Doolin and Knabe: Double Play Combo Extraordinaire

Mickey Doolin               Otto Knabe

Phillies fans have been fortunate in recent times to have watched one of the finest double play combinations in major league history, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. The two would be hard to touch in Phillies history for combined offensive and defensive excellence at the Keystone Corner. Somewhat older fans will remember the World Series winning pair of Larry Bowa and Manny Trillo from 1979-82. The older still may wax nostalgic about the Days of Wine and Rojas - the pairing of slick fielding Bobby Wine with fan favorite Cookie Rojas in the 1960s. 

You have to go all the way back a century before Rollins and Utley, however, to find a Phillies double play combination that rivaled that pair for efficiency at turning the double play and longevity as a double play combo.  That would be the duo of shortstop Mickey Doolin and second baseman Otto Knabe, who formed what many considered to be the finest double play combination of their day. For seven years, from 1907 to 1913, Doolin and Knabe anchored a Phillies infield defense that was second to none.

Mickey Doolin and Otto Knabe were both products of Pennsylvania coal regions. Doolin was born in 1880 in Ashland, PA in the anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania. Knabe was born in 1884 near Pittsburgh in the bituminous coal region of southwest Pennsylvania. Doolin, who shortened his name from the original Doolittle, joined the Phillies in 1905 after two seasons at Villanova University and two more with the Jersey City team in the Eastern League. He originally teamed with aging incumbent second baseman, Kid Gleason. Knabe replaced Gleason in 1907, when the Phillies scooped him up off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over the next seven years the pair played side-by-side for nearly 1000 games.

Because of a childhood injury to his throwing arm, Doolin was unable to make the long overhand throw from shortstop. To compensate he developed a sidearm snap throw, wristing the ball over to first base. Sportswriter Frank Lieb once said Doolin "could throw standing on his head." That sidearm throw would come in particularly handy when Doolan came across the bag on double-play ground balls. Doolin famously played with a glove that was worn through in the pocket, so his bare palm shone through - the better to control the ball, he said.

Knabe was a short, round fellow with "arms like a blacksmith," according to sportswriter (and former Phillies pitcher) Stan Baumgartner. He was not a smooth fielder, but his determination to get to every ball and his aggressiveness in turning the double play made him an effective second sacker. Paired with the "tall, skinny, stringbean" Doolin, the two made for a "Mutt and Jeff" keystone combination. 

Baumgartner's description of their prowess in turning the double play gives some idea of the rough and tumble world of baseball in the early 1900s. Baumgartner uses an alternative spelling for Doolin's name: Doolan.

Knabe and Doolan were the first Dr. Jekyll-Mister Hyde combination around second base. They were the guys who could inquire politely about your health, ask solicitously about your children, your mother and your father - and then ram a baseball down your throat before you had a chance to answer. 

Knabe would tag 'em and Doolan would jump on 'em or Doolan would jump on 'em and Knabe would rub their faces in the dirt.

Doolan could go from second base to third base like a guy on skates to pick up a ground ball. Then he would whip it to second or first with the speed and accuracy of a bullet. At times the ball hit Knabe in the stomach, sometimes in the chest, but he always managed to get hold of it and whip it to first for a double play.

Doolan had a devastating underhand throw on double plays. If the runner did not get out of the way, the ball buried itself in his ribs or smashed into his shoulders as it traveled to first base. Knabe had a fast overhand toss that shaved the chin or knocked the heads off incoming runners who did not duck quickly.*

Whatever their technique might have been, it was effective. Doolan led the league in double plays in 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1913. He turned 637 double plays in his career. Knabe was in the top four for double plays turned for five of the duos seven seasons together. He turned 483 double plays in his career. The Phillies great Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had Knabe and Doolin behind him from his rookie season of 1911 through 1913 said, "They gave you everything they had as long as the game was played." 

After the 1913 season, Knabe was hired to be the player/manager of the new Baltimore Terrapins franchise in the Federal League. He didn't have to work too hard to convince his double play partner, Doolin, to follow him to Baltimore. After years of being underpaid by the parsimonious Phillies owner, William F. Baker, Knabe and Doolin were ripe for Federal League picking. Once the Federal League folded after the 1915 season, Doolan and Knabe returned to the National League, Knabe with Pittsburgh and Chicago and Doolin with Chicago, New York and Brooklyn. But the magic was gone, and both saw their playing time was very limited. 

Knabe managed the Kansas City franchise in the American Association for a few years after retirement from baseball. Later he ran a billiard hall and then a tavern in Philadelphia. He died in 1961. Mickey Doolin became a coach for the Cubs and Reds for several years. In the 1930s, Doolin, who had earned a dental degree from Villanova, became a practicing dentist. In 1947 he retired to Orlando, Florida where he died in 1951.

Mickey Doolin is still fourth on the Phillies all-time list for games played at shortstop, behind only Rollins, Bowa, and Granny Hamner. He is third all-time behind Rollins and Bowa in double plays. Otto Knabe is fifth all-time in games played at second base for the Phillies, behind Utley, Tony Taylor, Bill Hallman, and Mickey Morandini. He is fourth in double plays. 

Sources

*Stan Baumgartner, "Miller Another Doolan with Phils," The Sporting News, February 18, 1948. 3 and "Phillies Tab Keystone Kids as Future Crack Combine." The Sporting News, September 7, 1949.

I also relied on these biographies:

 Mickey Doolin – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

Otto Knabe – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)