Honus Wagner: Biography from Answers.com

Regarded by most experts as the greatest shortstop in baseball history, Honus Wagner (1874-1955) was the game's most complete star in the early twentieth century. Known as the "Flying Dutchman" for his speedy base-running, Wagner was a perennial batting champion and a versatile fielder during his 21 big-league seasons, 18 of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

One of five men who were the original inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, Wagner was a stocky, clumsy-looking athlete who had surprising agility and unsurpassed baseball acumen. Perhaps the best all-around player in baseball history, Wagner played every position during his career except catcher. Burly and intimidating on the field, he was known for his kindness and humility off the diamond.

Up from the Mines

Johannes Peter Wagner was born in Mansfield, Pennsylvania on February 24, 1874. He was one of nine children born to German immigrants Peter and Katheryn Wagner, who came to western Pennsylvania from Bavaria in 1866. Three of their children died in infancy. Johannes was the fourth of five surviving sons. His family called him Hans or Honus (pronounced HAH-nus), the latter a term usually given to awkward children. From infancy, Honus was big, clumsy, and bowlegged. He also acquired the common nickname "Dutch," a corruption of "Deutsch," the German word for the German language. That was how he later became known as "The Flying Dutchman."

Honus was raised in Chartiers, but most records list his birthplace as Mansfield, an adjacent town. Both towns were within a few miles of Pittsburgh. In 1894 they were merged into the town of Carnegie. Peter Wagner worked in the mines. Like his older brothers and most boys in western Pennsylvania in that era, Honus began working in the mines at the age of 12. He also took jobs in steel mills and helped his oldest brother, Charley, in his barber shop.

All five Wagner brothers played ball every Sunday and most evenings in the summer, often playing as a family team. As a 12-year-old, Honus was the star of a team named the Oregons. Legend has it that in one memorable game he picked up a slower runner ahead of him as both circled the bases and carried him home on a game-winning home run. His older brother, Albert, nicknamed "Butts," was considered by many to be the better player, but never took the sport seriously enough. Al played in the big leagues for one season, 1898. Al recognized Honus's potential and urged him to learn every position. The brothers started playing for church or company teams, making up to five dollars a week in pay and bets.

In 1893, Honus and Al played for Mansfield in the semipro Allegheny League. Honus pitched occasionally. Though he had a hard fastball, he lacked control. The next season, Al and Honus and their brother Luke played for the Carnegie Athletic Club. In 1895, the Wagners got their first chance at professional ball in the newly formed Inter-State League. Al Wagner was the first player signed for Steubenville. He convinced the team manager to take a look at his little brother. According to a story Honus later told, Al sent Honus a telegram saying he had to report that afternoon. Honus hopped a coal train, but forgot his spikes in the rush. He succeeded at the tryout while pitching barefoot.

Wagner scored a home run in his first professional game. However, he played for a series of franchises that kept going out of business. In five months, he played eight positions on five different teams in three states in three leagues, batting close to .380 overall. Both Wagner brothers came to the attention of manager Ed Barrow, a future Hall of Famer. Barrow came to Carnegie with the intention of signing Al Wagner. However, after seeing Honus throw lumps of coals, Barrow signed him to play for Paterson, New Jersey, in the Atlantic League. Playing mostly first base, Wagner batted .348 for Paterson in 1896, while his brother played for Toronto in a different league. The next season, Honus played third base and got off to a good start at the plate. Managers from the National League came to scout him, but many were put off by his bowed legs, long arms and short, shovel-like hands. Despite appearances, his skills could not be ignored, and he led the league with a .379 average. There was a bidding war among several major league clubs for the rights to acquire Wagner, and Louisville bought him for $2,100.

Wagner made his major-league debut for Louisville on July 19, 1897. "I was a green, awkward kid, unused to big-league ways," he later confessed. "I kept my mouth shut, though, and went right along about my business. The one thing that saved me from a lot of extra joshing, I suppose, was I could always slam the ball." The Louisville Commercial said Wagner was built like "a one-story brick house, throws like a shot, and is remarkably fast." He played center field and filled in at second base and hit .338 in 61 games.

Though he had given up on pitching, the versatility he had learned by playing different positions with his brothers paid off. In 1898, Wagner played first, second, and third base and hit .299. He rebounded to .336 in 1899, the first of 14 consecutive big-league seasons batting .300 or more. After that season, Louisville folded, and most of their best players, including Wagner, went to Pittsburgh.

