Dennis Elwood Sothern (January 20, 1904 – December 7, 1977) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

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 c ...

. He played in

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), ...

for the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Brooklyn Robins. While his birth name was Southern, he dropped the "u", adopting the name of Sothern. He did this when he was 15 or 16 years old so that he could get into the Marines to fight in World War I, which somehow enabled him to lie about his age (the youngest age for service was 18). He is known to have switched back to the use of his original last name of "Southern", which is used on his gravestone. Sothern saw some time as a minor league manager following his major league career including a stint as the skipper of the Kinston Eagles of the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

and the New Bern Bears. Sothern was considered to be one of the fastest outfielders during his time. He was on his way to being a star professional baseball player with a storied career but it abruptly ended. Sothern was once the cause of a brawl in the outfield stands among fans. He was being heckled by the home crowd and spit tobacco juice on one of the fans. This started a brawl in the stands but he was able to escape getting involved in the melee. In a brief five year, 357 game career, he compiled a .280

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(379-for-1355) with 219 runs, 19 home runs and 115

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 ba ...

. Defensively, he recorded a .966 fielding percentage as an outfielder. He was married multiple times fathering at least five children but the number is not known. He died in New Bern, North Carolina in the Veterans Hospital and is buried in Onslow, NC.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sothern, Denny 1904 births 1977 deaths Brooklyn Robins players Philadelphia Phillies players Pittsburgh Pirates players Major League Baseball outfielders Baseball players from Washington, D.C. Minor league baseball managers Martinsburg Blue Sox players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Decatur Commodores players Cumberland Colts players Asheville Tourists players Pittsfield Hillies players Baltimore Orioles (IL) players Jersey City Skeeters players Hartford Senators players