Rogers Hornsby

   Rogers Hornsby (1896-1963) was an American baseball player. Hornsby is often called the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. Nicknamed Rajah, he won seven National League batting titles and had a .358 lifetime batting average. Only Ty Cobb, with .367, had a higher average. Hornsby batted .424 in 1924, a single season record.
   A second baseman, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1915 to 1926 and again in 1933; the New York Giants in 1927; the Boston Braves in 1928; the Chicago Cubs from 1929 to 1932; and the St. Louis Browns from 1933 to 1937. He also managed the Cardinals, Braves, Cubs, Browns, and Cincinnati Reds. Born in Winters, Tex., he was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1942.

Babe Ruth

   RUTH, BABE (1895-1948), won fame as the greatest slugger in baseball history. He set many records, including his 714 regular-season home runs. Ruth had a personality that caught the imagination of fans and helped popularize baseball.
   He was born George Herman Ruth in Baltimore, Md. He was raised at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore. One of Ruth's teachers recognized his skill at baseball and helped him start his career in 1914. Later that year, Ruth joined the Boston Red Sox and became a successful pitcher. But by the time the Red Sox traded him to the New York Yankees in 1920, he was playing in the outfield regularly. In 1927, Ruth set a record of 60 home runs in a season. His slugging power made him baseball's biggest attraction. The Yankees' new stadium was nicknamed the House That Ruth Built. Ruth hit his 60 home runs during a 154-game season. In 1961, New York Yankees star Roger Maris set another record by hitting 61 home runs during a 162-game schedule.
   The Yankees released Ruth after the 1934 season, and he finished his career with the Boston Braves in 1935. He was named to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Ruth died of cancer.

Henry Benjamin 'Hank' Greenberg

Henry Benjamin 'Hank' Greenberg (1911-1986) was an American baseball player, born in New York City. A first baseman and outfielder, he entered organized baseball in 1930 with Hartford of the Eastern League and in 1933 joined the Detroit Tigers. In 1938, he hit 58 home runs. After military service (1942-44) in World War II, Greenberg returned to Detroit in 1945 and led the American League with 44 home runs in 1946. He starred in four world series for Detroit. In 1947 he played one sea­son with the Pittsburgh Pirales.
Greenberg was the first Jewish superstar in American professional sports. He became a major stockholder (1948) and general manager (1949) of the Cleveland Indians.

Robert Moses Grove

Lefty Grove

   Robert Moses Grove, known as Lefty, 1900-1975 , was an American baseball player, member of Baseball Hall of Fame, born in Lanaconing, Md. A left-handed pitcher for Philadelphia (1925-33) and Boston (1934-41) of the American League, he won 300 major league games. He led the league in earned run averages nine years; won and lost percentages, five years; strikeouts, seven years. He was named the league's most valuable player in 1931 and elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947.

Frankie Frisch

Frankie Frisch

   Francis “Frankie” Frisch, known as the Fordham Flash, (1898-1973), American baseball player and manager, member of Baseball Hall of Fame, was born in New York City. Frisch was A graduate of Fordham University where he captained the baseball, football, and basketball teams, he played baseball with the New York Giants (1919-26) and St. Louis Cardinals (1927-37), became manager of the Cardinals (1933-38), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1936-46), and the Chi­cago Cubs (1949). Frisch, a second baseman, had a lifetime batting average of .316. He was named the most valuable player in the National League in 1931 and elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1947.

Honus Wagner facts

• Honus Wagner was an American Major League Baseball shortstop.
• Wagner was born on February 24, 1874 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Height: 5' 11" (1.80 m).
• He was nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman" and "Hans".
• Real name: Johannes Peter Wagner.
• Honus batted over .300 for 17 consecutive years.
• Honus Wagner won 8 batting tittles, tied for the most in National League history with Tony Gwynn.
• Parents: Peter and Katheryn Wagner.
• Stolen Bases: 722
• In 1936, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Honus Wagner as one of the first five members.
• In 1894, Honus married Bessie Baine Smith.
• Wagner is on the most valuable baseball card in history valued at $2.8 million.
• Died: December 6, 1955.

