Zack Taylor (baseball) - Baseball Playing Career

Baseball Playing Career

A native of Yulee, Florida, Taylor began his professional baseball career at the age of 16 with the Valdosta Millionaires during the 1915 season. After playing in the minor leagues for five seasons, he made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Robins on June 15, 1920 at the age of 21. He became the Robins main catcher in 1923, succeeding Hank DeBerry. Although he led National League catchers in errors and in passed balls, he also led in range factor, assists and in baserunners caught stealing while producing a .288 batting average in 93 games.

In 1924, his batting average improved to .290 and he led the league's catchers in range factor and in fielding percentage. Taylor had his best season offensively in 1925, posting career-highs with a .310 batting average, 3 home runs and 44 runs batted in. He developed a reputation as one of the best catchers in the National League, finishing the season with 102 assists and leading the league's catchers with 64 baserunners caught stealing. He had a talent for catching the spitball, and became the personal catcher for future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Burleigh Grimes, who was the last pitcher allowed to throw the spitball in the major leagues. On October 6, 1925, Taylor was traded by the Robins with Eddie Brown and Jimmy Johnston to the Boston Braves for Jesse Barnes, Gus Felix and Mickey O'Neil.

After a season and a half with the Braves, he was traded to John McGraw's New York Giants along with Larry Benton and Herb Thomas for Doc Farrell, Kent Greenfield and Hugh McQuillan. The Giants had acquired Burleigh Grimes in another trade and wanted Taylor to be his catcher. Despite catching Grimes' team-leading 19 victories and performing well defensively to help the Giants finish the season just two games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates, McGraw released Taylor back to the Braves for the waiver price of $4000 on February 28, 1928, the same day that Grimes was traded to Pittsburgh. McGraw stated that he regretted releasing the 29-year-old Taylor, but that he wanted to give younger catchers such as Shanty Hogan a chance to play. Taylor took over as the Braves starting catcher for the 1928 season.

Having been displaced by Al Spohrer as the Braves starting catcher early in the 1929 season, Taylor's contract was sold to the Chicago Cubs for the waiver price of $7500 in July, after all the other teams in both the American and National Leagues had refused to make an offer on him. When the Cubs' future Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett suffered an arm injury early in 1929, Taylor filled in capably as the Cubs won the National League pennant. He helped guide the Cub's pitching staff to a league-leading 14 shutouts and finish second in team earned run average and strikeouts. In the only post-season appearance of his career in the 1929 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, Taylor only had three hits, but was cited as an unsung hero in a losing cause for the Cubs because of his consistent, unwavering defensive skills as a catcher. When Hartnett returned from his injury in 1930, Taylor resumed the role as the Cubs' backup catcher. In 1932, Cubs manager, Rogers Hornsby credited Taylor with helping develop the skills of Lon Warneke, as the young pitcher led the league with 22 wins.

After being released by the Cubs in November 1933, he appeared in four games for the Yankees in 1934, before ending his career as a player-coach with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1935. He played his final major league game on September 24, 1935 at the age of 36. Taylor returned to the minor leagues where he served as a player-manager for the San Antonio Missions from 1937 to 1939, and then with the Toledo Mud Hens from 1940 to 1941.