Hometown Hero

Wagner was delighted he could live at home and play baseball. Playing mostly in right field, he led the league in 1900 with 45 doubles, 22 triples, and a .381 batting average, winning the first of eight batting championships in 12 seasons. Soon, the upstart American League tried to recruit Wagner. He claimed that Chicago White Stockings manager, Clark Griffith, tempted him with $20,000 in cash. But Wagner preferred to stay in his hometown.

It was not until 1901 that Wagner started playing shortstop. He quickly became a sensation at that position, using his range and strong arm. Sporting Life reported: "Wagner is as graceful at short as a steam roller. Yet the clumsy galoot manages to get all over the infield and lays hands on everything that is batted, high or low." In 1903 shortstop became his regular position. However, he often would be shifted to the outfield in crucial late-game situations so that his strong arm could prevent runners from scoring.

Wagner batted .353 in 1901, led the National League in doubles and runs batted in (a career-high 126), and won the first of five stolen-base titles by swiping 49. The speed of the "Flying Dutchman" was deceptive. Bowlegged, he ran like a freight train, covering 100 yards in 10 seconds. On the base-paths, he was daring and sometimes reckless. In his career, he stole 722 bases, a record that was maintained until Ty Cobb broke it.

Wagner was constantly pursued by other teams, especially McGraw's New York Giants, but he was not tempted to leave Pittsburgh. He loved hunting and fishing in the Pennyslvania mountains in the off-season and played basketball for local teams in the winter. "I may have lost a lot of money by it but I feel much happier and satisfied for having stayed in Pittsburgh," he said after his career. "I loved my team and associations. They meant much more to me than money."

Led by Wagner and his close friend Fred Clarke, the team's Hall of Fame manager and left fielder, Pittsburgh was baseball's best club in the early days of the modern major leagues. The Pirates finished first in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1909 and no lower than fourth from 1900 through 1911. In 1903, Wagner managed 25 games while Clarke was ill, and led the league in batting (.355) and triples. After the season, the Pirates challenged American League champion Boston in the first-ever World Series. Boston won the best-of-nine series, five games to three, and Wagner played poorly, batting .222 and making several key errors.

During the next eight seasons, Wagner shined as the league's best player. Around Pittsburgh, he was a celebrity. He raised chickens, dogs, pigeons, and horses at the family homestead in Carnegie. He often drove a horse-drawn buggy or took the ten-cent trolley to the ballpark, where he would be met by clamoring children. Throughout his life, Wagner pursued business interests around Pittsburgh, including real estate, house building, an auto dealership, and even a short-lived circus venture with him as the starring attraction. The circus folded before it ever staged a show.

Attuned to the Game

Wagner played in the depths of the dead-ball era, when pitchers were allowed to throw spitballs and muddy, battered balls remained in the game for lack of replacements. Wagner's .339 average in 1906 was 95 points higher than the league average, and his .350 mark in 1907 was 107 points above the average. A notorious bad-ball hitter, Wagner often swung and missed deliberately to induce the pitcher to throw the same pitch again. He would sometimes split his hands apart on the bat, like Cobb, but at other times would keep them together, depending on whether he wanted power or contact. Asked how pitchers could get Wagner out, McGraw, his biggest admirer, said: "Just throw the ball and pray."

On defense, Wagner had a "sixth sense of baseball," McGraw claimed. Wagner knew just where to play certain hitters on certain pitches. He played deep at shortstop and used a glove with the palm cut out for better control. Using his stubby hands like scoops and often picking up dirt and pebbles with the ball, he waited till the last second to throw, then used his cannon arm to nip the runner at the base. In a tribute to his versatility and all-around ability, McGraw said: "Wagner is a whole team in himself."

In 1909, Wagner faced Cobb in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Both had led their leagues in hitting, and they were the two most feared players in the game. Cobb was 22 and Wagner 35. One story has it that early in the series Cobb came in to steal second, spikes high, and Wagner tagged him in the face. Cobb never tried to steal second again in the series, but Wagner stole six bases, including three in one inning of the third game. The Pirates won the series, with Wagner's triple breaking open the deciding seventh game, and Wagner out-hit Cobb, .333 to .231.

After that season, the American Tobacco Company put Wagner's picture on one of its baseball cards. But Wagner, himself a tobacco-chewer, refused permission to have his photo used, fearing it would make him a poor role model for kids. Several dozen cards were printed and distributed in cigarette packs before production stopped. Though there are many rarer old cards, the Wagner tobacco cards have become legendary and lucrative. In 1996, collector Michael Gidwitz paid $640,500 for one of the 1910 Wagner cards.

