David Leonard Brain (January 24, 1879 – May 25, 1959) was an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

(1901),

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

(1903–1905),

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

(1905),

Boston Beaneaters Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most po ...

Doves Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

(1906–1907),

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

(1908) and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

(1908). Brain batted and threw right-handed. He was born in

Hereford, England Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population of ...

. Brain was an unreliable fielder who showed some power with his bat and good speed on the basepaths. In 1903 for the St. Louis Cardinals he stole 21 bases and hit 15 triples, including two three-triple games to become the only player in

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

history to perform the feat twice in a season. But his accomplishments were overshadowed by his 67 errors – 41 at

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

and 22 at

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

. In 1904 Brain played around the infield, hitting 24 doubles with 12 triples and 18 stolen bases, and also posted a career-high with 72

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

. In 1905 he divided his playing time between St. Louis and the Pittsburgh Pirates, and played the next two seasons with the Boston teams of the National League. Brain led the league with 10 home runs in 1907 at age 28, but the following season was his last; Brain appeared in 27 games with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants while hitting no home runs. In a seven-season career, Brain was a .252 hitter with 27 home runs and 303 RBI in 679 games. Brain died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 80.

References

External links

Baseball Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brain, Dave Burials at Rose Hills Memorial Park National League home run champions Boston Beaneaters players Boston Doves players Chicago White Sox players St. Louis Cardinals players Cincinnati Reds players New York Giants (NL) players Pittsburgh Pirates players Major League Baseball infielders Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from the United Kingdom Major League Baseball players from England English baseball players Sportspeople from Hereford 1879 births 1959 deaths Chicago White Stockings (minor league) players Des Moines Hawkeyes players St. Paul Saints (Western League) players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players St. Paul Saints (AA) players

See also

References

External links