The Turtle wrote:Denorien wrote:Trade to be confirmed.
Liverpool (Denorien) trades Jimmie Wilson
To
The Turtle / Hobbs for Willard Hershberger
Confirmed
Willard Hershberger has the ignoble distinction of committing suicide during the 1940 season at a time he was positioned to shine. As best I can tell, he couldn't handle the pressure and his fear of failing. It is a tragic character flaw to self destruct.
Willard came up in the Yankees farm system where he had little chance to play in the majors with Bill Dickey entrenched. As was somewhat common, the Yankees traded him to the 'other' league where he'd get a chance to play. He landed on a good Reds team in 1938 backing up Ernie Lombardi (why he couldn't back up Dickey, I don't know). From what I can tell, Hershy was a very talented slap hitter and put up very good part-time numbers.
The Reds had won the pennant in '39, but lost the series. In 1940, they got off to a solid start. Willard had a great April and May backing up Lombardi when Lombardi had some kind of minor injury forcing Hershy into the starting lineup. Willard seemed to handle it ok until Lombardi came back. Unfortunately, not long after coming back, Lombardi was injured again and Hershberger appeared to go into a slump and fall apart in July. At the end of July, he made some mistakes behind the plate and failed to hit in some key at bats, blaming himself for two or three losses in particular.
Hersheberger's teammates and Bill McKechnie, Red's hall of fame manager and a decent guy, tried to encourage Willard after one particular loss he felt was his fault. Willard remarked to McKechnie that his father had done it and now he was going to do it, too. While McKechnie knew what Hershy was alluding to, he brushed it off and told Willard not to be so hard on himself. Willard didn't show up the next day and cut his throat in the bathroom that day or maybe a day later.
Willard's father had committed suicide in 1930, 10 years earlier, after a hunting outing with Willard when Willard was 20. His father shot himself shortly after they'd returned from hunting. I don't think Willard saw it. But, he was there and would have heard it and raced to find his father mortally wounded.
Suicide awareness was evolving in the 30s, 40s, and 50s in the US. Between the depression and returning veterans from wars, suicide was gradually being recognized as a mental illness and not a moral failing. 1940 was too early for this evolution to be mainstream. Bill McKechnie wouldn't talk about what Willard had said to him for many years. The Reds went on to win the world series in 1940 and routinely remarked they were doing it for Hershy. They voted 1/2 a series share to his mother.
I don't have suicide in my personal experience (myself, family, or close friends). It does not hit home for me in that way. Nor am I politically correct or given to shame - blame / cancel culture. Hershberger was not injury prone. Giving him an injury on a '7' seemingly because he committed suicide doesn't sit well with me. I don't think that injury rating was an accident. There are many part time players with minimal injuries even through they only had 100 - 200 ABs.
Anyway, he'll start at catcher for me.
I weighed when to draft him. I thought I could sneak Trotter by and get him in the next round. Fortunately, The Turtle was kind enough to trade him to me.