Hack Wilson

At 48 years old, Hack Wilson has this physical status:

Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (born April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League baseball player who played 12 seasons with the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies.

Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the game's most versatile power hitters in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely regarded as one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history.

Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League's record for 68 years, and 191 runs batted in, a record yet to be beaten.

"This hammered down little strongman actually rivaled Ruth for a short period of a few years," a sportswriter of the day wrote. Wilson's adamant attitude and heavy alcohol intake made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his time, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to his athletic career's premature end and, ultimately, his premature death."

In 1979, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Life after baseball

Wilson returned to Martinsburg, where he opened a pool hall, but soon ran into financial difficulties due to a failed sporting goods venture and then a violent divorce from Virginia. He was serving as a bartender near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, but had to resign after customers became too impatient. Another financial loss was suffered by a nightclub venture in suburban Chicago. In 1944, he began serving as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 1956 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. He moved to Baltimore, where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and then as a laborer for the City of Baltimore, unable to find work in professional baseball. He was made the boss of a Baltimore public swimming pool when municipal investigators discovered who he was.

Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his house on October 4, 1948. Despite the fact that the accident didn't seem serious at first, pneumonia and other illnesses ensued, and he died of internal hemorrhage on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.

Wilson, the National League's highest-paid player, died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. President Ford Frick of the Netherlands sent money to pay for his funeral bills. The undertaker had donated his gray burial suit. Only a few hundred people attended Wilson's funeral, in stark contrast to Babe Ruth's, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier. In Rosedale Cemetery, West Virginia, where he made his professional playing debut, was buried.

Joe McCarthy, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock, and other Cubs and Martinsburg players all attended a second, more comprehensive memorial service ten months later (by then renamed the Blue Sox). Lewis R. Wilson, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Unveiled" is the word that appears on a granite tombstone. Rests Here.

Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio, which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers a week before his death. Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, published a framed excerpt from the Cubs clubhouse, where it now stands.

It reads, in part:

Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1979. In his honor, a Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way, and Hack Wilson Drive leads to a large city park in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania.

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Baseball career

Lewis Robert Wilson was born in Ellwood, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh, on April 26, 1900. Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers; and in 1907, his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.

Wilson left school in 1916 to work at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Despite being only 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall, he weighed 195 lb (88 kg) with an 18-inch neck and feet that fit into size 5+12 shoes. Later, sportswriter Shirley Povich said he was "built around the lines of a beer keg" and was not entirely unfamiliar with its contents. Though his peculiar appearance at the time was considered an anomaly, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome's large head, tiny feet, short legs, and a broad, flat face have since been identified as signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Wilson joined the Martinsburg, West Virginia, of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League in 1921. During his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's spot to the outfield after breaking his leg while sliding into home plate. He met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk, in 1922; the pair married the following year. In 1923, he was playing for the Portsmouth Truckers in the "B" division, leading the Virginia League in hitting with a.388 batting average. John McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants, bought his deal from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($166,995 in current dollar terms).

Wilson made his minor league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, and he became the Giants' starting left fielder the following season. He was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting by mid-July. As New York defeated the NL pennant, he finished the season with a.295 average, ten home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs). In a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators, he averaged only.233 in the 1924 World Series.

Multiple sources have attempted to explain Wilson's nickname: On one count, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky celebrity, Georg Hackenschmidt. Wilson's physique was described as being like a "hack" in another form (slang for taxicab in that period), according to McGraw. Wilson's nickname, according to Giants teammate Bill Cunningham, was based on Wilson's similarity to Hack Miller, a Chicago Cubs outfielder. On June 10, 1924, the New York Times published the first documented use of "Hack."

Wilson had the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins in 1925, but was forced to a stalemate in May and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. He hit two home runs in one inning on July 2, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. McGraw told reporters in August that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along" and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. A front office oversight — or even deliberate inaction — left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers at the end of the season. "They let go the best outfielder I've ever played with," Giants right fielder Ross Youngs said, "and they're going to regret it."

Wilson's uncle, Robert, was born during the 1925 World Series, between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Wilson returned to action as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he became a favorite of Chicago fans. As the Cubs came from behind to beat the Boston Braves, he hit the center field scoreboard for one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history on May 24. He made news again later that evening after being arrested during a Prohibition-era speakeasy while attempting to escape through the back window and was fined one dollar. He finished the season with 21 home runs, 109 RBIs, a.321 batting average, and a.406 on-base percentage. Wilson finished the year in fifth place in NL votes for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, beating the Cubs to fourth place.

Wilson led the league in home runs after another good showing in 1927. Despite being in first place going into the final month of the season, the Cubs' season fell, finishing fourth. Wilson had a.318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, as well as leading NL outfielders with 400 putouts. As the Cubs improved to third place, he led the NL in home runs for the third year in a row.

