Posted By:
Ted Zanidakis
John Joseph Dunn pitched for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the late 1890's. In 1899 he won 23
games while losing 13.....his best season in the Majors.
By 1910, when ATC issued this card of him, his playing days were over. He was now the Manager
of the Baltimore Orioles of the Eastern League. Dunn had a good eye for BB talent, and it was he,
who first discovered a local St. Mary's High School kid by the name George Ruth. The Baltimore
Orioles were a formidable team when Ruth was pitching for them and were consistent winners of
the newly named International League. However, in 1914 Dunn had to sell Ruth....and, legend has
it that he referred to Ruth as "my $10,000 Babe"....and so, the "Babe" became Ruth's nickname.
Dunn's Baltimore Orioles continued to dominate the International League, as he discovered many
players, who went on to become Major League stars. Two of these were George Earnshaw and
Lefty Grove. From 1920 to 1924, Lefty Grove won 109 games and lost only 36 for Dunn's team.
There are many more interesting stories regarding the non-HOFers in the T206 set. Well, we can
not flip these T-cards over to read their bios; but, we certainly can search the internet and read
all we want to about them.
TED Z