Dan Comerford - Information Needed

[uga1980]

Good evening. I recently purchased a Brooklyn Dodgers album page and it contained the signature of Dan Comerford. I haven't found a lot on him other than he was a trainer for Brooklyn in at least 1912 and spent his career there. I also found this story below from Glory of Their Times regarding Wilbert Roberson. Does anyone have anymore information on Dan Comerford and how long he work for Brooklyn? Thanks.

Oh before I forget, there's one more story I've got to tell you about Uncle Robbie. It's about the time he agreed to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane as a publicity stunt. See, Gabby Street had just caught a baseball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument. So they were going to try to top that in Florida, in spring training, by having someone catch a baseball dropped from an airplane flying over the ball park. With some reluctance, Robbie agreed to put on a mask and chest protector and be the hero of the hour. Heck, anything Gabby Street could do Robbie figured the catcher of the old Baltimore Orioles could do even better.

The first two times the plane flew over the ball park, Dan Comerford the clubhouse man, dropped a baseball and both times he completely missed the field. The ball didn't come with half a mile of the ball park. Unfortunately, Dan had taken only two baseballs up with him, so he either had to come back down and get more or forget the whole thing. However, while he was trying to decide what to do, he noticed a sack of Florida grapefruit in the plane. In the early days of Florida, everybody had a sack of grapefruit. So the pilot circled around and made another approach, only this time Dan dropped a grapefruit instead of a baseball!

Well, down in the ball park, out near second base, Robbie is also circling around, getting a bead on this thing as it falls. As far as he knows--as far as anybody besides Dan knows--it's a baseball that's falling, not a grapefruit, and Robbie is determined to catch it.

"Get away, get away," Robbie yells "I got it, I got it." And then squash, it smacks right into Robbie's mitt and literally explodes, juice and pulp splashing into Robbie's face and all over him. The force of the thing was so great that it knocked Robbie down, and all he knew was that he had all this liquid and stuff all over him.

"Help, help," he shouted, "I'm bleeding to death. Help me!"

Some players called him "Grapefruit" forever after. It was a nickname he never lost.