Wilson had a fighting streak and had fights with rival players and supporters alike. In the ninth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wilson leapt into the box seats to confront a heckling fan. The field was swarmed by an estimated 5,000 spectators before police could identify the fighters and restore order. Wilson was sued for $20,000, but a jury ruled in Wilson's favour. He took offense at a single yell by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and he charged into the Reds dugout after striking a single, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Wilson and Cincinnati player Pete Donohue exchanged terms and blows later that evening at the train station. In late 1929, he signed a deal with the Chicago White Sox to face Art Shires in a boxing match, but he was fired after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr., enlisted Wilson's wife Virginia to discourage him, and then the Chicago Bears lost a match to George Trafton. Wilson said there was nothing to lose by taking on a defeated boxer.

Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. "The Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an American excess — at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His passion for drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol use. (Wilson has always denied that he never got drunk; hung over, yes; inebriated, no). Wilson was thrown from Wrigley by manager Joe McCarthy, who continued to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other boss," sportswriter Frank Graham wrote, "Joe accepted Hack," made allowances for him when he failed, and gave him praise when he did well. Joe could be stern and stern with his players, but Hack never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, and would never again."

Wilson had a career-best 159 RBIs in 1929 and clocked.345 runs in 39 home runs and a series-record 159 RBIs. The Cubs won their first NL pennant in ten years thanks to him and his former teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also played 39 home runs). Wilson's.471 hitting record against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics was surpassed by two fielding mistakes at Shibe Park in the World Series. Despite trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by 8–0 in the fourth game as the Athletics unleashed a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson missed two fly balls in the sun, and the second, with two runners on base, resulted in Mule Haas' inside-the-park home run. McCarthy reportedly told a boy screaming for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want" after the game. The Athletics won the Series in five games on the next day.

Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a bouncing ball wound with special Australian wool, is regarded as one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. He had accumulated 82 RBIs by the middle of July. He hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs in August, and by September 17, he had hit 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record from three years ago. He had 190 RBIs, a new-NL record 56 home runs,.356 on-base percentage,.454 on-base percentage, and league-leading.723 slugging percentage at the end of the season, as well as a then-NL-record 56 home runs,.356 on-base percentage, and a league-leading.723 slugging percentage. The Baseball Writers' Association of America's most "useful" player was unofficially voted the NL's Most "Ute" player (which did not establish its official MVP award until 1931).

Wilson's 1930 RBI total jumped to 191 after a box score review by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been incorrectly credited with an RBI in the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs are one of baseball's most enduring performances; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no major challenges in the last 75 years. (Many Ramirez's best recent attempt was 165).

Wilson may have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well, according to Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth. "He hit one in Cincinnati on the weekend," he said, "way up in the ranks, crushed it so hard that it bounced right back to the field." The umpire had a bad view of it and ruled that it had reached the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, but we weren't going to say anything. But Hacker 101 was actually hit 57 this year. Wilson's official total of 56 held as the lowest NL record until 1998, when it was beaten by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).

Wilson's success in the 1930s only fuelled his binge of alcohol, and in 1931, he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL reacted to the previous year's bad offensive numbers (the only season in which the league as a whole batted over.300) by releasing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers a better grip and sharper curveballs. Wilson said that Hornsby, the new Cubs boss, did not encourage him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy did. On June 18, he scored his 200th home run at Ebbets Field, becoming the fourth player to do so behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby, but the team was forced to call off in late May after a protracted slump. By late August, Wrigley had expressed his inability to trade him. Since a fight with journalists aboard a train in Cincinnati on September 6, he was suspended without compensation for the remainder of the season. At the time, he was hitting.261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 debut during August alone).

Wilson and Bud Teachout were traded by the Cubs and Bud Teachout to the St. Louis Cardinals in December 1931. Burleigh Grimes was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham, earning him $25,000 ($496,524 in new dollar terms) less than a month later. In 1932, Wilson dominated Brooklyn with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs. He started in 1933 with a ninth-inning pinch-hit home run at Ebbets Field, the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and just the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. His offensive numbers had decreased sharply by the season's end, and he was hitting.262 when the Dodgers cut him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies immediately signed him, but he was released a month later after only two hits in 20 at-bats. Wilson resigned at the age of 35 after a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League.

Career statistics

Wilson played in 1,348 games and collected 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a.307 career batting average and a.395 on-base percentage in his 12-year career in a 12-year major league career. He batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and finished with a score of 104. He made his career with a.965 fielding percentage during his time as a defensive line. He has the most home runs for any player in major league history for players 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) or less.

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