Hall of Fame Original

In the waning years of his career, Wagner battled injuries and aging, but continued to be a fearsome hitter. In a game in 1912, he hit for the cycle. The next season was the last time he hit .300. He was still playing at the age of 43, his last season. When he retired, he held the all-time records for games, at-bats, hits, runs, RBIs, stolen bases, total bases, and extra-base hits. All of those marks were subsequently broken.

In 1916, the longtime bachelor married Bessie Smith. They had two daughters, Betty and Virginia. After his retirement, Wagner coached football and basketball at Carnegie High School, then became athletic director and baseball coach at Carnegie Technical Institute. He was president of amateur baseball associations, sponsored sandlot teams, and for years ran a sporting goods store. Wagner was interested in politics but lost his only political race, for Allegheny County sheriff in 1928. For a short time he was sergeant-at-arms in the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1942, he was appointed deputy county sheriff.

Wagner became a coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933. His first assignment was to work with a rookie shortstop named Arky Vaughn. Under Wagner's tutelage, Vaughn blossomed and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 1936, Wagner was among the first five players elected to the Hall of Fame. He remained a part time coach with the Pirates for the rest of his life. In 1955, at the age of 81, he was present for the unveiling of his statue at Forbes Field. He died in Carnegie, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1955.

Honus Wagner

Shortstop
Born: February 24, 1874(1874-02-24) Chartiers, Pennsylvania
Died: December 6, 1955 (aged 81) Carnegie, Pennsylvania
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 19, 1897 for the Louisville Colonels
Last MLB appearance
September 17, 1917 for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Career statistics
Batting average	.327
Hits	3,415
Runs batted in	1,732
Teams
As Player Louisville Colonels (1897–1899) Pittsburgh Pirates (1900–1917) As Coach Pittsburgh Pirates (1933–1951) As Manager Pittsburgh Pirates (1917)
Career highlights and awards
World Series champion (1909) NL Batting Champion (1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1911) Pittsburgh Pirates #33 retired Major League Baseball All-Century Team
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1936
Vote	95.13% (first ballot)

Early life

Wagner was born to German immigrants Peter and Katheryn Wagner in the Chartiers neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is now a part of the borough of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.^[3]

Wagner was one of five children. As a child, he was called Hans by his mother, which would later evolve into Honus. "Hans" was also an alternate nickname during his major league career. Wagner dropped out of school at age twelve to help his father and brothers in the coal mines. In their free time, he and his brothers played sandlot baseball and developed their skills to such an extent that three of his brothers would go on to become professionals, as well.^{[citation needed]}

Wagner's older brother, Albert "Butts" Wagner, who had a brief major league career himself, is often credited for getting Honus his first tryout. Following his brother, Wagner trained to be a barber before becoming successful in baseball.^{[citation needed]}

In 1894, Wagner married Bessie Baine Smith, and the couple went on to have three daughters, Elva Katrina (born 1918), Betty Baine (born 1919), and Virginia Mae (born 1922).^{[citation needed]}

Professional career

Career before Major League Baseball

Honus' brother Albert "Butts" Wagner was considered the ballplayer of the family. Albert suggested Honus in 1895 when his Inter-State League team was in need of help. In his first year, Honus played for five teams. Edward Barrow of the Atlantic League liked what he saw in Wagner, and, in 1896, he signed him. In 1896, Wagner hit .313. The next year, Honus hit .375 in 74 games played. Edward Barrow would become Honus' bridge to the major leagues.

At shortstop there is only one candidate, the immortal Honus Wagner. He was just head and shoulders above anyone else in that position. Fellows like Marion, Bancroft, Peck and Billy Jurges were all great fielders. But Honus could more than out-field all of them. He was perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. He had remarkably long arms, hams for hands, and just drew the ball to him. Ed Barrow once told me he could have been as good in any position but he made his greatest name as shortstop. He led the National League seven times at bat and he was always up with the leaders when he was in his forties.

—Babe Ruth^[4]

Louisville Colonels

Recognizing his talent, Barrow recommended Wagner to the Louisville Colonels. After some hesitation about his awkward figure, Wagner was signed by the Colonels, where he hit .338 in 61 games.

By his second season, Wagner was already one of the best hitters in the National League although he would come up short a percentage point from finishing the season at .300. Following the 1899 season, the NL contracted from twelve to eight teams, with the Colonels one of four teams eliminated. Along with Wagner, owner Barney Dreyfuss, who had purchased half ownership in the Pirates, took many of his other top players with him to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The move to the Pittsburgh Pirates would signify Wagner's emergence as a premier hitter. In 1900, Wagner won his first batting championship with a .381 mark and also led the league in doubles (45), triples (22), and slugging percentage (.573), all of which were career highs. For the next couple of seasons, Wagner's average did not fall below .330.