Grover Alexander facts

• Grover Cleveland "Old Pete" Alexander was an American professional baseball pitcher.
• In 1911, his first major league season with the Philadelphia Phillies, Grover Alexander won 28 games and lost only 13.
• Those 28 wins are a rookie record that still stands today.
• Alexander was born in Elba, Nebraska, one of thirteen children.
• During his 20-year career (1911-1930), Grover Alexander compiled a record of 373 wins and 208 losses.
• Grover played semi-pro ball in his youth, signing his first professional contract at age 20 in 1907 for $50 per month. 
• Grover Alexander had a career ERA of 2.56
• Alexander's 90 shutouts are a National League record and his 373 wins are tied with Christy Mathewson for first in the National League record book.
• In his career, Alexander walked 953 batters and struck out 2,199.
• In 1915, he won his first World Series game, for the Philadelphia Phillies. It would be 62 years before the Phillies won another postseason game, a major league record.
• Alexander led the National League in wins six times, including four straight years from 1914-1917.
• In 1999, he ranked number 12 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
• Grover Alexander led the National League in ERA five times.
• Grover Alexander was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1938.
• Height: 6'1" Weight: 185
• Alexander had an ERA under 2.00 during six seasons.
• Grover Alexander led the League in complete games six times.
• Alexander led the League in strikeouts six times.

Interesting facts about Joe Dimaggio

• Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio, was an Italian American baseball player for the New York Yankees.
• Joe Dimaggio was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.
• Joe DiMaggio was a 3-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star (the only player to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played).
• In his thirteen year career, the Yankees won ten pennants and nine world championships.
• Joe Dimaggio is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15–July 16, 1941), a record that still stands.
• Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak was stopped by Cleveland pitcher Jim Bagby Jr., son of former big league pitcher Jim Bagby. In the minor leagues, DiMaggio had a 61-game hitting streak stopped by Ed Walsh Jr., son of Hall of Fame right-hander Ed Walsh.
• DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California.
• Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of Lou Gehrig.
• On September 13, 1946, Yankee Joe DiMaggio belted a home run to defeat the Detroit Tigers and eliminate them from the pennant race. His homer gave the pennant to the Boston Red Sox. BoSox players Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Tex Hughson sent DiMaggio a telegram in Detroit, which said: "Thanks a lot for that home run, pal!"
• Joe DiMaggio was nicknamed the "Yankee Clipper" by Yankee's stadium announcer Arch McDonald in 1939 when he likened DiMaggio's speed and range in the outfield to the then new Pan American airliner.
• On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio became the first baseball player to break $100,000 in earnings.
• Joe DiMaggio told Baseball Digest in 1963 that the Brooklyn Dodgers had offered him their managerial job in 1953, but he turned it down.
• Joe DiMaggio enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces on February 17, 1943, rising to the rank of sergeant.
• According to her autobiography, Marilyn Monroe originally did not want to meet DiMaggio, fearing he was a stereotypical arrogant athlete.
• Joe DiMaggio, a heavy cigarette smoker throughout his life, was admitted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on October 12, 1998, for lung cancer surgery and remained there for the next 99 days.
• At his death in 1999, the New York Times called DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941, "perhaps the most enduring record in sports".

Joe DiMaggio quotes

"A ball player's got to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family ever made the big leagues".


"A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues".


"All pitchers are born pitchers".


"A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example".

Stan Musial Facts

Stan Musial

• Stanley Frank Musial (Stan Musial) is a retired Polish-American professional baseball player who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
• Musial was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, the fifth of Lukasz and Mary Musial's six children (four girls and two boys).
• At the age of 15, Stan Musial joined the Donora Zincs, a semi-professional team managed by Barbao.
• Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963.
• In Musial's 3,026 major league appearances, he was never ejected from a game.
• Stan Musial accumulated 3,630 hits and 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League's (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, and was a member of three World Series championship teams.
• Signed to a professional contract by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1938, Musial was converted into an outfielder prior to his major league debut in 1941.
• In his first full season, 1942, the Cardinals won the World Series.
• Stan Musial won his second World Series ring in 1944, then missed the entire 1945 season while serving with the United States Navy.
• Musial is father to four children from his marriage to wife Lillian: son Richard and daughters Gerry, Janet, and Jeanie.
• Musial compiled 3,630 hits in his career. 1815 hits came on the road and 1,815 hits came at home. 
• Musial was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1969, named on 93.2 percent of the ballots.
• Musial was named a vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals in September 1963, and he remained in that position until after the 1966 season.

