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Born in Buffalo, New York , Herman made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Robins in 1925, playing with them until to 1932. Traded to the Chicago Cubs , he went on to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds until 1936, when he was sent down to the minor leagues. Nine years later in 1945 he was re-signed by Brooklyn, with whom he played thirty-seven more big league games and then retired, following which he worked as a scout for several teams until 1964. Herman was an outstanding hitter, but a below-average fielder who led the National League in errors in 1927 at First Base and the next year playing the Outfield . He shares a major league record with Bob Meusel as the only player to have Hit For The Cycle on three occasions. His .393 Batting Average , 416 Total Bases , 241 Hits , and 143 Runs in the 1930 season still stands as Dodger records. Over his major league career, Herman averaged .324 in batting with a .532 Slugging Percentage . His name is associated with a baserunning gaffe during his rookie year that was not entirely his fault. During a game on August 15 , 1926 , at Ebbets Field , he tried to stretch a Double into a Triple at the same time that Chick Fewster was stopped on third base and Dazzy Vance was caught in a rundown and was dashing back to third. All three of them ended up at third base, and the third basemen tagged all three just to be sure of getting as many outs as possible. The slow-footed Vance had been a major contributor to this situation, but according to the rules, the lead runner was entitled to the base, so the umpire called Herman and Fewster out. Thus, Babe Herman was said to have "doubled into a double play". This led to the following popular joke:
Babe Herman died in Glendale, California and is interred there in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery . EXTERNAL LINK SOURCE
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