Honus Wagner in 1911

In 1901, the American League began to sign National League players, creating a bidding war, which depleted the league of many talented players. Wagner was offered a $20,000 contract by the Chicago White Sox, but turned it down and continued to play with the Pirates.

Prior to 1904, Wagner had played several positions, but settled into the shortstop role full-time that season, where he became a skilled fielder. His biography on BaseballLibrary.com describes his gritty style:

"Bowlegged, barrel-chested, long-limbed... he was often likened to an octopus. When he fielded grounders, his huge hands also collected large scoops of infield dirt, which accompanied his throws to first like the tail of a comet."^[5]

In 1898, Wagner won a distance contest in Louisville by throwing a baseball more than 403 feet.^[6] In August 1899, he became the first player credited with stealing second base, third, and home in succession under the new rule differentiating between advanced bases and stolen bases. He would repeat the feat in 1902, 1907, and 1909. Wagner retired with the National League record for most steals of home (27), which was broken by Greasy Neale in 1922.

In September 1905, Wagner signed a contract to produce the first bat with a player's signature; the Honus Wagner is a best-seller for years. One month later, with one point separating him from Reds centerfielder Cy Seymour for the batting title, Wagner fell short in a head-to-head matchup on the final day of the season, with Seymour collecting four hits to Wagner's two, as contemporary press reports stated that the fans were far more interested in the Seymour-Wagner battle than in the outcome of the games.

Shortly before the 1908 season, Wagner retired. Starting to panic, owner Barney Dreyfuss offered him $10,000, making him the highest paid player for many years. He returned to the Pirates early in the 1908 season, and finished two home runs short of the league's Triple Crown, leading the league in hitting (for the sixth time)‚ hits‚ total bases‚ doubles‚ triples‚ RBI‚ and stolen bases. Wagner took over the batting lead from the New York Giants' flamboyant outfielder Mike Donlin during a July 25 game against the Giants and their star pitcher Christy Mathewson. Wagner was 5-for-5 in the game; after each hit, he reportedly held up another finger to Donlin, who went hitless, and who had just beaten runner-up Wagner by a wide margin in a "most popular player" poll.

1903 and 1909 World Series

In 1903, the Pirates played the Boston Americans in Major League Baseball's inaugural World Series. Wagner, by this point, was an established star and much was expected of him, especially since the Pirates' starting rotation was decimated by injury. Wagner himself was not at full strength and hit only .222 for the series. The Americans, meanwhile, had some fans, called the "Royal Rooters" who, whenever Wagner came to bat, would sing "Honus, Honus, why do you hit so badly?" to the tune of "Tessie," a popular song of the day. The Rooters, led by Boston bartender Michael "Nuf Ced" McGreevy, even travelled to Pittsburgh to continue their heckling. Pittsburgh lost in the best-of-nine series, five games to three, to a team led by pitchers Cy Young and Bill Dinneen and third baseman-manager Jimmy Collins. Christy Mathewson, in his book "Pitching in a Pinch" wrote: "For some time after "Hans" Wagner's poor showing in the world's series of 1903... it was reported that he was "yellow" (poor in the clutch). This grieved the Dutchman deeply, for I don't know a ball player in either league who would assay less quit to the ton than Wagner... This was the real tragedy in Wagner's career. Notwithstanding his stolid appearance, he is a sensitive player, and this has hurt him more than anything else in his life ever has."^[7]

Wagner was distraught by his performance. The following spring, he refused to send his portrait to a "Hall of Fame" for batting champions, citing his play in the World Series. "I was too bum last year," he wrote. "I was a joke in that Boston-Pittsburgh Series. What does it profit a man to hammer along and make a few hits when they are not needed only to fall down when it comes to a pinch? I would be ashamed to have my picture up now."^[8]

Wagner and the Pirates were given a chance to prove that they were not "yellow" in 1909. The Pirates faced off against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers. The series would be the only meeting of the two superior batsmen of the day, and the first time that the batting champions of each league would face one another (this would occur twice more, in the 1931 and 1954 World Series). Wagner was by this time 35 years old, Cobb just 22.

