Honus Wagner’s Major League Debut

Hall of Famer Cap Anson’s hits total varies widely by source. While some maintain that he never amassed 3,000 hits at all, others credit him with achieving this milestone on July 18, 1897. One day later, July 19, Honus Wagner—who would become the first or second batter (depending on which source is believed) to reach that milestone—made his National League debut, as a center fielder for the Louisville Colonels.

In the bottom of the first, Colonel left fielder-manager Fred Clarke and right fielder Tom Mccreery singled. Batting third against Washington’s James “Doc” McJames, the league’s strikeout leader that year, Wagner placed a bunt to the first base side of the mound and came close to beating it out. The successful sacrifice moved two runners into scoring position as part of a four-run first inning. Honus walked and struck out in his next two trips to the plate and, in the seventh inning, lined a single to right, driving in a run. On the day, he went 1 for 2 in the Colonels’ 6-2 win, collecting several big league firsts: single, run driven in, base on balls, sacrifice bunt, strikeout, stolen base, and outfield assist.

Only six hundred paying customers witnessed Wagner’s big league debut, but the Louisville Commercial called him “the main feature of the game” and referred to him as “Count Hans Von Wagner.” The paper noted that he “is a splendidly built man, cut on a generous pattern,” elaborating, “In fact his whole build is very much after the order of a one-story brick house.” Favorably impressed, the paper also maintained, “He throws like a shot . . . and is remarkably fast.” His baserunning aggressiveness also nearly cost the team a rally. With Clarke at third and Wagner at first, Wagner stole second, rounded the bag, and headed for third when the throw skipped a few feet away. Clarke, who was anchored to third, reacted to Wagner’s barreling toward him by setting out for home, where he narrowly avoided a tag at the plate.

The following day, Wagner made a sensational catch in center field and, over the next few games, secured many of his other career firsts. On July 21, in game one of a doubleheader, he scored his first run and hit his first double off Washington’s Lester German. German, coincidentally, had surrendered Napoleon “Larry” Lajoie’s first double less than a year earlier. In the second game of the doubleheader, Wagner had his first two-hit game and first triple, also off McJames (though he tried to stretch the triple into a home run and was thrown out at the plate). His first big league homer would come five weeks later, on August 27, when he drove a Jack Dunn pitch over the left field fence at Brooklyn’s Eastern Park. (Dunn is best remembered for being the minor league magnate-manager who, years later, would sign Babe Ruth, a young recruit out of the St. Ma1y’s Industrial School for Boys, to his first professional contract.)

Wagner was off to a flying start. He had at least one hit in each of his first nine games, totaling fourteen hits and giving him a .424 batting average. Within three weeks of his debut, The Sporting News touted his hitting prowess as well as the strength and accuracy of his throwing arm, calling him “a glittering success” and the “bright particular star of the Colonels just now.” The St. Louis-based sports weekly continued with, “Every day he gets cheers and verbal and typographical bouquets and his place in the affections of the rooters is disputed only by Fred Clarke.”

Within a month of his first game with Louisville, Wagner was already making himself the butt of a joke in describing his introduction to Cincinnati Reds’ center fielder William “Dummy” Hoy. Changing sides between innings, the two crossed paths, but Hoy gave no response to Wagner’s repeated requests for a chew. Honus confided to teammate Perry Werden that Hoy must be “the worst stuck-up guy I’ve ever seen.” In admitting his gaffe to others, Wagner quoted Werden’s reply, “Why, you slob, he’s deaf and dumb.” It was obvious that Wagner was already comfortable with his new surroundings, but then again, he never felt above telling one on himself.

Wagner’s agreeable combination of cheerful good nature and superior baseball ability helped pave the way to his acceptance and eventual popularity at the major league level. He confessed, “I was a green, awkward kid, unused to big league ways. . . . I kept my mouth shut, though, and went right along about my business. The one thing that saved me from a lot of extra joshing, I suppose, was [that] I could always slam the ball.”