Interesting facts about Rogers Hornsby

• Rogers Hornsby, nicknamed "The Rajah", was a Major League Baseball second baseman and manager.
• Born: April 27, 1896 in Winters, Texas.
• Hornsby's first name, Rogers, was his mother's maiden name.
• Height: 5’11"
• Rogers Hornsby spent the majority of his playing career with the St. Louis Cardinals, though he also had short stints with the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Braves, and the New York Giants, and he ended his career as the player-manager of the St. Louis Browns.
• Married: Sarah Martin (1918), Jeanette Pennington Hine (1924) and Marjorie Berniece Frederick (1957).
• Rogers Hornsby is the only player to win the National League Triple Crown twice.
• Rogers Hornsby was so obsessed with hitting that he refused to watch movies or read newspapers (except to check his batting average) for fear of corrupting his eyesight.
• His career batting average of .358 is the highest in National League history, and also the highest in major league history for any right-handed hitter.
• Seven National League Batting Titles (1920-1925, 1928)
• His batting average for the 1924 season was .424, a mark that no player since has matched.
• Rogers Hornsby is the only member of the 40–400 club—having 40 or more home runs and batting .400 or more in the same season.
• The Baseball Hall of Fame elected Hornsby in 1942.
• Died: January 5, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois.

Ted Williams facts

Ted Williams

• Theodore Samuel Williams (Ted Williams) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot.
• Ted Williams was born in San Diego, California as Teddy Samuel Williams, named after his father, Samuel Stuart Williams, and Teddy Roosevelt.
• Ted Williams was the last major league baseball player to bat for over .400 in a single season.
• Nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and The Thumper, he is widely considered the greatest hitter ever.
• His paternal ancestors were a mix of Welsh and Irish and his maternal ancestors were of Mexican descent.
• Ted Williams would have liked to be a professional fisherman.
• Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice.
• Ted Williams interrupted his Major League career to serve in the military– twice.
• Ted Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs.
• Throughout his career, Ted Williams disliked Boston newspapers because he believed that they focused too much on his personal life as opposed to his splendid career.
• Early in his career, Ted stated that he wished to be known as "The greatest hitter who ever lived," an honor that he achieved in the eyes of many by the end of his career.
• Ted Williams pitched once during his career, on August 24, 1940. He pitched the last two innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit; Williams allowed one earned run on three hits, while striking out one batter, Rudy York.
• Ted Williams spoke up for Negro League players during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Williams called for recognition of great Negro League players like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, who never got a chance to play in the MLB before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. This was an unprecedented call, but one that was finally met in 1971 with the induction of Paige.

Christy Mathewson facts

• Christopher "Christy" Mathewson (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1925), was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball.
• Nickname: "Big Six", "The Christian Gentleman", or "Matty"
• Mathewson had a career-winning percentage of .665 which is sixth best of all time.
• He played in what is known as the dead-ball era; and in 1936 was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.
• Christy Mathewson was the most dominant pitcher during the first two decades of the 1900's.
• Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pennsylvania and attended Bucknell University, where he served as class president and played on the school's football and baseball teams.
• His 373 career wins is third on the all-time list.
• He was also a member of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.
• During his 17 year career, Christy Mathewson led the league in ERA five times.
• His first experience of semi-professional baseball came in 1895, when he was just 14 years old.
• His career ERA was 2.13, which is fifth best of all time.
• Height: 6'1 1/2" 
• Matthewson was selected to the Walter Camp All-American football team in 1900. He was a drop-kicker. 
• Bucknell's football stadium is named "Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium".
• Christy Mathewson pitched a record three shutouts in six days against the Philadelphia Athletics, leading the Giants to win the 1905 World Series.
• Christy Mathewson won at least 20 games for 12 consecutive years (1903-1914).
  