This time, Wagner could not be stifled as he outhit Cobb, .333 to .231, and stole six bases, establishing the new Series record. The speed demon Cobb only managed two steals, one of which Cobb himself admitted was a botched call. Wagner recounted: "We had him out at second. We put up a squawk, but Silk O'Loughlin, the umpire, overruled it. We kept the squawk going for a minute or so, making no headway of course, and then Cobb spoke up. He turned to O'Loughlin, an American League umpire, by the way, and said, 'Of course I was out. They had me by a foot. You just booted the play, so come on, let's play ball.' ."^[9]

There was also a story that was widely circulated over the years and famously recounted in Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times, that at one point Cobb was on first; he bragged to Wagner that he was going to steal second; Wagner placed an especially rough tag to Cobb's mouth; and the two exchanged choice words. Cobb denied it in his autobiography, and the play-by-play of the 1909 World Series confirms that the event could not have happened as stated: Cobb was never tagged out by Wagner in a caught-stealing. The Pirates won the series four games to three behind the pitching of Babe Adams.

When I was a boy growing up in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there on the warmth of a summer afternoon we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him I wanted to be a major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be president of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.

—Dwight D. Eisenhower^[10]

Later career

In 1910, Wagner's average fell to .320, his lowest average since 1898. Nevertheless, he aged exceptionally well; the three highest OPS+ seasons by any shortstop aged 35 or older belong to Wagner, and even his age-41 season ranks 8th on the list.

Wagner won the 1911 batting title by the narrowest of margins. He went hitless in a 1-0 win against the Cubs on May 30, but a successful league protest by the Cubs wiped out the result (and Wagner's at-bats). Wagner ended up edging his teammate and double play partner Dots Miller, .334 to .333. The Pirates were in contention into August, but an ankle injury sidelined Wagner for 25 games and the team slid from the race.

By 1912, Wagner was the oldest player in the National League. On June 9, 1914, at age 40, Wagner recorded his 3,000th hit, a double off Philadelphia's Erskine Mayer, the second player in baseball history to reach the figure, after Cap Anson, and Nap Lajoie would join them three months later. This accomplishment, however, came during a down period for Wagner and Pirates. Wagner hit only .252 in 1914, the lowest average of his career. In June 1915, he became the first player ever to hit 100 career home runs. The following month, he became the oldest player to hit a grand slam, a record which stood for 70 years until topped by 43-year-old Tony Perez. In 1916, Wagner became the oldest player to hit an inside-the-park home run.

In 1917, following another retirement, Wagner returned for his final, abbreviated season. Returning in June, he was spiked in July and played only sparingly for the remainder of the year, batting .265. He briefly held the role of interim manager, but after going 1–4, Wagner told owner Dreyfuss the job wasn't for him. He retired as the NL's all-time hit leader, with 3,430. (Subsequent research has since revised this total to 3,418.) It would take 45 years for St. Louis' Stan Musial to surpass Wagner's hit total.

Wagner has been considered one of the very best all-around players to ever play baseball since the day he retired in 1917. Famed "sabermatician" Bill James rates him as the second best player of all-time, behind only Babe Ruth.^[11] Statisticians John Thorn and Pete Palmer rate Wagner as ninth all-time in their "Total Player Ranking".^[12] Many of the greats who played or managed against Wagner, including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Walter Johnson, list him at shortstop on their All-Time teams.^[13]

Life after baseball

Honus Wagner's locker on display at the Hall of Fame

After retirement, Wagner served the Pirates as a coach for 39 years, most notably as a hitting instructor from 1933 to 1952. Arky Vaughan, Ralph Kiner, and player-manager from 1934–1939 Pie Traynor, all future Hall of Famers, were notable "pupils" of Wagner. During this time, he wore uniform number 14, but later changed it to his more famous 33, which was later retired for him. His entire playing career was in the days before uniform numbers were worn. His appearances at National League stadiums during his coaching years were always well received and Hans remained a beloved ambassador of baseball. Wagner also coached baseball and basketball at what is now Carnegie Mellon University.

In 1928, Wagner ran for sheriff of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania but lost. He was made deputy county sheriff in 1942. He also ran a well-known sporting goods company. To this day, a sporting goods store bearing the name "Honus Wagner" operates in downtown Pittsburgh.

Wagner lived the remainder of his life in Pittsburgh, where he was well-known as a friendly figure around town. He died on December 6, 1955 at the age of 81, and he is buried at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh.

