Major League Baseball Player, Manager. He played Major League baseball as a catcher for 16 seasons (1920 to 1935) with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, Boston Braves, Chicago Cubs, and the New York Yankees. He spent most of his career as a backup, playing in over 100 games in only 3 of his 16 years. Coming up with the Dodgers in 1920, he spent the first few years backing up Otto Miller in a handful of appearances stretched over three years. When Miller retired in 1922, Zack Taylor became the Dodgers prime catcher. However, injuries kept him from playing a full season until 1925. After leading all NL catchers in 1925, he had a good year at the plate in 1924, batting .310 with 44 RBIs (the only time in his career he hit over .300). Despite this, he was traded in the off-season to the Braves in a 6 player deal. A year and a half later, the Braves sent him to the Giants in another 6 player deal. He finished out that year with New York, who then sent him back to the Braves for his second stint in Boston. By mid-1929 it was apparent that his usefulness as a starter was coming to an end, so the Braves traded him to the Chicago, where he helped the Cubs capture their first National League Pennant in 19 years. In the ensuing World Series against Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, he played in all 5 games, but managed only 3 hits and 3 RBIs as the A’s downed Chicago 4 Games to 1. The re-emergence of future Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett (who was injured during the 1929 season) relegated Zack Taylor to back-up status, and he played in only a few games for the Cubs over the next 4 seasons. After Chicago released him in 1933, he played for 4 games for the Yankees in 1934 and 26 games in 1935 for his original team, the Dodgers, before he retired from active playing. He found work as a coach, first with the Dodgers, then with the St. Louis Browns, and was named the Browns interim manager in 1946 after Luke Sewell abruptly resigned. In 1947 he coached for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but was named full-time manager of the Browns in 1948. He then led a succession of bad teams until 1951, never finishing higher than 6th place. He was involved in a number of Browns’ owner Bill Veeck’s wacky promotions in the early 1950s. When midget Eddie Geadel batted for the Browns on August 18, 1951 against the Tigers, Zack Taylor was the one who sent him to the plate. Seven days later he was the recipient of another Veeck promotion when fans were polled to make manager moves, which he had to implement. After another losing season, he was let go in 1951. His career batting totals were 918 Games Played, 746 Hits, 258 Runs, 9 Home Runs, 311 RBIs and a career .261 Batting Average. As a manager, he had a 235 Games Won-410 Games Lost in 649 Games Managed record.