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 leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

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. He played in

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(MLB) from 1880 to 1890 for the Cincinnati Stars, Cincinnati Red Stockings,

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, and Cleveland Spiders. Sommer and Jimmy Macullar unsuccessfully attempted to engineer the departure of Pop Corkhill and Chick Fulmer 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. Cincinnati replaced Sommer that season by signing Browns outfielder Tom Mansell, 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 of the

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