Dykes Potter

Maryland Dykes Potter

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.
• Debut April 26, 1938
• Final Game May 2, 1938
• Born November 18, 1910 in Ashland, KY USA
• Died February 27, 2002 in Greenup, KY USA

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Biographical Information

Kentucky native Dykes Potter spent eleven active seasons in professional baseball from 1931 to 1941. The twenty-year-old pitcher was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals, during the 1931 season, and spent seven seasons with the St. Louis organization until being granted free agency on April 1, 1938. Potter then signed as a free agent with the Brooklyn Dodgers and spent the rest of his pro career with the Brooklyn franchise.

After signing with the Dodgers, he made his major league debut on April 18, 1938. Dykes appeared in two games, pitching two innings with no decisions and exited the big leagues just seven days later on May 2, of this same season, never to return. One might think that the Dodgers, destined to a 7th-place finish in the 1938 pennant race behind the strategy of one-time spit-ball pitcher Burleigh Grimes, would give the 27-year-old pitcher with a 90-66 record in his previous minor league time, a little better look.

Potter finished out the 1938 season with the Elmira Pioneers of the class A Eastern League chalking up his seventh double-digit winning season in eight years. Dykes spent the rest of his eleven year career in the minor leagues. Nine of those years being of the double-digit win caliber and he ended up his minor league run in 1941 with a record of 140-97, appearing in 357 games with slightly over a 3.00 ERA.

Potter had an older brother Squire Potter, who pitched in one game for the major league Washington Senators in 1923, with a no-decision. After baseball, Maryland Dykes Potter returned to his native Kentucky, where he worked and lived until his death on February 27, 2002, in Greenup, KY. He was 91 years of age.