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Jacob Willard Early (May 19, 1915 – May 31, 1985) was an American professional baseball player.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jake Early )〕 He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Browns.〔 Early was a left-hand-hitting batter and was known for his skill at catching the knuckleball. ==Baseball career== Born in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Early began his professional baseball career in at the age of 21 with the Jacksonville Tars of the South Atlantic League.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jake Early minor league statistics )〕 By , he had moved up to the Charlotte Hornetts of the Piedmont League where he posted a .316 batting average in 97 games.〔 Early made his major league debut with the Washington Senators on May 4, 1939 at the age of 24.〔 He served as a reserve catcher, backing up future Baseball Hall of Fame member, Rick Ferrell. Former catcher and Senators coach Benny Bengough helped Early develop his catching skills. The Senators traded Ferrell to the St. Louis Browns in May 1941, leaving Early to share catching duties with Al Evans. Early out-hit Evans and ended the season having caught the majority of the team's games with a career-high batting average of .284 along with 54 runs batted in and a team-high 10 home runs.〔 His hitting performance earned him the starting catcher's job in 1942. Although his batting average dropped to .204, he led American League catchers in assists and in baserunners caught stealing, and finished second in putouts.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1942 American League Fielding Leaders )〕 Early developed a reputation as a talkative player on the field, using several methods to distract the hitter.〔 These methods of distraction included his imitation of a radio announcer's play-by-play commentary, an auctioneer's sales pitch and even singing.〔 By 1943, Early was being recognized as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. He had the arduous task of catching for a Senators' starting pitching staff that included four knuckleball pitchers. Dutch Leonard, Johnny Niggeling, Roger Wolff and Mickey Haefner all threw the notoriously difficult to catch knuckleball. Further recognition came when he was selected to be the starting catcher for the American League in the 1943 All-Star Game.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1943 All-Star Game )〕 The difficulty in catching the knuckleball was evident as Early led the league in passed balls allowed.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1943 American League Fielding Leaders )〕 In December 1943, Early was called into military service and was inducted into the United States Army. He was assigned to an artillery unit attached to the 87th Infantry Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Baseball in Wartime – Jake Early )〕 He lost two years of his baseball career while he served in the Army.〔 After being discharged from military service, Early returned to play for the Senators in 1946 but, his two years absence from the game showed as he only managed to post a .201 average while sharing catching duties with Evans.〔 In December, the Senators traded Early to the St. Louis Browns for Frank Mancuso. In 1947, he platooned alongside catcher Les Moss, hitting for a .224 average along with a career-high on-base percentage of .381 in 87 games.〔 Early was traded back to the Senators in March 1948 where, he once again shared catching duties with Evans.〔 He led the league in baserunners caught stealing and in caught stealing percentage, throwing out an impressive 63.8% of baserunners who attempted to steal a base, the eighth highest single-season percentage in baseball history.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1948 American League Fielding Leaders )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Single-Season Leaders & Records for Caught Stealing Percentage )〕 In 1949, he split his playing time between the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts and the Washington Senators.〔〔 After being released by the Senators in February , he played five more seasons in minor league baseball, including four seasons with the Minneapolis Millers before retiring in at the age of 39.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jake Early」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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