Dodger Christmas Babies

Posted By on December 23, 2021

Among the recent news items was a clip that Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, would celebrate his 49th birthday on Sunday, December 25. That piqued my curiosity a bit and I quickly took a peak to determine who else might have a Christmas Day birthday. That is, those with a recognizable name for me. There were many who had been born on that day but almost all were not part of my memory bank. Two who are known to me are actor Humphrey Bogart and Physicist and Mathematician Sir Isaac Newton.

A case can be made that both of these famous men had a connection to baseball. For me Humphrey Bogart’s greatest quote is:

“A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz.”

Let’s face it, each and every day athletes from all sports struggle with Sir Isaac Newton’s legacy. That is, his three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. Players are either using his laws where they can to their advantage but even more often are struggling to overcome them.

There are 71 players in the list but two of those Christmas babies were household names in baseball families in their time and in my time. They are Chicago White Sox Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox and the greatest leadoff hitter in MLB history, Hall of Fame member Rickey Henderson.

I then used the Vin Scully method to dig deeper and search for the list of all those in the long history of the Dodgers who were born on Christmas Day. As they were not on the easily accessible list of famous people born on that day, I certainly did not expect to find any Dodger Hall of Fame players or even those with a household name.

However, I did find six who are part of Dodger history who were born on December 25, including one household name, the aforementioned HOF Rickey Henderson. The other five are truly part of Dodger lore, two having played at least a century ago.

George Haddock (1866-1926)

George Silas Haddock, also known as “Gentleman George”, played for the Brooklyn Grooms in 1892 and 1893. Before coming to Brooklyn, the right-handed pitcher won 34 games with the Boston Reds in 1891 in the final major league season of the American Association.

With the National League and the Brooklyn Grooms in 1892 the Portsmouth, New Hampshire native posted a record of 29-13 for his team that won 95 games. He won eight games with the Grooms in 1893 before moving on the Philadelphia Phillies.

Bull Wagner (1886 – 1967)

William George Wagner, born in Lilley, Michigan, was 25 years old when he broke into the big leagues on June 2, 1913, with the Brooklyn Suberbas. The right-hander pitched for only two seasons in MLB, both with Brooklyn, winning four games over the 1913-14 seasons.

Known as “Bull”, Wagner gave up Cy Williams‘ first career home run, making him the first player in MLB history to give up a homer to someone who would eventually hit 200 or more homers. Williams finished with 251 in his career. He is the same Cy Williams that Vin Scully documented as having to face an infield shift as early as 1920.

Lloyd Brown (1904-1974)

Left-hander Lloyd Brown was born in Beeville, Texas. He played but one season with the Brooklyn Robins in 1925 as a 20-year-old. Following his debut on July 17 he appeared in 17 games for Brooklyn, starting five of them, and was 0-3, despite a relatively decent 4.12 earned run average.

Brown, nicknamed “Gimpy” went on to spent 30 years in professional baseball, including 12 major league seasons. However, he is best remembered as the pitcher who delivered the most home runs to Lou Gehrig. He served up 15 to the amazing Gehrig, two of them grand slams.

Alta Cohen (1908-2003)

Alta “Schoolboy” Cohen, born in New York, was the son of a Jewish Rabbi. He played parts of three MLB seasons from 1931 through 1933, two of them with the Brooklyn Robins. He played only 10 games with the Robins as a left fielder and had but seven hits.

Cohen enjoyed a successful business career following his retirement from baseball, having founded a successful products company and served on the board of directors of both Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and the Daughters of Israel Geriatric Center. At the time of his death in 2003, he was the oldest living member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Alumni Association.

Ben Chapman (1908-1993)

William Benjamin Chapman is now best remembered for his racist rant against Jackie Robinson when he managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1947. The scene is immortalized in the movie “42”.

The Nashville, Tennessee native had a good 15 year MLB career making four All-Star teams as an outfielder and four times leading the American League in stolen bases. He played in the 1932 World Series as a member of the New York Yankees. During his career, he hit .302 with an OBP of .383 along with 1985 hits.

Chapman played with the Dodgers in parts of two seasons from 1944 through 1945 until he was traded to the Phillies. In limited action with the Dodgers through 33 games he hit .283 with an OBP of .358.

The racist behavior of Phillies Manager Ben Chapman created much negative publicity, but baseball coaxed Jackie Robinson into posing with him on May 9, 1947.

Rickey Henderson

Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson made a brief stop with the Dodgers in 2003. It was his last stop during a nine-team and 25-year MLB career as the greatest base stealer and leadoff hitter ever to play the game.

The Chicago, Illinois native played only 30 games with the Dodgers and hit .208.

