Rogers Hornsby the greatest 15 seasons in National League History.
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During Rogers Hornsby 15 seasons in the National League as a full time player his slugging average plus on base percentage was the highest in the National League for 12 of those 15 years. And the other two years he was second in OPS and too make it even more impressive he led the National League in different offensive categories 69 times. All this information you can find in any of the official baseball guide books or stats. But I was too young to really know what Rogers was all about but my father and grandfather were great friends so I got to get to know him as an individual after he left the field as a player and I kept up with him until he died in January of 1963.
But the real story here is what I was got to talk about with Ted Williams during the Second World War. He and I got to know each other because we both were in the Navy together during this period of history. I first was introduced to Ted in 1938 when he was playing with the Boston. My father being close to many of the older players in both leagues got to know Rogers during the 1912 season and continued the friendship with him and our family for the next 50 years. Ted and I were together in Pensacola and then again in Hawaii. It was during these times that he and I got to talk a lot of baseball and talk we did. I asked him one night during mess call what did he think of Rogers Hornsby. This conversation went on for the next two or three weeks off and on until he shipped out and I went further into the Pacific.
Williams answer was amazing because he talked about him with such respect and complete candor. He said "Rogers Hornsby was the greatest hitter in baseball history and that hadn't been given his fair share of respect and honor or glory." What Hornsby did during his career stands even today as one of the greatest hitting acheivements in baseball history. In 1922, he became the only player in baseball history to hit over .400 and also hit more than 40 homeruns. He won the triple crown and led the league in almost every batting category. BA .401,HR's 42,RBI's 152 and slugging aveage .722, on base percentage .459, doubles 46, base hits 250, runs scored 141 and total bases. He also led the league in fielding percentage, putouts and double plays. Ted and I talked for hours upon hours about Hornsby and his career.
Ted was born in August of 1918 and I was born in September of 1918 so we are a month apart, he is a little over a month older than I am but we always had the same kind of interests, baseball and fishing and hunting and the outdoors. Playing caught with Ted on a daily basis is one of my greatest memories and all the fishing I got to do with him also come under these lifetime memories. But he never in all the years and times we talked ever said anything bad about Rogers Hornsby either as a player or a person. He knew that I had a close personal relationship with him in my family but he was always respectful and charming when it came to talking about Hornsby. Both he and I really never got to see him at his prime, I got to see him in the 1926 World Series but both of us were only 8 years old at the time and Ted lived on the West Coast and I was still on the Eastern Seaboard.
Talking baseball was such a natural thing that it seemed I was just talking to my brother about this player and that. Hornsby's record .424 will most likely never be equaled or passed and his record 143 points higher batting average than the rest of the league is something Ted use to say is a record that will stand until the end of baseball. What also has to be remembered is his on base percentage of .507 was the highest achieved by any National League player during the 20th century. In 1925 his .756 slugging percentage was the highest also by any player in the 20th century.
Over 5 seasons he averaged .402 and won 6 consecutive batting titles, he hit 301 homeruns and had a lifetime batting average at home of .359 and away from home of .358 and hit over .400 5 separate times and ended his playing career with a total lifetime batting average of .361. Knowing Rogers Hornsby as a individual family friend was something few can know and I can say over all the times he came to the house in my childhood and later as an adult he always treated me as an equal, even playing caught with a baseball or during family baseball games in the late 20's and early 30's.
My father and grandfather always talked about how fast Rogers was and my father later on made a statement that Rogers Hornsby was faster to first ball than Mickey Mantle was as a left-handed batter. That was a question that Ted and I talked about a few times and his answer was always "yes, I have heard it said by some of the older players later on that Rogers was in their minds faster than Mickey. But I never saw he run like that. You and I were only little kids when he was doing all the damage to the National League pitchers." He really loved to talk about hitting to anyone. He knew Rogers on a personal level only because Hornsby stayed in baseball for years after his playing days were over and they use to talk hitting whenever they could get together during spring games and sometimes during the winters when Rogers would go fishing.
I know a lot of things have been written about Rogers Hornsby being a member of the KKK, especially by one sportswriter by the name of Fred Lieb. My own personal opinion of Lieb is that he was a big liar and just wanted to write something to make headlines especially about Hornsby. Yes, Rogers Hornsby, was hard to get along with on the field. He was a perfectist and didn't take to players that didn't get it and couldn't play at the level he wanted but I never saw any of that being around him. My dad used to tell me that he could see it being very hard to play for him later in his managing career and that in his playing days he didn't have any time for the younger players but Ted never mentioned anything about that.
Things I really remember about Rogers was during all the fishing and hunting seasons that he would be around he didn't talk about other players much except to say they are alright and maybe they could play in the majors league but that was around all us small kids then. My dad said once that late in 1935 Rogers mentioned a young player coming up by the name of Ted Williams and that he had seen something special in his hitting. Hornsby use to say don't hit there pitch, hit your pitch and that is something that both Hornsby and Williams lived by in their careers. My dad was a fair pitcher in his younger days and according to my grandmother could really bring the ball to the plate. I was all of 15 that year and Hornsby was down on the farm with a number of other players, Alexander, Young, Speaker, Jackson and Grove and they were playing baseball in the back yard.
My grandparents backyard was about 3700 acres of farmland in Northern Virginia at the time and my father was pitching to Rogers and I remember playing in the outfield with Jackson and Speaker and my father got one over going really fast but Rogers than in his 40's hit that pitch so far and so hard that I had to go into the trees to get it. I remember Joe Jackson yelling in to my dad, "That away give one up to an old man" you should have heard everybody then. Rogers just laughed and continued running the bases and when he came into the field all the younger players just stood in awe and my father later said at the dinner table that night that you should have seen him when he was younger and in his prime. I told Ted that story just after we receieved orders to go to Hawaii and that is when he made the comment to me that "Rogers Hornsby was the greatest hitter for average and power in the history of baseball."
There have been others since him but even someone that is not a true baseball fan can see looking at his records that maybe he truly was the greatest hitter for average and power in baseball history. Ruth hit more homeruns and drove in more runs and scored more runs but Ruth never hit .400, I know he could have one year but didn't really give a damn about it, and Cobb hit for a slightly higher average but not with anywhere near the power. Williams is Williams and stands alone with his hitting skills or does he.
When Ted was managing the Washington Senators in the 1960's he was out here in southern California and we got together whenever we could and talked on the phone and with letters and one of the last things I asked him then and again in 1998 the last time I got to talk to him was where did he put himself with Rogers Hornsby as a player and hitter. Ted just smiled his little smile and sort of laughed out of the side of his mouth like he use to do and said to me, "You have been asking me that question since before the second world war and you know I don't really know if I could rate myself any higher than Rodgers. He was a right hander and I am left but I think I will leave that question for you and everybody else to answer." For 50 years he has answered me the exact same way so speaking for myself I feel that Rogers Hornsby hasn't been given is total due and that maybe baseball historians should really look into what he was all about because from my perspective a lot of them have gotten what he was all about.
If some of this article runs in and out then I am sorry it takes me a long time to compose anything sometimes and these subjects of the older players really hit me in my emotions towhere maybe I am not completely unbias when it comes to talking about them.
