Dan Brouthers (1858-1932) played professional baseball as a first baseman. Between 1879 and 1896 he played for nine different teams. To be thorough, he went hitless for the Giants in two games in 1904.
Brouthers’ career statistics are a .342 batting average, 2,296 hits, 106 home runs, and 1,296 runs batted in. However, every season played was less than 162 games due to the time period. His 162 Game Average, according to Baseball-Reference, would have included 223 hits and 126 RBIs per season. As a result, he won the NL batting title four times, and he was the NL home run leader twice and the NL RBI leader twice. Brouthers was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945 by the Veteran’s Committee.
Born in Sylvan Lake, New York, Brouthers was raised by Irish Catholic immigrants. He grew up playing baseball, and he began semiprofessional baseball as a young man. Later nicknamed “Big Dan,” he eventually reached 6 feet 2 inches and 207 pounds, which was relatively larger in the 19th century.
An interesting anecdote of Brouthers pops up in July in 1877 in local papers. Brouthers was heading for home, and he smashed into the catcher. The catcher injured his head and died a month
later. Brouthers was 19 at the time, and he received no punishment because it was entirely unintentional.
Two years later Brouthers started for the Troy Trojans in his first professional baseball game, but he was soon released. While there, Brouthers was tried out as a pitcher, and he lost one game 16-0. Brouthers excelled in the minors, was brought back to the Trojans, and then quickly released after three games while going two for twelve.
He carried on despite the setbacks, and the next year was his breakout. He signed with the Buffalo Bisons. He batted .319 and led the NL in home runs and slugging percentage. Brouthers won the batting title in 1882 and 1883 with .368 and .374, respectively. Brouthers did phenomenally well in his time with the Bisons, regularly leading the NL in multiple categories, but the team folded in 1885. Though the Bisons had folded, Brouthers career was roundly established, and he continued to do well with the variety of teams that he suited up for.
Brouthers is often considered the first great slugger in baseball. His home run totals may seem slight today, but he held the career record from 1887 to 1889. 106 career home runs is the fourth most in the 19th century. He had a career slugging percentage of .519, and high totals for the 19th century in triples, RBIs, and hits.
Brouthers is also important for baseball history for his involvement in the first baseball players’ union, which was known as “The Executive Council of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players.” The union was formed in 1885, and Brouthers was elected Vice President in 1886.
In November of 1887, Brouthers was one of three players who met with the NL as an officially recognized baseball players’ union. The union formed the Player’s League in 1890. Three Major leagues was too much for the market, and it folded that year. His skill began to diminish, and Brouthers left the majors in 1896. However, he had a .415 in the minors in 1898.
Brouthers stayed close to baseball in retirement, and he worked for the Giants for 20 years. After 48 years of marriage that produced four children, Brouthers died at 74. Below are a few details on his limited cards.
1888 Goodwin Champions Dan Brouthers
There are 50 cards in this set, and each measure 1 ½” x 2 ⅝”. They were distributed in cigarette packages produced by Old Judge and Gypsy Queen which was printed at the bottom on the fronts of the cars.
It is a multi-sport set, and members of 18 different sports are depicted. The baseball players are the keys, which includes Cap Anson, Tim Keefe, King Kelly, Harry Beecher, Jack Dempsey, John Sullivan, and Dan Brouthers.
For reference, this set has over 1,300 cards registered with PSA, and about 60 of those cards are Brouthers copies.
A PSA 8 sold for $18,000 even in December of 2020. On a budget of $1,000, you may have to drop to a PSA 3 or lower. These cards are rare and brought up for auction infrequently, so a copy at any grade will be valuable.
1895 Mayo’s Cut Plug Dan Brouthers
There are 48 cards in this set, and each measure 1 ⅝” x 2 ⅞”. In addition to Brouthers, a few keys include Cap Anson, John Clarkson, Hugh Duffy, Ed Delehanty, and Buck Ewing.
For reference, PSA has over 600 cards registered, and about 18 are Brouthers copies.
This card is rarely brought up for sale. To provide some reference point, a PSA 3 was sold for $3,341 in 2007, and a PSA 1 sold for $570 in 2016.
Brouthers has two cards in this set. One with Baltimore on his shirt, and the other has Louisville on his shirt. For the purposes of population and price, they are seemingly identical, so this article combined them. However, if the cards were graded and sold more often, they could potentially diverge in price and population.
Conclusion
Outside of baseball and his family, a true love of Brouthers was his Irish setter, Kelly. For years, Brouthers had Kelly sit with the players. Reportedly, the dog was lovely and well behaved, and nobody minded.
But, Brouthers has gone down in history for his baseball statistics. His career .342 batting average is ninth in the record book, his 205 triples is eighth, and his OBP is 15th.
Along with his involvement in the first players’ union, Brouthers is a pillar of baseball history.