Morse Than A Sportscard, Baseball Legend Honus Wagner

 

Honus Wagner. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 17, 1916)

Honus Wagner and the Pittsburgh Pirates faced Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers in the 1909 World Series. Cobb was young, fast, aggressive, and already becoming a legend. Wagner was 35 and had been terrorizing National League pitchers for more than a decade.

Wagner hit .333 in the Series, drove in six runs, and stole six bases. Cobb hit just .231. Pittsburgh won in seven games, giving Wagner the championship that capped an already remarkable career.

By then, everybody in baseball knew what Wagner could do. He’d joined the Pirates in 1900 and quickly became their biggest star, even though he didn’t look like one. Wagner was stocky and bowlegged, with huge hands and an awkward running style. But he could hit, run, field, and throw with the best of them.

He won eight National League batting titles and routinely finished above .300 during an era when runs were scarce. He could steal a base, stretch a hit, and drive the ball when the Pirates needed it. Most of his career was spent at shortstop, though he could handle almost any position.

Wagner played his final major-league game in 1917. He finished with a .328 career average, over 3,400 hits, over 1,700 RBIs, and 723 stolen bases. Nearly all of it in a Pittsburgh uniform.

When the Baseball Hall of Fame chose its first class in 1936, Wagner went in with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson.

Today people know Wagner mainly because of his famous T206 baseball card. In his own time, though, nobody needed a card to tell them who Honus Wagner was.