Baseball Legacy

Wagner statue at
PNC Park

When the Baseball Hall of Fame held its first election in 1936, Wagner tied for second in the voting with Babe Ruth, trailing Cobb. A 1942 Sporting News poll of 100 former players and managers confirmed this opinion, with Wagner finishing 43 votes behind Cobb and six ahead of Ruth. In 1969, on the 100th anniversary of professional baseball, a vote was taken to honor the greatest players ever, and Wagner was selected as the all-time shortstop. In 1999, 82 years after his last game and 44 years since his death, Wagner was voted Number 13 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Players, where he was again the highest-ranking shortstop. That same year, he was selected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team by the oversight committee, after losing out in the popular vote to Cal Ripken, Jr. and Ernie Banks.^[14]
"A stirring march and two step," titled "Husky Hans", and "respectfully dedicated to Hans Wagner, Three time Champion Batsman of The National League" was written by William J. Hartz in 1904.
Famed baseball historian and author Bill James lists Wagner as the second greatest player of all time behind Babe Ruth. He also goes on to say that he is easily the greatest shortstop of all time noting that the difference between Wagner and the second greatest shortstop (in his estimation Arky Vaughan) is roughly the same as the gulf between Vaughan and the 20th greatest shortstop.
A life-size statue of Wagner swinging a bat, atop a marble pedestal featuring admiring children, was forged by a local sculptor named Frank Vittor, and placed outside the left field corner gate at Forbes Field. It was dedicated on April 30, 1955, and the then-frail Wagner was well enough to attend and wave to his many fans. The Pirates have relocated twice since then, and the statue has come along with them. It now stands outside the main gate of PNC Park. The statue roughly faces the site of the Pirates' original home, Exposition Park, so in a sense Wagner has come full circle.
Wagner is also honored in the form of a small stadium residing behind Carnegie Elementary School on Washington Avenue in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. The stadium serves as the home field for Carlynton High School varsity sports.
In 2000, Honus Wagner was honored with a U.S. postage stamp. The stamp was issued as part of a "Legends of Baseball" series that honored twenty all-time greats in conjunction with MLB's All Century team.

Lineup for Yesterday
W is for Wagner, The bowlegged beauty; Short was closed to all traffic With Honus on duty.
— Ogden Nash, Sport magazine (January 1949)^[15]

Wagner is mentioned in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:

T206 Baseball card

Main article: T206 Honus Wagner

Honus Wagner card

The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card is not the rarest baseball card in the world, only the most well known and most expensive. There are 57 known copies and there are many other cards that only have 1 or 2 known examples depicting Honus Wagner.^[16] The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette packs to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card and a total of only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public. In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time.

The American Tobacco Company was formed as a result of an 1889 merger of five major cigarette manufacturers—W. Duke & Sons & Company, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company, F. S. Kinney Company and William S. Kimball & Company. Because the company came to monopolize the tobacco industry, ATC did not have to conduct advertising or promotions for its products. Since baseball cards were primarily used as a sales promotion, ATC removed them from its tobacco packs, almost driving the cards into obsolescence.^[17] During the presidency of trust-buster Theodore Roosevelt, the ATC was subjected to legal action from the government, in hopes of shutting down the monopoly in the industry.^[17]

The typical card in the T206 series had a width of 1 7/16 inches (3.65 cm) and a height of 2 5/8 inches (6.67 cm). Some cards were awkwardly shaped or irregularly sized, which prompted a belief that many of the cards in the series had been altered at one point or another. In his work Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set, Scot A. Reader wrote that "[i]t is not at all uncommon to find T206 examples that have been altered at some point during their near-century of existence."^[18] These discrepancies were taken advantage of by "card doctors" who trimmed corners and dirty edges to improve the appearance of the card. The front of all T206 series cards, including the Wagner card, displayed a lithograph of the player^[19] created by a multi-stage printing process in which a number of colors were printed on top of each other to create a lithograph with the appropriate design. The backs of the cards featured the monochromatic colors of the 16 tobacco brands for which the cards were printed.^[20] The Wagner cards in particular advertised the Piedmont and Sweet Caporal brands of cigarettes and were produced at Factory 25 in Virginia, as indicated by the factory stamp imprinted on the back of the cards.^[21]

Starting from January 1909, the ATC sought authorization from baseball players for inclusion in the T206 series, which would feature 524 major league players, 76 of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.^[22]^[23] Wagner had been at the top of his game throughout the decade, and was even considered the game's greatest player at the time.^[24] He had appeared on advertisements for a number of other products such as chewing gum, gunpowder and soft drinks. Unsurprisingly, the ATC asked for Wagner's permission to have his picture on a baseball card. According to an October 12, 1912, issue of The Sporting News, Wagner did not give his consent to appear on the baseball card. In response to the authorization request letter sent by John Gruber, a Pittsburgh sportswriter hired by the ATC to seek Wagner's permission, Wagner wrote that he "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes." He threatened to seek legal action against ATC if they went ahead and created his baseball card.^[25]

Statistics

Career statistics:

G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS+
2,792	10,430	3,415	640	252	101	1,736	1,732	963	327	.327	.391	.466	150

