Jerry Summers: Shufflin' Phil Douglas
Friday, February 26, 2021 - by Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers
The adjoining states of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia have a connecting bond to a major league baseball pitcher from 1912-1922.
Phil Brooks Douglas was born on July 17, 1890 in Cedartown, Georgia but moved to Cowan, Tennessee in Franklin County where he grew up. He would also move to Birmingham, Alabama during his life.
At 6’3” and weighing 190 pounds, Phil was a big man for that era and began his professional baseball career in 1910 at the age of 20.
His fastball pitch was impressive enough that he would be favorably compared to future Hall of Famer Walter “Big Train” Johnson, often considered the greatest right-hand pitcher of all time.