Jack Daniels

Harold Jack Daniels
(Sour Mash Jack)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.
• High School Prospect Park (PA) High School
• Debut April 18, 1952
• Final Game September 28, 1952
• Born December 21, 1927 in Chester, PA USA
• Died April 16, 2013 in Shreveport, LA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Before the 1947 season Jack Daniels of the Bloomingdale Troopers of the North Atlantic League was sent to the Boston Braves. The 18-year-old first baseman/outfielder had been with the Troopers in 1946 hitting .313 in 58 games with 8 home runs.

The Braves assigned "Sour Mash", as he was sometimes called, to the Fort Lauderdale Braves in 1947 and he hit .258 in 64 games; he finished out the year with the Eau Claire Bears, where he hit .274 in 65 games.

"Sour Mash" spent the next four seasons in the minors before getting his one and only look at the major leagues. He had a good year with the Hartford Chiefs of the Class A Eastern League in 1951 and the Braves used him for the entire year in 1952. Jack appeared in 106 games, had 219 at bats and hit for a .187 average. Needless to say these were his lifetime major league statistics as well.

Daniels was back in the minors with the Toledo Mud Hens in 1953, where he got into 100 games, hitting .231 with 6 home runs. He remained in the minors the rest of his pro baseball days, and on October 15, 1956 he was traded by the now Milwaukee Braves along with cash and two unnamed players to the Toronto Maple Leafs, of the International League, for Carl Sawatski.

He got into 81 games for the Toronto team in 1957 and wound up his 13-year pro baseball career with the Havana Sugar Kings of the IL in 1958. The 30-year-old outfielder's minor league stats show that he appeared in 1,378 contests, went to bat 4,278 times, garnered 1,093 base hits, including 159 home runs for a .255 batting average.

It might have been better fitting that Daniels would go on to own a liquor distributorship, but he owned a food catering business in Evansville, IN. He died in 2013.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page