Literary birthday greetings: Kittle, Battey, and Dahlen

When I was a kid, I loved to find players with my name (Ron Hunt got extra points because he was a Met). It gave me some sort of coolness by association, I thought.

So happy birthday to Ron Kittle, who turns 52 today. He lent his name to Ron Kittle’s Tales from the White Sox Dugout.I seriously doubt that 90% of ballplayers whose name appears in the title do much — if any — of the actual writing. Kittle also holds the records for most homers (176) for all players born on this date.

One of those players was Twins’ catcher Earl Battey, born in 1935. He’s included prominently in two books: Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota and Cool Of The Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins. Battey, a four-time All-Star, was the backbone of that 1965 squad. He also won three Gold Gloves and finished in the top-10 in AL MVP voting three times.

But perhaps the biggest name born this date that you never heard of was Bad Bill Dahlen, who played from 1891-1911 for four teams, including the Cubs, Dodgers (twice), Giants, and Braves. Dahlen amassed 2,461 hits and an orderly 1,234 RBIs during his career. Cyril Morong considers him “the best player eligible player not in the Hall of Fame.”

Lyle Spatz published Bad Bill Dahlen: The Rollicking Life and Times of an Early Baseball Star in 2004.

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Tagged as: Bill Dahlen, Earl Battey, Ron Kittle

{ 2 comments }

1 Dennis Anderson January 5, 2011 at 10:39 pm: Hi Ron.
Actually, Kittle had to be involved in the creation of the Dugout book, including the tale told in this book about how Barry Bonds told him to shove it when he asked him to sign a bat for a charity auction. I am likely one of the few people who owns this book and even read it. There are a few other personal Kittle stories told in the book.
Regards.
Dennis
2 Anonymous January 6, 2011 at 12:35 am: Hi, Dennis:

I did not mean to imply that Kittle didn’t work on the project. I was referring to the actually writing. I have no doubt he out down his thoughts in an interview or on spoke into a tape recorder, but then Bob Logan took over and put it into the final product.