Overview
Honus Wagner is generally acknowledged as the finest shortstop in baseball history. Along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson, he was one of the first five players to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His rare 1909 baseball card - known to collectors as the Holy Grail of American memorabilia - fetched nearly half a million dollars at auction in 1991. His rise paralleled the development of baseball as the national pastime, and his playing skills remain legendary. He was, possibly, the first superstar of American sports. At a time when baseball was a raw, aggressive game played by rugged men, the unflappable Wagner's humble ways enhanced his miraculous performance throughout his twenty-one-year career, including three seasons with the Louisville Colonels and eighteen with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wagner's gradual emergence from the pack into stardom and popularity is described here in rich detail. But the book also reveals much of Wagner's family and personal life - his minor league career, his values, his failed business ventures during the Depression, his later years - about which, until now, there has been no well known narrative. Neither the "rowdy-ball" ruffian nor the teetotal saint constructed of legend, Wagner is presented here in a complete portrait - one that offers a vivid impression of the era when baseball was America's game and the nation was evolving into the world's industrial leader.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Baseball's legendary "Flying Dutchman" was born in Pennsylvania in 1874, the son of immigrant German parents. He was signed to play in the minor leagues and made his National League debut with Louisville in 1897. When the team folded, he moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he would spend the rest of his career. A gifted athlete who could play any position, he finally settled in at shortstop, where he would go on to lead the league in batting eight times during the "deadball" era. The authors, members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), look at the highlights of Wagner's career: playing in the first World Series in 1903; going head-to-head with his rival Ty Cobb in the 1909 World Series; and becoming the second player in major-league history to collect 3000 hits. Having gone on to manage the Pirates and to become one of the original members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Wagner died in 1955. This workmanlike bio will appeal primarily to those interested in the early years of baseball. Photos not seen by PW. Foreign rights: Holt. (May)Kirkus Reviews
A baseball story too good to be true, written in a style that makes it seem even less probable.Born to a German immigrant family, Hans Peter Wagner was a genial, strapping lad (the nickname "Honus," a corruption of Hans, was a German term of endearment for a big awkward kid) who grew even more physically prepossessing by working in the mills and mines of western Pennsylvania. Breaking in with the Louisville Colonels of the National League in the 1890s, Wagner showed great prowess with both bat and glove. He could play at any of the eight field positions, although his regular spot was at shortstop. (He is considered by many to have been the greatest shortstop ever to play the game.) At the turn of the century Wagner's team was bought by Barney Dreyfuss, a genial businessman who moved them to Pittsburgh, where Honus would spend the balance of his life and career. Dreyfuss's largesse (he regularly treated his teams to vacations whether they won the pennant or not) was a marked contrast to the penurious owners of the early 1900s. And as baseball's pinnacle attraction and the centerpiece of several championship teams, the loyal and hardworking Wagner gave Dreyfuss few chances during their long relationship to regret his generosity. After finally hanging up his spikes in 1917, Wagner—owner of several Major League records—entered a golden retirement during which he coached for the Pirates and was among the first players inducted into the Hall of Fame. This book does explode some prominent myths, most notably that Wagner forced a cigarette maker to withdraw a card bearing his likeness because of his disdain for tobacco (Wagner was, in fact, an inveterate chewer and cigar smoker who may have dismissed cigarettes as too "lady like").
The authors (members of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research) divulge little, however, in their hagiography about how Wagner changed the game, or vice versa.