Joseph John Sommer (November 20, 1858 – January 16, 1938) 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 baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 ...

. 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), ...

(MLB) from 1880 to 1890 for the

Cincinnati Stars The Cincinnati Stars were a Major League Baseball team that played in the National League for the 1880 season and were managed by John Clapp. The club finished their only season in 8th place with a record of 21–59. Following the 1880 campai ...

Cincinnati Red Stockings The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first all-professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) 1867– ...

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

, and

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed ...

. Sommer and

Jimmy Macullar James F. Macullar (January 16, 1855 – April 8, 1924), also known as "Little Mac", was an American Major League Baseball player from Boston, Massachusetts. He played mostly at shortstop, but did play many games in center fielder, center fi ...

unsuccessfully attempted to engineer the departure of

Pop Corkhill John Stewart "Pop" Corkhill (April 11, 1858 – April 4, 1921) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from to . Corkhill excelled as a defensive player, winning five fielding titles in ...

and

Chick Fulmer Charles John "Chick" Fulmer (February 13, 1851 – February 15, 1940) was a Major League Baseball player who played shortstop from to . He played for the Rockford Forest Citys, New York Mutuals, Philadelphia White Stockings, Louisville Grays, Bu ...

from the Reds in 1883, and as a consequence Sommer and Macullar were sent to Baltimore that offseason.Nemec, David, and Mark Rucker. ''The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association-- Baseball's Renegade Major League'', Globe Pequot, 2004, pp. 66-67. There, they helped lead a turnaround for the Orioles in 1884, which secured the status of manager

Billy Barnie William Harrison Barnie (January 26, 1853 – July 15, 1900), nicknamed "Bald Billy", was an American manager and catcher in Major League Baseball. Born in New York City, he played as a right fielder in the National Association in 1874–75. In ...

. Cincinnati replaced Sommer that season by signing Browns outfielder

Tom Mansell Thomas Edward Mansell (January 1, 1855 – October 6, 1934) was a 19th-century professional baseball player. Mansell played outfield for parts of three seasons in Major League Baseball: , , and . He played a total of eleven seasons professiona ...

, with a $400 raise as an inducement. In 1886, Sommer set the record for the lowest single-season batting average (.209) by a player with 500 or more at-bats.Nemec, David. ''The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Major League Baseball'', University of Alabama Press, 2006, p. 484. His record was broken in 1888 by

Al Myers James Albert Myers (October 22, 1863 – December 24, 1927), was a Major League Baseball second baseman from -. Known as "Cod" Myers, he owned the Health Office Saloon and built an apartment house in Terre Haute, Indiana. Myers's daughter, Ernes ...

of the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

, who hit .207 that year. In the 1880s, the ''

New York Clipper The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...

'' praised Sommer as one of the strongest defensive outfielders in baseball.Anderson, Dave. "Foreword", in ''Going, Going..Caught!: Baseball's Great Outfield Catches As Described by Those Who Saw Them, 1887–1964'' by Jason Aronoff, McFarland, 2009, p. 4. Sommer managed the Superior Red Sox of the

Central International League The Central International League was a four–team minor baseball league that played in 1912. A Class C level league, the Central International League played only the 1912 season, with the Duluth White Sox winning the league championship. In 19 ...

in 1912.

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Major League Baseball outfielders Baseball players from Kentucky Sportspeople from Covington, Kentucky Cincinnati Reds (1876–1879) players Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA) players Baltimore Orioles (AA) players Cleveland Spiders players 19th-century baseball players 1858 births 1938 deaths Baltimore Orioles (Atlantic Association) players New Haven Nutmegs players Rochester Flour Cities players Albany Senators players {{US-baseball-outfielder-1850s-stub