Expert: Tom Schott - 1/6/2009

Question
My sister has an old picture (from the early - late 1920's) of Casey Stengel and I think the guy's name is Dutch Zwelling.  I can find information on Casey Stengel, but am unable to find anything about "Dutch".  I'm going by memory of what my Dad told me.  I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing his name correctly - let alone spelling it correctly.  Anyway my Dad was in the picture with both of the men and he had a baseball signed by them.  What can you tell me of "Dutch"?  Thanks

Answer
Michael,

Interesting question! You can find information about Dutch Zwilling at:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/z/zwilldu01.shtml
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Z/Pzwild101.htm
http://thedeadballera.com/Obits/Zwilling.Dutch.Obit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Zwilling

Although Casey Stengel and Zwilling were never teammates, they would have known one another as opponents in the National League in 1916, Stengel with the Dodgers and Zwilling in the last year of his career with the Cubs. Zwilling had two very productive years with the Chicago Whales of the Federal League in 1914-15. He only played in 35 games with the 1916 Cubs as a pinch-hitter.  He went on to work as a scout for the New York Yankees and Mets and was connected with major league baseball for 60 years.

Finally, you might be able to find more nuggets of information on Zwilling if you go to

http://www.baseboogle.com/

and search on his name. I got a whole bunch of hits.