Today’s word of the day is redoubtable, courtesy of the Word Guru. Redoubtable is an adjective that means “that is to be feared; formidable; commanding or evoking respect, reverence, or the like” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/redoubtable).

Etymonline says that it first appears in English in the “late 14c., of persons, ‘worthy of honor, venerable’ (a sense now obsolete); late 15c., ‘that is to be dreaded or feared, formidable, terrible,’ also often ‘valiant,’ from Old French redoutable (12c.), from redouter ‘to dread,’ from re-, intensive prefix, + douter ‘be afraid of’ (see doubt (v.)).
“The verb also was in Middle English, redouten, ‘to fear, dread; stand in awe or apprehension of; honor’ (late 14c., from Old French) and was used through 19c., though OED marks it ‘now rhetorical’” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=redoubtable).

A couple of notes. First, the OED is the Oxford English Dictionary, the most comprehensive dictionary in the English language, a dictionary that is based upon historical principles. The Philological Society began work on the OED in 1857, but the first editions didn’t appear until 1884 because it took so much effort. If you’re interested in learning more about the OED, I recommend Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman (Harper, 1998). There is a film version starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, but it’s really not worth watching. Read the book.

Second, you probably see the root word doubt in the middle of redoubtable, so what is that etymology? Here it is: “c. 1200, douten, duten, ‘to dread, fear, be afraid’ (a sense now obsolete), from Old French doter ‘doubt, be doubtful; be afraid,’ from Latin dubitare ‘to doubt, question, hesitate, waver in opinion’ (related to dubius ‘uncertain’), from duo ‘two’ (from PIE root *dwo- ‘two’), with a sense of ‘of two minds, undecided between two things.’ Compare dubious. Etymologically, ‘to have to choose between two things.’
“The sense of ‘fear’ developed in Old French and was passed on to English. Meaning ‘to be uncertain, hesitate or waver in opinion’ is attested in English from c. 1300. The transitive senses of ‘be uncertain as to the truth or fact of’ and ‘distrust, be uncertain with regard to’ are from c. 1300.
“The –b– was restored 14c.-16c. in French and English by scribes in imitation of Latin. French dropped it again in 17c., but English has retained it.”

What we have here is a process of amelioration, when the meaning of a word develops a less negative sense. It is not as common as its opposite, pejoration, but it still happens. In other words, being uncertain is not as bad as being afraid. Also, the b in doubt or redoubtable (or debt, for that matter) has never been pronounced in English; I don’t know if the French tried pronouncing it.

On this date in 1915, Frank Baker announced his retirement from baseball. The retirement did not last. In fact, his retirement was a result of a contract dispute with his team, the Philadelphia Athletics, and their manager, Connie Mack. 1915 would have been the second year of a three-year contract, but Baker wanted more money, and Mack didn’t want to give him more money, so he retired. Well, sort of. He actually played with a semi-professional team from Upland, Pennsylvania.

At this point you may be asking, “So what? Who was Frank Baker?” John Franklin Baker (1886-1963) grew up in Trappe, Maryland. He played baseball in high school, and then moved into semi-pro ball. He got a brief tryout with the Baltimore Orioles, but they didn’t think he could hit. Eventually, his contract was purchased by Mack and the Athletics at the end of the 1908 season. Mack then named him the starting third baseman. He played third base his entire career.

As part of the $100,000 infield, Baker helped the Athletics to World Series championships in 1910, 1911, and 1913. In 1911, he hit 11 home runs. In 1911, he hit 12, 10 in 1913, and 9 in 1914. He sat out the 1915 season. Before the 1916 season, the American League president pressured Connie Mack to sell Baker to the New York Yankees. With the Yanks, Baker hit 10, 6, 6, and 10 from 1916 through 1919, and then 9 and 7 in 1921 and ’22. He sat out the 1920 season after his wife died of Scarlet Fever.

In addition to be a great baseball player, Frank Baker was a good guy. He was known to abstain from alcohol and tobacco. He returned to his family’s farm in the off-season, in Trappe, Maryland, and he served on the Trappe town council. He married again after his first wife died, and stayed married until his death of a stroke in 1963.

So here’s the thing that might be hard for us to understand. Frank Baker played in what is called the “dead ball era” of major league baseball. When he hit those home runs for the Athletics from 1911 through 1913, he led the American League. In the first three of those four years, he had over 100 RBI and had an average well over .300. With the Yankees in 1918, he formed a part of the center of the Yankees’ batting order, which, with Wally Pipp, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Ping Bodie, was nicknamed Murderers’ Row by the New York Globe’s Robert Ripley.

We all know about Babe Ruth and his 60 home runs in one season, but he did all that damage after the dead ball era ended before the 1921 season. In fact, Frank Baker was the original home run king, and he is generally known today as “Home Run Baker.” According to Mike Drago, in an article in The Reading Eagle in 2004, the great Walter Johnson once characterized Home Run Baker as “the most dangerous hitter I ever faced” (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=20040620&id=QdEvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_qIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2025,1584520). One could say that, at least in baseball, John Franklin Baker was truly redoubtable.

If you’d like to learn more about Baker, Barry Sparks’ Frank “Home Run” Baker: Hall of Famer and World Series Hero (McFarland, 2004) is available on Amazon as well as Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in Baseball History, by Mark Halfon.

Today’s image is a photograph of Home Run Baker at Fenway Park in Boston during the 1913 season (https://chapmandeadballcollection.com/portfolio/frank-home-run-baker-c-1913/).