He is one of the 25 greatest players ever, leading the league in steals 12 times and finishing his career with 1,406 stolen bases, a record I doubt we’ll ever see broken. His 2,295 runs scored are also a record, and his 2,190 walks are second only to Barry Bonds. Henderson is the easy choice as king of Christmas-born ballplayers.

The stolen-base champ, 10-time All-Star and 1990 AL MVP with the A’s is a no-brainer to lead the Christmas baby list. Always quotable, ever confident, the “Man of Steal” was a joy to watch on the field. Here’s just one of many wild Henderson facts: He nearly ran a marathon over his career, just by stealing bases. His 1,406 steals, at 90 feet apiece, comes out to 126,540 feet … or 23.97 miles; just over two shy of a marathon.

This article has 32 Comments

    1. If you add the distances between stealing bases and add the distances for singles, doubles, triples, home runs and on base on errors, which MLB baseball player has run the furthest in their career?
      I have know idea, but it sounds like a great trivia question.

      1. That would be one for Bear to research. I don’t know if it would be the one with the most home runs or most hits. Barry Bonds comes to mind as he had almost 3000 hits, walked over 2500 times and over 700 of his hits were home runs while 600 were doubles. Then throw in 77 triples and just over 500 stolen bases.

        Rickey Henderson was caught stealing 335 times so he ran another 30,150 feet. If I figure that correctly he ran over five miles with no reward.

  2. Dodgers Nation posted a story where CT3 made a virtual visit to a young hospitalized patient/fan. The fan thanked him for re-signing with the Dodgers when CT3 said he didn’t want to be anywhere else.

    Signed for less and showed some loyalty to the team that assisted in his ascension to the big leagues/development and takes time out of his off season to make a sick child’s day a bit better. So glad CT3 was not a client of the devil that is Scott Boras and it’s noted that CT3 is fast becoming a favorite of many a Dodger fan while cementing his place in Dodger lore.

    Great job CT3! Merry Christmas to all.

  4. The Athletic’s baseball podcast opines the best potential move for Dodgers could be:

    Michael Conforto to load manage Pollock and be a value signing.
    Also mention Kris Bryant.

    1. This is a big deal.

      First, it was Rob Hill, then Sean Coyne, and now Ian Walsh.

      All from Driveline Baseball.

  6. Jeff Passan is reporting that Bellinger and the Dodgers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a 17 mil contract for this coming season. That represents a slight increase over last year. The deal was reached before the lockout, in case you were wondering. No reason given as to why it’s being reported now. Maybe Passan is just a good sleuth.

    I can’t for the life of me understand why last year’s numbers translate into a raise in salary. For those who think the owners hold all the cards, a player gets a nice increase for having a good year and a slight increase for having an horrendous year.

    What do you have to do to get a salary reduction?

      1. He’s been especially on top of things this off season. Seems to be getting there first on most of the signings.

    3. The union would implode if a player took a reduction in salary. Maybe the Dodgers did not want the hassle of arbitration. Besides, he was one of the few players who actually had a decent playoff run. His hit drove in the deciding run against the Giants in game 5 and he had the 3 run homer against the Braves that the game when they were on the brink of elimination in the NLCS.

        1. Does he just have to be a veteran, or does he also have to be good?
          If the latter, I don’t think Catman and Beaty will get it done.

  9. I’m way too lazy to ever do the research it would take to get an answer, but I wonder how much (if any) goodwill value guys like Matt Beatty bring to an already popular organization like the Dodgers.
    Matt is making right at MLB minimum money, and based on what we’ve seen, will probably never get a big contract or have an exceptionally long career. Still, he and his wife have made significant financial contributions, and fundraising efforts, to help in their community. They also seem to be consistently involved in Dodger organization community outreach.
    Signing autographs, posing for selfies, being polite and available, are attributes that turn youngsters into lifelong baseball, and possibly even Dodger fans.
    I’m not opposed to trading him, it might even open greater opportunities for him. However, I hope none of us write people like the Beatys off just because he isn’t the level of talent we desire for the team.
    I think Matt is a credit to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

    (DL – I don’t mean any of this as a swipe at what you said. I am truly curious as to whether there is significant value to his kind of presence, and I do agree that they are an impressive young couple.

    2. Dave – well said. The Matt Beaty’s of MLB keep the heart and soul of baseball alive. They seem to be grateful for what baseball has given them and give back in any way they can even when their resources are somewhat limited in comparison to what other players are making.

      At age 28 I expect he will have a few more years at the MLB level although perhaps not all with the Dodgers.

  10. Jim (Mudcat) Grant improvised his own ending to the national anthem at a Major League Baseball game in 1960 — “This land is not so free, I can’t even go to Mississippi” — and later became both a star pitcher and a star R & B artist.

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