  
  

Facts about Lou Gehrig

The Iron Horse

• Birth name: Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig or Henry Louis Gehrig
• Nickname: The Iron Horse
• Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter, his consecutive games-played record and its subsequent longevity, and the pathos of his farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with a fatal neurological disease.
• Height: 6' (1.83 m)
• Parents: Heinrich Gehrig and Christina Fack.
• His father Heinrich was a sheet metal worker by trade, but frequently unemployed due to alcoholism, and his mother Christina was a maid, the main breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family.
• Young Gehrig helped his mother with her work, doing tasks such as folding laundry and picking up supplies from the local stores.
• Wife: Eleanor Twitchel
• Popularly called "The Iron Horse" for his durability, Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams (23).
• Hobbies while growing up: football, baseball, gymnastics, soccer, ice skating, swimming, billiards, marbles
• Lou Gehrig and Chuck Klein are the only players to amass as many as 100 extra-base hits in a season more than once.
• In early 1925, the Yankees offered to trade Gehrig to the Boston Red Sox for first baseman Phil Todt to repay Boston for the blockbuster Babe Ruth trade a few years earlier. The Red Sox turned the Yankees down.
• Lou Gehrig attended Columbia University on a scholarship to play football, not baseball.
• In 1943, during World War II, a Liberty ship was named after legendary baseball player Lou Gehrig. The Merchant Marine troop transport ship carried 480 men and 120 vehicles. One year later it was involved in Operation Neptune. On Gehrig's birthday the ship landed in Normandy, 13 days after D-Day.
• In the first Ladies Day ever held at Yankee Stadium, on April 29, 1938, Lou Gehrig was greeted with cheers of "We Want a Homer"from the crowd, which featured nearly 5,000 women in the total of 12,395. Gehrig didn't deliver a homer, but his two hits helped the Yankees defeat the Red Sox, 6-4.
• July 4, 1939 was declared "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium. It was on this occasion that Lou Gehrig made the famous farewell speech, later featured in the film Pride of the Yankees, when he declared, "...today, I consider myself, the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
• In 1969 Gehrig was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association, and was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, chosen by fans in 1999.
• Gehrig accumulated 1,995 runs batted in (RBI) in 17 seasons, with a career batting average of .340, on-base percentage of .447, and slugging percentage of .632.
• In the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees, Lou Gehrig is removed from his position at first base during game in Detroit, thus "breaking" his streak of 2,130 consecutive games. However, the rules state that a streak is not interrupted just because a player doesn't come to bat.
• Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

Facts about Hank Aaron

• Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama) is a retired American baseball player whose Major League Baseball career spanned the years 1954 through 1976.
• Hank Aaron played in one National League Championship Series in 1969.
• Hank Aaron played in the World Series twice, 1957 and 1958.
• In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players".
• Hank's uniform number 44 has been retired by the Braves organization.
• Aaron was signed as a Free Agent by the Boston Braves on June 14, 1952.
• In 1963 Hank Aaron became a member of the 30-30 club with at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season.
• After playing with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League and in the minor leagues, Aaron started his major league career in 1954.
  Hank Aaron won the NL MVP in 1957.
• Aaron is the last Negro league baseball player to have played in the major leagues.
• Hank Aaron played his first game in April 13, 1954.
• Hank Aaron played his last game on October 3, 1976.
• Aaron hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times.
• Hank Aaron won three Gold Glove Awards for fielding in 1958, 1959 and 1960.
  Hank's 715th home run (breaking Babe Ruth's career record) was caught by his teammate Tom House in the Atlanta Brave bull-pen.
• Nicknames: Hammer, Hammerin' Hank or Bad Henry.
• In 2002, Hank Aaron played himself in an episode of Futurama called "A Leela of Her Own."
• Hank's 715th home run (breaking Babe Ruth's career record) was hit in Atlanta off of LA Dodger pitcher Al Downing.

