Jim Tobin

Who was Jim Tobin?

James Anthony Tobin, known as Abba Dabba, was a right-handed major league baseball pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Bees/Braves and Detroit Tigers from 1937 to 1945. In 1944 with the Boston Braves he pitched two no-hitters.

Tobin was born in Oakland, California, where the hometown Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League picked him up. They sent him to their Bisbee-Douglas farm team in the Arizona-Texas League. The New York Yankees signed him shortly thereafter. He played for them in Binghamton and Wheeling in 1933 and 1934. The Yankees sent him back to Oakland in 1935, where he compiled an 11-8 record before tearing the cartilage in his left knee. Appendicitis kept him off the Yankee roster the following year, and he went 16-8 for the Oaks.

Rather than return to the Oaks in 1937, he arranged a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he made his major league debut on April 30, 1937.

In 1940, Tobin joined the Boston Braves, where manager Casey Stengel made him a relief pitcher. On May 13, 1942, by then a starter, Tobin became the only pitcher in modern major-league history to hit three home runs in one game.