References

^ "Honus Wagner". infoplease.com. http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0109730.html. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
^ Cobb, Ty (1993). My Life in Baseball. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 283 pgs. ISBN 0803263597.
^ "Hall of Fame profile". baseballhalloffame.org. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=123784. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
^ The Babe Ruth Story. Scholastic. 1948. pp. 224.
^ http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=honus_wagner_1874
^ http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=honus_wagner_1874&page=chronology
^ Mathewson, Christy (2008). Pitching In A Pinch. Read Books. pp. 324 pgs. ISBN 1408691027.
^ Valeria, Dennis and Jeanne Burke (1995). Honus Wagner: A Biography. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 85-86. ISBN 0822956659.
^ Williams, Joe (1989). The Joe Williams Baseball Reader. Algonquin Books. pp. 205 pgs. ISBN 0945575076.
^ Baseball: An Illustrated History. Alfred A. Knopf. 1994. pp. 49.
^ Bill James (1988). The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Villard. pp. 448.
^ Thorn, John (1997). Total Baseball. Penguin USA. pp. 2464 pgs. ISBN 0670875112.
^ Bill James (1988). The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Villard. pp. 157.
^ "All Century Team". baseball-almanac.com. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/limc100.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
^ "Line-Up For Yesterday by Ogden Nash". Ogden Nash. Sport Magazine. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_line.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
^ James, Bill (2001). The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 358. ISBN 0-684-80697-5. James, one of baseball's premier historians and statisticians, ranked Wagner as the second-best player of all time, behind Babe Ruth. Wagner was also selected the shortstop on the Major League Baseball All-Time Team in 1997, and was one of three shortstops named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.
^ ^a ^b O'Keeffe, Michael; Teri Thompson (2007). The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 32. ISBN 0-06-112392-7.
^ Reader, Scot A. (2006) (PDF). Inside T206: A Collector's Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set (3rd edition ed.). pp. 13. http://www.oldcardboard.com/t/t206/InsideT206-3-edition.pdf.
^ Reader, p11.
^ Reader, p12.
^ Reader, p45.
^ Reader, p9.
^ Wong, Stephen (2005). Smithsonian Baseball: Inside the World's Finest Private Collections. New York, New York: HarperCollins. pp. 66. ISBN 0-06-083851-5.
^ James, p132.
^ Davis, Ralph S. (1912-10-12). "Wagner A Wonder: One Player In Game Who Is Not Money Mad" (PDF). The Sporting News. http://www.explorepahistory.com/~expa/cms/pbfiles/Project1/Scheme40/ExplorePAHistory-a0b9s7-a_514.pdf. Retrieved 2007-10-19.

Bibliography

Hall of Fame Network: "Honus Wagner as Mona Lisa" http://www.hofmag.com/content/view/1038/30/
Honus Wagner: A Biography, by Dennis DeValeria and Jeanne Burke DeValeria, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1995.
Hittner, Arthur D. Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball's "Flying Dutchman." Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996 and 2003 (softcover). Winner of the 1996 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research.
Honus and Me by Dan Gutman

External links

Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
Baseball Hall of Fame – Member biography
Honus Wagner's Obit - The New York Times, Tuesday, December 6, 1955
Honus-Wagner.org

Accomplishments

Preceded by Ed Delahanty Ginger Beaumont Cy Seymour Sherry Magee	National League Batting Champion 1900 1903-1904 1906-1909 1911	Succeeded by Jesse Burkett Cy Seymour Sherry Magee Heinie Zimmerman
Preceded by Elmer Flick Sherry Magee Frank Schulte & Chief Wilson	National League RBI Champion 1901-1902 1908-1909 1912	Succeeded by Sam Mertes Sherry Magee Gavvy Cravath
Preceded by P. Donovan & G. Van Haltren F. Chance & J. Sheckard Frank Chance	National League Stolen Base Champion 1901-1902 1904 1907-1908	Succeeded by F. Chance & J. Sheckard A. Devlin & B. Maloney Bob Bescher
Preceded by Nixey Callahan	Pittsburgh Pirates Managers 1917	Succeeded by Hugo Bezdek

v • d • e Pittsburgh Pirates 1901 National League Champions

Ginger Beaumont \| Kitty Bransfield \| Jack Chesbro \| Fred Clarke \| Lefty Davis \| Ed Doheny \| Bones Ely \| Tommy Leach \| Sam Leever \| Jack O'Connor \| Deacon Phillippe \| Ed Poole \| Claude Ritchey \| Jesse Tannehill \| Honus Wagner \| Snake Wiltse \| George Yeager \| Chief Zimmer Manager Fred Clarke

