal number of strikeouts and walks, and an estimated WAR of -1."
"His fielding wasn’t much better. Once he was chasing a fly ball when his cap blew off, and he chose to chase the cap instead of the ball, allowing two runners to score."
"He even had to hustle to not lose his “Ugliest Man in Baseball” title to Jim Bagby of the Boston Red Sox."
"On June 26, 1947 he was handed his outright release, and that was it. After eighteen years, Johnny was out of baseball."
"In 1976, he was inducted to the Waukegan Hall of Fame. ...In June 1994 he threw out a ceremonial pitch for the White Sox at the new Comiskey Park."
"Johnny Dickshot died in his home on November 4, 1997 at the age of 87."
"“Ugly” Dickshot had one of the most frustrating careers a ballplayer could have. He was always too good to be playing in the minors, but he was only good enough to be one of the worst players in the majors. In an era with more teams, or a weaker talent pool, or the designated hitter rule, he would have had a long (if undistinguished) career."
"So Johnny will never be in the record books. But...He spent two decades playing a game he loved and getting paid for it. He got to play alongside his boyhood idol [Paul Waner], experience the thrill of a pennant race, and travel the country on someone else’s dime. He had a loving wife and a big family and a community that embraced him. And 75 years after his final at bat, we still know his name – maybe for the wrong reasons, but we still know it."
==========================================================================
Jim Bagby Jr.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jim-bagby-jr/
==========================================================================
Paul Waner
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/paul-waner/
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...icksjo01.shtml
==========================================================================
Johnny Dickshot:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...ohnny_Dickshot
"Johnny Dickshot played six seasons in the major leagues, and the last was his best as he posted a .302 batting average with 10 triples and 18 stolen bases. When he was a player he attracted attention by calling himself "the ugliest man in baseball", and he continues to get attention due to his unusual last name."
==========================================================================
Johnny Dickshot Stats
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pla...hp?p=dicksjo01
Excerpt from the www.baseball-almanac.com article:
"After starting the 1936 season in Pittsburgh, Johnny Dickshot was sent to Buffalo, where he hit .359 and led the International League with 33 steals. After 2 subpar seasons with the Pirates, Dickshot returned to the International League in 1939 and won the batting title by hitting .355 for Jersey City. In 1942 Johnny joined the Hollywood Stars (Pacific Coast League). He began the 1943 season with a 33-game hitting streak and went on to post a .352 average that year for the Stars. That performance earned him another shot at the majors. The Chicago White Sox regular left fielder in 1945, Johnny hit .302 (third-best in the American League), finished 4th in the league with 10 triples, and ranked 5th with 18 stolen bases. Still, he lost his job when younger players returned from the war."
==========================================================================
The Ugliest Man in Baseball
https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/t...n-in-baseball/
Excerpts from the order-of-the-jackalope.com article:
"It’s a name you’ve seen before. Maybe it was on Buzzfeed’s “Baseball Player of Porn Star?” quiz...But there’s more to a man an unfortunate name and an even more unfortunate nickname."
"At some point in Johnny’s childhood his family changed their name from the Lithuanian “Dicksus” to the more American-sounding “Dickshot.” Later, Johnny would claim the change was inadvertent, that he just got tired of correcting sportswriters who couldn’t be bothered to spell his name correctly. Though that wouldn’t explain why his parents and sisters changed their names, too."
"When Johnny was a lad, some of the older boys in his neighborhood made a little game out of throwing beer bottles at his head. One bottle struck him so hard that he was in a coma for three days, and his skull was so badly fractured that surgeons had to repair it with a silver plate. Years later, teenage Johnny was idly tossing a hammer in the air (as one does) and it landed on the plate in his head with no ill effect. This incident apparently convinced him to take up baseball, since he figured if a hammer couldn’t hurt him a line drive wouldn’t either."
"Johnny was actually a pretty good baseball player – he had always been an active child, and he’d grown into a tall, athletic young man. His role model was legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfield Paul Waner, who was famous for his power hitting, and equally famous for showing up to games so drunk he could barely stand."
"In September the Rock Island Argus noted:... [Dickshot] was recently picked on the All-Ugly team of the Southern league. A fan walked up to Dickshot at Little Rock and asked to shake hands with him… Then he wanted to lead the outfielder over to the stand, explaining “I want my wife to see you, so she’ll appreciate me.”
"In the 1937 season, the “The Waukegan Wow” finally got a chance to show his stuff, and what he showed was… not good. He got off to a smashing start by bashing three home runs in early season games, but then slumped hard, finishing the season with a middle-of-the-road .254 batting average, an anemic .323 slugging percentage, an equal number of strikeouts and walks, and an estimated WAR of -1."
"His fielding wasn’t much better. Once he was chasing a fly ball when his cap blew off, and he chose to chase the cap instead of the ball, allowing two runners to score."
"He even had to hustle to not lose his “Ugliest Man in Baseball” title to Jim Bagby of the Boston Red Sox."
"On June 26, 1947 he was handed his outright release, and that was it. After eighteen years, Johnny was out of baseball."
"In 1976, he was inducted to the Waukegan Hall of Fame. ...In June 1994 he threw out a ceremonial pitch for the White Sox at the new Comiskey Park."
"Johnny Dickshot died in his home on November 4, 1997 at the age of 87."
"“Ugly” Dickshot had one of the most frustrating careers a ballplayer could have. He was always too good to be playing in the minors, but he was only good enough to be one of the worst players in the majors. In an era with more teams, or a weaker talent pool, or the designated hitter rule, he would have had a long (if undistinguished) career."
"So Johnny will never be in the record books. But...He spent two decades playing a game he loved and getting paid for it. He got to play alongside his boyhood idol [Paul Waner], experience the thrill of a pennant race, and travel the country on someone else’s dime. He had a loving wife and a big family and a community that embraced him. And 75 years after his final at bat, we still know his name – maybe for the wrong reasons, but we still know it."
==========================================================================
Jim Bagby Jr.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jim-bagby-jr/
==========================================================================
Paul Waner
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/paul-waner/
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