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Dots Miller Appreciation Thread
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Dots Miller was born 138 years ago today. The long-time Kearny, NJ resident (birthplace of me) was a star second baseman for the 1909 World Series champs. He was mentored by Honus Wagner during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, then later became the mentor to a young Rogers Hornsby with the St Louis Cardinals. John McGraw once called him the most valuable player due to his all-around game on offense, defense and the bases, as well as his decision making on the field.
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One of my favorites.
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John “Dots” Miller enjoyed an exceptional rookie year, helping the Pirates win the World Series in 1909. He joined the Cardinals in 1914, but his baseball career was interrupted when he joined the Marines in 1918, where he fought overseas as a sharpshooter.
He returned to the Cardinals for the 1919 season, and during a series with the Phillies signed an autograph book, from which this signature was clipped. Unfortunately, Miller died in 1923 at the early age of 36 after contracting tuberculosis, and his signature is basically nonexistent in the hobby. And amazingly, Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby signed the back of the page directly under Miller and his autograph can be seen vividly on the other side. So I built my first ever “Double-header” custom, where you can flip this over and see Hornsby’s 1933 Goudey card with his signature underneath. To frame the signatures I have included an authentic box score and game text from a 1919 newspaper, featuring a Cardinals game with Miller playing 1st and batting second with 3 hits and Hornsby at 3rd batting fourth with 4 hits. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...71232c97_b.jpg |
I love how the 1912 J=K Candy card is the same image as the others you showed where he’s holding a bat, but the artist took the liberty to change the image just a little so he’s wearing a glove and holding a ball.
Here’s my contribution. A few pre-war stamps of Dots: 1911 Helmar: https://photos.imageevent.com/derekg...1%20Miller.jpg 1914 Piedmont: https://photos.imageevent.com/derekg...iller%2025.jpghttps://photos.imageevent.com/derekg...5%20_back_.jpg |
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Dots Miller is my E102 type card.
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One of my favorites.
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Dotses non t206 backs!
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T206 ..... with "rebuilt corner" ............. :p
T207 ..... one of my absolute favorite portraits ............... :) Attachment 634194 Also, from the above post: The only items I have are postcards he sent to family and he signed them all “Dots”. These were actually the items that made me question the famous nickname origin story, as in why would he sign postcards to family with Dots. Of course the "famous nickname" story, is that a reporter asked Wagner something like "who's the new kid?" and Wagner responded "That's Miller." Supposedly the reporter heard "That's" as "Dots." So now the question arises, with Miller signing family post cards as "Dots," was "Dots" a family nickname long before the Wagner story ......... ????? ..... Very interesting ............... Fun, fun, Scott :rolleyes: |
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Miller got his nickname at a very young age (said to be 2-3 years old) from his own German accent. He would pronounce "That's" as "Dots". Apparently he was very grabby as a toddler, so he was saying stuff like "dots mine" a lot. You can find him being called Dots Miller in local NJ papers three years before he ever met Wagner |
Thanks for that verification ..... I was leaning that way.
Funny how some of those "Baseball tails" just stick around unquestioned. Also reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “Dat Latams will drive me crazy some day.” -- Chris Von de Ahe (also German accent ;)) |
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