Rabbit Maranville is seen in this 1921 file photo. The Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954. AP Photo
Sometimes a ball player is so interesting, so highly regarded, so off-the-wall, that the writer has to bend the rules a little rather than be patient. This piece about Rabbit Maranville fills that bill. He spent but one year playing in Brooklyn and did so when the team wasn’t even called the Dodgers. It was called the Brooklyn Robins after its manager Wilbur Robinson. Every month I write about Dodgers who had careers with the team both during the Deadball era and the Boys of Summer era. One year? Well, it counts. He was a November baby and this is November. Maranville grabbed my attention because, as SABR intimates, he was known as much for his zany escapades and funny stories as for anything he accomplished on the diamond, but his outstanding glove work kept him in the big leagues for 23 seasons and eventually earned him a plaque in Cooperstown. He’s worth writing and reading about.
“Character” seems to be the word that best fits this Hall of Famer, who played for the Robins in 1926. Called by sportswriter historian John Holway, “The Joe Garagiola” of his era, Maranville, was a superb shortstop, and a born prankster. Writing in the Sports Arsenal, Sandlapper Spike (I kid you not) wrote this: “Maranville once got a hit off Carl Mays by making him laugh so hard he couldn’t maintain his control. He was in the dugout during the infamous Babe Herman-three men on third base play; when Wilbert Robinson asked Maranville what had happened, Maranville said, “There’s three men on third and if they hang on long enough I’ll go down and make a quartet out of it.”
Once during a pitcher-vs.-batter fight, Maranville distracted everyone, including the fans, by going into the first base coach’s box during the fracas and pantomiming a fight against himself, pretending to knock himself out. (Judge Landis…
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