Regular season

v • d • e Pittsburgh Pirates 1902 National League Champions

Ginger Beaumont \| Kitty Bransfield \| Jimmy Burke \| Jack Chesbro \| Fred Clarke \| Wid Conroy \| Lefty Davis \| Ed Doheny \| Tommy Leach \| Sam Leever \| Jack O'Connor \| Deacon Phillippe \| Claude Ritchey \| Harry Smith \| Jesse Tannehill \| Honus Wagner \| Chief Zimmer Manager Fred Clarke

Regular season

v • d • e Pittsburgh Pirates 1909 World Series Champions

Ed Abbaticchio \| Bill Abstein \| Babe Adams \| Bobby Byrne \| Howie Camnitz \| Fred Clarke \| George Gibson \| Ham Hyatt \| Tommy Leach \| Lefty Leifield \| Nick Maddox \| Dots Miller \| Paddy O'Connor \| Deacon Phillippe \| Honus Wagner \| Vic Willis \| Chief Wilson Manager Fred Clarke

Regular season

3000 hit club

Pete Rose · Ty Cobb · Hank Aaron · Stan Musial · Tris Speaker · Carl Yastrzemski · Cap Anson · Honus Wagner · Paul Molitor · Eddie Collins · Willie Mays · Eddie Murray · Nap Lajoie · Cal Ripken, Jr. · George Brett · Paul Waner · Robin Yount · Tony Gwynn · Dave Winfield · Rickey Henderson · Rod Carew · Craig Biggio · Lou Brock · Rafael Palmeiro · Wade Boggs · Al Kaline · Roberto Clemente

v • d • e Major League Baseball All-Century Team

Pitchers	Nolan Ryan · Sandy Koufax · Cy Young · Roger Clemens · Bob Gibson · Walter Johnson · Warren Spahn · Christy Mathewson · Lefty Grove

Infielders	Johnny Bench · Yogi Berra · Lou Gehrig · Mark McGwire · Jackie Robinson · Rogers Hornsby · Mike Schmidt · Brooks Robinson · Cal Ripken, Jr. · Ernie Banks · Honus Wagner

Outfielders	Babe Ruth · Hank Aaron · Ted Williams · Willie Mays · Joe DiMaggio · Mickey Mantle · Ty Cobb · Ken Griffey, Jr. · Pete Rose · Stan Musial

v • d • e Major League Baseball \| MLB All-Time Team

Lou Gehrig • Rogers Hornsby • Honus Wagner • Mike Schmidt (Infielders) • Johnny Bench (Catcher) • Paul Molitor (Designated hitter) Ted Williams • Willie Mays • Babe Ruth (Outfielders) • Walter Johnson • Sandy Koufax • Dennis Eckersley (Pitchers) • Casey Stengel (Manager)

v • d • e Pittsburgh Pirates retired numbers

#1 Billy Meyer • #4 Ralph Kiner • #8 Willie Stargell • #9 Bill Mazeroski • #11 Paul Waner • #20 Pie Traynor • #21 Roberto Clemente • #33 Honus Wagner • #40 Danny Murtaugh

v • d • e Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1936

BBWAA Vote	Ty Cobb (98.23%) • Walter Johnson (83.63%) • Christy Mathewson (90.71%) • Babe Ruth (95.13%) • Honus Wagner (95.13%)

Veterans Committee	none

v • d • e Shortstops in the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Aparicio • Appling • Bancroft • Banks • Boudreau • Cronin • Davis • Jackson • Jennings • Lloyd • Maranville • Reese • Ripken • Rizzuto • Sewell • Smith • Tinker • Vaughan • Wagner • Wallace • Ward • Wells • Yount

v • d • e Pittsburgh Pirates managers

Pittsburgh Alleghenys (1882–1889)	Pratt • Butler • Battin • McKnight • Ferguson • Creamer • Phillips • Dunlap • Hanlon

Pittsburgh Pirates (1890-present)	Hecker • McGunnigle • Hanlon • Burns • Buckenberger • Mack • Donovan • Watkins • Donovan • Clarke • Callahan • Wagner • Bezdek • Gibson • McKechnie • Bush • Ens • Gibson • Traynor • Frisch • Davis • Herman • Burwell • Meyer • Haney • Bragan • Murtaugh • Walker • Murtaugh • Shepard • Grammas • Murtaugh • Virdon • Murtaugh • Tanner • Leyland • Lamont • McClendon • Mackanin • Tracy • Russell

Persondata
NAME	Wagner, Honus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Wagner, John Peter; The Flying Dutchman
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Major League Baseball player
DATE OF BIRTH	February 24, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chartiers, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH	December 6, 1955
PLACE OF DEATH	Carnegie, Pennsylvania

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