Joe Sommer

{{Short description|American baseball player (1858–1938)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Joe Sommer

|image=Joe Sommer.jpg

|position=Outfielder

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1858|11|20|mf=y}}

|birth_place=Covington, Kentucky, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1938|1|16|1858|11|20}}

|death_place=Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=July 8

|debutyear=1880

|debutteam=Cincinnati Stars

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=October 15

|finalyear=1890

|finalteam=Baltimore Orioles

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.248

|stat2label=Home runs

|stat2value=11

|stat3label=Runs batted in

|stat3value=342

|teams=

• Cincinnati Stars ({{Baseball year|1880}})
• Cincinnati Red Stockings (1882)
• Baltimore Orioles (1884–1889)
• Cleveland Spiders (1890)
• Baltimore Orioles (1890)

}}

Joseph John Sommer (November 20, 1858 – January 16, 1938) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1880 to 1890 for the Cincinnati Stars, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Baltimore Orioles, and Cleveland Spiders.

Sommer and Jimmy Macullar unsuccessfully attempted to engineer the departure of Pop Corkhill and Chick Fulmer from the Reds in 1883, and as a consequence Sommer and Macullar were sent to Baltimore that offseason.Nemec, David, and Mark Rucker. The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association-- Baseball's Renegade Major League, Globe Pequot, 2004, pp. 66-67. {{ISBN|1592281885}} There, they helped lead a turnaround for the Orioles in 1884, which secured the status of manager Billy Barnie. Cincinnati replaced Sommer that season by signing Browns outfielder Tom Mansell, with a $400 raise as an inducement.

In 1886, Sommer set the record for the lowest single-season batting average (.209) by a player with 500 or more at-bats.Nemec, David. The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Major League Baseball, University of Alabama Press, 2006, p. 484. {{ISBN|0817314997}} His record was broken in 1888 by Al Myers of the Washington Nationals, who hit .207 that year.

In the 1880s, the New York Clipper praised Sommer as one of the strongest defensive outfielders in baseball.Anderson, Dave. "Foreword", in Going, Going..Caught!: Baseball's Great Outfield Catches As Described by Those Who Saw Them, 1887–1964 by Jason Aronoff, McFarland, 2009, p. 4. {{ISBN|0786441135}}

Sommer managed the Superior Red Sox of the Central International League in 1912.{{cite web |title=Joe Sommer Minor Leagues Statistics & History |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=sommer001joe |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=August 26, 2022 |language=en}}