Johannes Peter “Honus” Wagner was an American professional baseball player and one of the first
five men to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He is generally considered the greatest
shortstop in baseball history by most baseball historians and is regarded as the finest all-around
player in the history of the National League (NL). From 1897 to 1917, Wagner played 21 Major
League Baseball (MLB) seasons and to this day holds the record of winning a total of eight batting
titles.
Wagner was born on 24 February 1874, to German immigrants Peter and Katheryn Wagner, who had
nine children. He was born in the borough of Chartiers, which is now known as Carnegie,
Pennsylvania. He dropped out of school at an early age to work in the coal mines, where his father
and brothers were already at work. The Wagner brothers played sandlot baseball and developed
such skills that four of them went on to play baseball professionally. Honus Wagner’s older brother,
Albert “Butts” Wagner is often credited with getting Honus his first tryout as he persuaded his
manager to take a look at his younger brother.
Career
Wagner had a bulky physique for his era as he stood about 6 feet tall and weighed around 90kgs. The
right-handed batter and thrower also had unusually long arms. However, as a base runner and a
defensive player, he was very fast. Before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wagner played for
the short-lived Louisville Colonels franchise from 1897 through 1899. From his first season with the
Pirates itself, Wagner was bound to be a star as he topped the NL in extra-base hits and posted a
league-leading and career-high .381 batting average. He led the NL in batting average seven more
times, and between 1899 and 1909 he hit at least .330 in each season. At the turn of the century in
1901, he led the Pirates to the first of three consecutive NL pennants, the last of which in 1904 gave
them a berth in the first World Series. Wagner was instrumental in helping the Pirates to their first
World Series title in the franchise history in 1909.
Finishing his 21 year career with a lifetime batting average of .328 and 3,420 hits, he called it quits in
1917. Playing at the height of the “dead ball” era (the game depended more on plays such as the stolen bases and hit-and-run than on home runs), he never amassed large home run totals. His
career-high of home-runs was 10, which he reached twice. He was, however, a prodigious power
hitter for the time, leading the league in slugging percentage on six occasions and his total of 252
triples is the greatest ever attained by an NL player. His stolen bases amounted to 722 when he
retired, which was the second-highest total in MLB history at the time. Wagner remained a popular
figure in Pittsburgh as he managed the Pirates briefly in 1917, was a coach on the team from 1933 to
1951.
Achievements
●One of the first five inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936
●Eight-time batting champion
●One-time World Series Championship winner
Personal Life
Wagner got married to Bessie Baine Smith in the year 1916. The couple would have three daughters,
namely, Elva Katrina Wagner (b. 1918, stillborn), Betty Baine Wagner (1919–1992), and Virginia Mae
Wagner (1922–1985). Wagner died at the age of 81 on December 6, 1955, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania,
United States.
