Nickname Origin- Dots Miller
 

The old story goes that Dots Miller got his nickname when someone from the press asked Honus Wagner where the new kid Miller was and with his thick German accent, he said "That's Miller", which sounded like Dots Miller and the name stuck. There was a flaw in that story in that Wagner didn't even go to Spring Training in 1909 and Miller was fairly well publicized by then, as local papers provided a ton of ST coverage, believe me, I just read through it all.

I never believed that story and got more suspicious of it when I bought three postcards signed by Dots, sent to his family back in 1911 and he signed them Dots. I also have a local newspaper from 1909 that called him Dots, but past research indicated that the Pittsburgh newspapers called him Jack, John or even Honus the second early in his career, but never Dots before....(irony of using dots to announce it is recognized)

On May 11,1909 the Pirates played in Philadelphia and a lot of his family and friends made the trip over from Kearny,NJ to see him play. It was there that everyone called him Dots and the next day's paper first printed it.

The story is almost exactly the same as Wagner's in that it was a German accent mixing up Dots and That's, but it was actually Miller's own accent and he had the nickname since he was a kid.

So while the nickname story attributing it to Wagner is nice, it's not true. Now you know the whole story and Dots the truth.

Dots interesting!

Dot was an awesome story

Also found out something I never knew, he had a brother that played baseball as a pro.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d=miller001lou

If anyone has anything from that team with him on it, please let me know

Dots something that the "Dots Miller" collector (I believe Dr. Ullman) would find interesting.

Dot IS interesting...I had heard the wagner story...I suppose a little embellishment created that one over time.

If you didn't know, I'm related to six people who are also related to Dots Miller. None of them knew the story either and the Wagner story is what they believed as well. I'm in the process of telling them(and others I know that are related to Dots) the actual story.

I'm glad you picked up those postcards!

The postcards are great pieces of his history. He sent one to family every time he got to a new town during the 1911 season, including one from a day the Pirates spent in Chattanooga playing an exhibition game. There were questions about the authenticity(the Miller autographs) but I actually knew they were sent to his relatives due to the address and I was able to verify he was in each city on the same day as the postmark. Also, one of his relatives has some similar postcards in an old family scrapbook. Once I get a chance, I'll add them to the display and post scans. Still not sure how I'm going to display postcards since both sides are significant.

These "Food For Fans" are nice, over-sized "cards".

dots
 

very interesting!
thanks for sharing your heritage!

best,
barry

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing that with us!

Dot's a cool card Bob.

I guess the print was too small to read but under "Facts About Miller" it says-
"nicknamed Dats for reason he always said: "Dats Good" after every Play.

Yeah I thought that was funny. It seems the Wagner story came around sometime after 1915, probably much later I'd imagine. That "Food For Fans" is a very cool piece

Great job, John.

German Folk are Simply AweSome!
I grew uP iN a town oN Long Island 1st Settled by German Folk...
Mostly German Irish aT 1st, then came my Italian Brothers & Sistars...

Seems like Family usually would be the Staple of any Nick~Name...

As many of uS do!, I often thiNk about the Players & Their Background... Where they came From & Why they choose ta Play this great Past time of Ours...
The Turn of the Century & it's 1st 25 years iS Very Intriguing to me!!!

Dankz fir the lesson John ;)

z28jd,
I stumbled on this from 8/1/30.

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Never heard that gassed in France story

Was finally able to scan the postcards that helped crack the case. Full details up in the top post

Johnny....
 

you dream killah!:):D;)

John, Thanks for sharing the info on Dots nickname . What else do you
have in your Miller collection?

Patrick

Nothing too exciting, but his family has some great stuff including at least one jersey and a glove. I have all the cards in the top post, plus most of his T206 backs and a few other doubles. I got one of his Orange Border cards this year, didn't even know it existed until recently. I also have a 1909 newspaper clipping with the original picture used for his "big glove" cards