Rogers Hornsby

Why was Rogers Hornsby considered such a controversial player?

Maybe it was because of the way he spelled his first name?

Quotes by Rogers Hornsby

"Any ballplayer that don't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist."

"(Ty) Cobb is all wet. He talks about a game which had no night play, a game in which the pitcher had everything his own way. He could apply saliva, tobacco juice, mud, talcum powder, or a file to the ball. He could load it with phonograph needles, raise the seams and do anything else he wished with it. And a ball remained in play until it was ready to break apart. Now the advantage is all with the hitters."

"I always tried to hit the ball back through the box because that is the largest unprotected area."

"I don't like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher."

"I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it."

"It don't make no difference where I go or what happens, so long as I can play the full nine."

"I've never been a yes man."

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

"Players who stand flat footed and swing with their arms are golfers, not hitters."

"To be a good hitter you've got to do one thing - Get a good ball to hit."

Let's just say that he was not considered a good teammate--or manager.

He was also not very tolerant as a manager and was very racially biased (as were many others of the time) - I recently read another Satchel Paige biography that described what it was like for Paige to try to play for him as a St. Louis Brown in the late 1940's.

When Rogers was managing the Reds the players complained because he was always pissing in the shower.
Mister Rogers neighborhood had an completely different meaning for them.

Maxie

Wasn't Ty Cobb even worse?

Hornsby evolved over time, to the extent that Billy Williams credited him with teaching him how to focus and relax at the plate. One who overcomes his upbringing and changes for the better over time is to be admired.

From the HOF:

"I suggest you get this kid Williams to Chicago as rapidly as possible because there isn’t anybody on the Cubs right now who can swing a bat as well as he does. It’s silly to keep him in the minors any longer. " Rogers Hornsby

I love how we try to look at people who lived 100-150 years ago through our own kaleidoscope of culture and ideas and make moral, ethical, and physical judgements about them. "They couldn't have been as (cultured, refined, knowledgable, enlightened, tolerant, talented, athletically dominant) as we are today."

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."---Sir Isaac Newton

well said. i'm so tired of this PC crap!!!

well said. i'm so tired of this PC crap!!!

Let's have an Hallelujah to that!!!