Rogers Hornsby
Rogers Hornsby (* April 27, 1896 in Winters, Texas; † January 5, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball. His nickname was Rajah.
Biography
Rogers Hornsby began his career in the National League with the St. Louis Cardinals on September 10, 1915 in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. The second baseman was one of the greatest batsmen during his playing time. Seven times he led the National League in batting average in the three times he reached it the mark of over 40%. His batting average of 42.4 % in 1924 is the highest in the National League after 1900. Twice he hit the most home runs, which he achieved in 1922 as the first player in the NL more than 40 homers in a season. Four times he scored the most RBIs. 1922 and 1925 he won the Triple Crown, ie He led his league in home runs in the categories, RBIs and batting average. 1925 and 1929 he was elected MVP of the NL. His career batting average of 35.8 % is still the best in the National League, only Ty Cobb had recorded a better career performance.
Its common position of the second baseman he held until 1920, before he was employed as a shortstop, third baseman or outfielder as. In 1925 he took over the position of manager at the Cardinals and led the team in 1926 to win the title in the National League and into the World Series against the New York Yankees. Here, the Cardinals put against the favored Yankees with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth in seven games. After this season, he was sold by the Cardinals to the New York Giants. The crowd in St. Louis was with this decision not agree, but Hornsby was not without controversy in the boardroom of his club. He was on the field a tranquil representative who has never been sent off in his entire career, however, was so intent on winning matches that he put both with teammates and officials. Even with the Giants he lay with the leadership of the team and was sold to the Boston Braves. There one was very happy with him, but received a very good offer from the Chicago Cubs for Hornsby, they could not refuse. With the Cubs, he reached then in 1929 his second World Series, but it lost to the Philadelphia Athletics in five games. With the Cubs, he remained until 1932, then moved back to the Cardinals, for whom he played 46 games in 1933, before moving to local rivals St. Louis Browns and worked there as a player and manager. With the Browns he then denied on July 20, 1937 his last game in professional baseball. 1952 and 1953 he then worked again as a manager at the Browns and the Cincinnati Reds.
Already in 1942 Hornsby was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1963 he died at the age of 66 years. In 1999, he landed in ninth place in the choice of the 100 best baseball players of the magazine The Sporting News and was elected Baseball All- Century Team in the Major League. The musician Bruce Hornsby is a distant relative of Rogers Hornsby.