Sixteen facts about Walter Johnson

1. Walter Perry Johnson, nicknamed "The Big Train," was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1907 and 1927. 
2. Walter Johnson established several pitching records, some of which remained unbroken for nearly a century.
3. Walter Johnson was spotted by a talent scout and signed a contract with the Washington Senators in July 1907 at the age of nineteen.
4. In a 21-year career, Walter Johnson had twelve 20-win seasons, including ten in a row.
5. As a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals/Senators, Walter Johnson won 417 games, the second most by any pitcher in history (after Cy Young, who won 511). He and Young are the only pitchers to have won 400 games.
6. Twice, Johnson topped thirty wins (33 in 1912 and 36 in 1913).
7. Three times, Johnson won the triple crown for pitchers (1913, 1918 and 1924). Johnson twice won the American League Most Valuable Player Award (1913, 1924), a feat accomplished since by only two other pitchers, Carl Hubbell in 1933 and 1936 and Hal Newhouser in 1944 and 1945.
8. Walter Johnson won 36 games in 1913, 40% of the team's total wins for the season.
9. Johnson finished his career with 23 home runs, the ninth-highest total for a pitcher in Major League history.
10. A baseball field in Rockville, Maryland is named after him
11. At 11:40 PM, Tuesday, December 10, 1946 Johnson died of a brain tumor in Washington, D.C., five weeks after his 59th birthday.
12. Johnson was the first American League pitcher to strike out four batters in one inning.
13. The baseball field in Memorial Park, in Weiser, Idaho, is called Walter Johnson Field.
14. In 1985, rock musician Jonathan Richman wrote and dedicated a song to Johnson entitled "Walter Johnson," performed with The Modern Lovers on the album Rockin' and Romance.A team in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League in Bethesda is named the "Big Train" in honor of him.
15. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Johnson number 4 on its list of Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, the highest-ranked pitcher. Later that year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
16. In 2009, a statue of Johnson was installed inside the center field gate of Nationals Park along with ones of Frank Howard and Josh Gibson.

Interesting facts about Ty Cobb

• Tyrus Raymond Cobb, nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American outfielder in baseball born in Narrows, Georgia.
• Ty Cobb played on three World Series teams, all with the Detroit Tigers.
• Ty Cobb has the highest lifetime batting average (.367) of all time.
• Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics.
• Cobb is one of only two people to hit a home run before his 20th birthday and after his 40th birthday.
• In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes.
• Ty Cobb is second on the all-time hit list behind Pete Rose.
• Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia, in 1886, the first of three children to Amanda Chitwood Cobb and William Herschel Cobb.

16 facts about Willie Mays

1. William Howard Mays, Jr. was born on May 6, 1931.
2. Willie Mays, Jr. was born to Ann and Willie Howard Mays, Sr., who divorced when he was three years old.
3. Willie Mays played the majority of his career with the New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets.
4. Mays was raised mainly by his aunt, Sarah. He learned baseball and other sports from his father and his father's Industrial League teammates.
5. He was only 20 in 1951, when he received the phone call to join the Giants at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
6. Many consider him to be the greatest all-around player of all time.

22 interesting facts about Babe Ruth

1. George Herman Ruth, Jr. was born in February 6, 1895.
2. In 1914 Babe Ruth started out his career as a left-handed pitcher for the Baltimore team of the International League.
3. After he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-time right fielder and subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters.
4. Herman Ruth is best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat".
5. Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore, and educated at Saint Mary's Industrial School.
6. Ruth was a mainstay in the Yankees' lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with the team.
7. He was one of only two people to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game.
   

22 interesting facts about Satchel Paige

1. Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime.
2. Satchel Paige was over 40 years old the entire time he played in the majors.
3. Satchel Paige was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues.
4. Satchel started his career in 1924 when he had a tryout with the Mobile Tigers, a semi-pro baseball team.
5. Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42.
6. Satchel Paige earned his nickname, "Satchel," as a young boy, when he took a job carrying bags (and satchels) at railroad stations for passengers.
7. When the Negro League wasn't playing in the winter, Satchel Paige would go to the Caribbean leagues and pitch.