zack taylor was a robin, brave, giant, brave, cub, yankee, and then finally, a dodger

he was a double dipper.

[this is the seventysixth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, and ray hayworth.]

i have posted this 1990 target card of zack taylor before

but i wasn't doing double dipper posts at the time.  as i spelled out in the title, taylor played for a number of different teams during his career, but it began in 1920 with the brooklyn robins.  he played for uncle robbie through the 1925 season, hitting .287 in 350 games over that span as the backup backstop.  from there, taylor was traded to the braves and then to the giants in 1927.  he returned to the braves in 1928 and was claimed by the cubs during the 1929 season.

taylor helped the cubs reach the world series in 1929, although they lost to the a's.  he remained with the northsiders through the 1933 season, after which he was released.  late in the 1934 season, he signed with the yankees, because who wouldn't want to play behind bill dickey and alongside babe ruth and lou gehrig?  unfortunately, this was right in the middle of a three year stretch in which the yankees finished second in the american league, and taylor was denied a return to the postseason.  in two of the four games in which taylor appeared for the yankees, he actually replaced babe ruth in the lineup.  twice ruth pinch hit for the yankees' starting catcher (arndt jorgens - i assume that it was an injury to dickey that prompted taylor's signing), and twice taylor took over catching duties immediately thereafter.

in 1935, the brooklyn dodgers brought taylor back to where his career had began.  this time, taylor hit only .130 in 26 games, and his playing days were through.  taylor stuck with the dodgers in 1936 as a coach, and then moved on to coach some other teams, and ultimately wound up managing the saint louis browns for five seasons.