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John “Jack” Tobin played right field in the longest-running outfield in baseball history. With Bill “Baby Doll” Jacobson and Ken Williams, the trio started 556 games together for the St. Louis Browns.

Only two other other trios made as many as 500 starts as a crew. The 1980s Toronto trifecta of Lloyd Moseby, George Bell, and Jessie Barfield fell just four games short of Tobin and his mates. The other 500-game fly-catching trio played for the Pirates. Bill Virdon, Bob Skinner, and Roberto Clemente started 542 games together for the Pirates from 1956-1963.

Though he’s the least-known of the three Browns’ fly-catchers, Tobin was a fine player in his own right. With a career .309 average, his 1,906 hits are the most among the three men.

Just 5’8 and 142 pounds, he packed quite a punch. He finished in his league’s top-ten in home runs in 1914, 1915, 1922, and 1923, and in total bases in 1915 and each of the four seasons from 1920-1923.

Tobin enjoyed a great five-year run from 1919-1923 when he hit .334 and averaged 201 base hits, 99 runs scored, and 31 doubles per season. He also had four-straight 200-hit campaigns starting in 1920. The right fielder’s 1921 season included an astonishing 236 hits, a figure surpassed only 24 times in big league history.

During their 7 seasons together, the St. Louis triumvirate combined for a .330 batting average. From 1919-1925 the three men totaled 1,670 runs batted in, 944 walks and just 556 strikeouts for the Browns.

The trio’s time together came to an end when the Browns sent Tobin to the Senators in February, 1926.

Shown here is a government postcard signed by Tobin. Notice the postmark from St. Louis dated September 7, 1951. Then 60 years old, Tobin was born, raised, and buried in St. Louis where he spent 11 of his 13 big league seasons.

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Jack Tobin’s Browns outfield mate Ken Williams was one of the most prolific home run hitters of his day. Each season from 1921 through 1927 he finished in the top four in the American League home run race, topping the junior circuit in 1922. The big leagues’ charter member of the 30-homer, 30-stolen base club, Williams enjoyed his best years with the St. Louis Browns.

His career year came in 1922 when he founded the 30-30 club and interrupted Babe Ruth’s four-year run as AL homer champ. Williams led the league in total bases in ’22 and posted an OPS of 1.040, the first of three seasons in which the slugger’s OPS was above 1.000.

Born in 1890, Williams had a tough time breaking into the Major Leagues. From 1913-1917, he played mostly in the minors, amassing 620 games there while appearing in only 81 NL contests for the Reds. Williams finally became a full-time big leaguer in 1920 in his age-30 season. From there his career quickly took off.

From 1920-1927, Williams hit .327, averaging 22 homers per year, finishing in the top 5 in seven seasons. His on-base percentage during that time was .403. A man of firsts, Williams was the first AL player to hit two homers in one inning. He was also the first major leaguer with at least 15 homers in a season  to have more homers (39) than strikeouts (31), and the inaugural member of the 30-homer, 30-stolen base club.

In the collection is this autograph from 1913, before the start of his Major League career. By virtue of his 1959 death year, Williams signatures remain somewhat scarce with examples such as this, written before his big league debut very hard to come by.

This example is from the Heilbroner Baseball Bureau Service, founded by Louis Heilbroner the manager of the 1900 St. Louis Cardinals. The Bureau gathered biographical information on players using 3×5 cards. Williams has neatly signed his name in the top right side of the card.

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An outstanding player on both sides of the ball, William “Baby Doll” Jacobson hit over .300 in each of his 7 seasons with his outfield mates. Jacobson topped the .340 mark three times, and the .350 mark twice.

The centerfielder had his finest season in 1920 with 216 hits, 34 doubles, 14 triples, 305 total bases, a .355 average, .402 on-base percentage, and .501 slugging mark. His 122 RBI that year were bested only by Babe Ruth.

During the height of his career, Jacobson was one of the game’s most productive players. From 1919-1926, only Hall of Famers Sam Rice (1,639), Rogers Hornsby (1,626), Harry Heilmann (1,556), George Sisler (1,495), and Ty Cobb  (1,478), had more hits than Baby Doll (1,473).

Exceptionally agile for his size, he was considered one of the game’s finest defensive centerfielders. Each season from 1919-1925 he placed in the top 5 among AL flycatchers in putouts, leading the league three times.

Jacobson set or tied more than a dozen defensive records. His 488 putouts in 1924 stood as the American League mark until after the second World War.

In the collection is this autograph of Wm. “Baby Doll” Jacobson. The centerfielder has written his position on the card which states that he was in the majors from 1915-1927.

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Born in 1890, Bill “Baby Doll” Jacobson was a hulking man for his day. Standing at 6’3″ and weighing in at 215 pounds during his playing career, he also had one of baseball’s unlikeliest nicknames – “Baby Doll”.

Jacobson got tagged with the moniker in 1912. The 21-year old Jacobson was entering his third year of professional baseball, playing for the Class-A Mobile Sea Gulls. According to his SABR bio, Jacobson received the nickname in the home opener.

“Everybody called me Bill until that day in Mobile. It was opening day and a band was playing. Just before the first pitch, they struck up ‘Oh, You Beautiful Doll,’ a popular song at the time. Well, I led off with a homer on the first pitch and a lady sitting behind the plate jumped up and shouted: ‘You must be that beautiful doll they were talking about.’ The name stuck with me and that was it.”

Shown here is Bill “Baby Doll” Jacobson’s autograph. Some of the detail about his playing career is in Jacobson’s hand.