Paul Waner

Paul Glee Waner (April 16, 1903 – August 29, 1965), nicknamed "Big Poison", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams between 1926 and 1945, most notably playing his first 15 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The greatest Pirate outfielder up to his retirement, he won the 1927 NL Most Valuable Player Award in his second season, collecting a team-record 237 hits that year. Waner set the team record for doubles in a season three times, including 1932 when he set the NL record for doubles in a season with 62. In the only postseason appearance of his career, he hit .333 in the Pirates' 1927 World Series loss against the New York Yankees. Waner won three National League (NL) batting titles, led the NL in hits twice, and collected over 200 hits eight times including four consecutive seasons from 1927 to 1930. with a single off Rip Sewell. He led the NL in putouts four times and holds the career record for most putouts by a right fielder. Waner's 191 triples are 10th all-time and the most among players whose entire careers were in the live-ball era, and his 605 doubles are 14th all-time. A career .333 hitter, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952. When Waner's younger brother Lloyd was elected to the Hall of Fame, they became the second pair of brothers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, after Harry and George Wright. Paul and Lloyd also hold the record for the most hits recorded by brothers (5,611). On July 21, 2007, Waner's No. 11 was retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Early life

Waner was born in Harrah in the Oklahoma Territory, four years before the region became a state. He was the third child of five of Ora and Etta Waner. His younger brother Lloyd Waner is also a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Ora had once been offered a contract by the Chicago White Stockings but declined it, instead settling on a 400-acre farm. Waner was born with the middle name of John but his middle name was changed from John to Glee after an uncle named Glee gave him a shotgun at the age of 6. He stated that he learned batting from hitting corncobs on his father's farm, learning the way to follow the ball by seeing the movement of the cobs. Waner had astigmatism; he did not like wearing glasses on the field as it made the ball appear smaller and in focus, but without glasses, the ball looked grapefruit-sized. With the larger apparent size of the baseball, he was able to hit the center more often.

thumb | right | 1933 Paul Waner baseball card

Waner played baseball at East Central State Teachers College (now known as East Central University) in Ada, Oklahoma; he pitched to a 23–4 record with a 1.70 earned run average in 1922. He signed with the team in Joplin, Missouri in the Class A Western League. Then, Waner was sent to the Southwestern League (equivalent to Rookie League) in Muskogee before being sold again to the Class AA San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1923, the manager of which was former Pirate, John "Dots" Miller. He only pitched one game for the Seals, in 1924 before he was moved to the outfield. With the Seals, Waner hit .378 over his three seasons, including .401 in their 1925 championship season.

Major League Baseball career

Pittsburgh Pirates

In October 1925, the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League purchased Waner and teammate Hal Rhyne from the Seals for $100,000. On April 17, 1926, against the Cincinnati Reds, he collected his first major league hit. On August 26, Waner collected six hits in six at-bats during a game against the Giants, and he accomplished this feat using six different bats from six different players. He ended his first season with a .336 batting average and led the NL in triples with 22. He also finished 12th in MVP voting as the Pirates finished in third place, 4.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. The 1927 season was a standout year for Paul. He played in a career-high 155 games (which led the league), and led the NL in hits (237), a team record, triples (18), batting average (.380) and RBIs (131). Since then this feat has also been accomplished by Chipper Jones in 2006. Aided by the contributions of the Waner brothers, Pittsburgh advanced to the 1927 World Series. His 223 hits in 1928 were tied (with his younger brother Lloyd) for second most in team history. He set a career high with 15 home runs in 1929. He also collected at least 200 hits for the third season in a row and hit .336 with 43 doubles and 100 RBIs for the second place Pirates. Playing in only 145 games (the fewest since his rookie year) during the 1930 season, he still recorded 217 hits with a .368 batting average and 117 runs. By his measure, 1931 was a disappointing year for Waner, who was injured and missed time during spring training. During a game on May 12, Waner hit four doubles, which tied a major league record for doubles hit in a game. He finished second in MVP voting and was selected to his second MLB All-Star Game. In 1935, it was suggested by manager Pie Traynor that Waner give up hard liquor and switch to beer, and this resulted in Waner only hitting .242 on May 18. Traynor and Waner went to a bar before playing the Giants on May 19, and when Waner ordered a beer Traynor said, "He will like Hell. Give him a shot of whiskey." It was also his fourth and final MLB All-Star Game selection.

Famous for his ability to hit while hung over, when Waner gave up drinking in 1938 at management's request, he hit only .280—the first of only two times that he failed to hit .300 as a Pirate. That year, he had 69 RBIs, 31 doubles and 175 hits in 148 games. As Casey Stengel said in complimenting his base-running skills, "He had to be a very graceful player, because he could slide without breaking the bottle on his hip."

Later career

thumb|right|Waner with the Braves

On January 31, 1941, Waner was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers After 11 games he was released by the Dodgers after only hitting .171 with 6 hits. He was released by Boston on January 19, 1943. Two days later, the Dodgers signed him again. A spike injury to his foot meant that he missed time once again,

Later life and legacy

Waner led the National League in batting on three occasions and accumulated over 3,000 hits during his 20-year baseball career. He hit 605 doubles, which at the time of his retirement was fifth-most all-time. He collected 200 or more hits on eight occasions, collected 50 or more doubles in three seasons, was voted the NL's Most Valuable Player in 1927, and had a lifetime batting average of .333, tied for fifth highest (with Eddie Collins) for anyone in the 3,000 hit club. His 191 triples are 10th most all time. Waner recorded one six-hit game, 5 five-hit games, and 55 four-hit games in his career. Stengel once stated that Waner was the best right fielder in National League history. Russo said, "Paul was a speedy outfielder who possessed perhaps the strongest arm in a Pittsburgh outfield until the arrival of Roberto Clemente." At the plate, Waner had a reputation for being fearless. He said, "I never let them [pitchers] get the better of me. If you flinch and show any fear, you're done." For most of the period from 1927 to 1940, Paul patrolled right field at Forbes Field while Lloyd covered the ground next to him in center field. On September 15, 1938, the brothers hit back-to-back home runs against Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. The origin of the nicknames "Big Poison" and "Little Poison" that were given to Paul and his younger brother Lloyd, respectively, is from a game at the Polo Grounds during the 1927 season when a fan pronounced "person" as "poison" as he called out to the brothers.

After his retirement, he kept active by fishing, hunting, golfing and being a part-time hitting coach for the Phillies, Cardinals, and Braves. Ted Williams credited Waner with advising him to move away from the plate to successfully combat the "Williams" shift. However, Russo noted that "Like Babe Ruth, [Waner's] distaste for discipline made him an inappropriate candidate for managing." A proficient golfer, Waner could shoot in the 70's. He was one of the people instrumental in starting the National Baseball Players Golf Tournament.

In 1999, he was ranked number 62 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Separate efforts by the Waner family and two longtime Pirates fans, who repeatedly petitioned Pirates then-owner Kevin McClatchy to honor Waner by retiring his uniform number, were eventually successful. The Pirates retired Waner's No. 11 in a ceremony before their game vs. the Astros on July 21, 2007, 55 years to the day of his induction into the Hall of Fame. A plaque was placed in the interior of PNC Park to commemorate the retiring of Waner's jersey.

Early life

Major League Baseball career

Pittsburgh Pirates

Later career

Later life and legacy

See also

Notes

References

Books

Further reading

External links