|
|
 |
| |
|
Home > Baseball > MLB Hall of Famers > Willie Keeler
Willie Keeler
Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.
Willie Keeler was born on March 3, 1872, in Brooklyn, New York. Keeler was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 30, 1892, with the New York Giants. His height is five foot four inches with weight 140 lbs. Wee Willie had a catchy nickname, extraordinary statistics, and membership on one of the game's great teams, and a formula for success that became baseball's classic axiom.
In 1897, at age twenty-five, Wee Willie enjoyed his finest season. He batted 0.432, the third-highest mark in ML history, and led the league with 243 hits in only 128 games. He also hit safely in 44 consecutive games, an NL record since equaled by only Pete Rose.
Although the native Brooklynite jumped to the New York Highlanders in 1903, becoming one of few to play for three New York teams, he is best remembered for his years in Baltimore. His contemporaries recognized him as one of the game's great bat handlers, a precise bunter, and place hitter as well as a master of the Baltimore chop off the hardened dirt in front of home plate. He choked his short bat almost halfway up, and with a quick wrist snap would punch the ball over the infielders' heads.
He was extremely fast down the line and worked the hit-and-run expertly with teammate John McGraw. Aggressive and opportunistic, Keeler remained cheerful and friendly, without a trace of McGraw's unpleasant anger. A bachelor who prospered in real estate when his playing days ended, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939.
Back to MLB Hall of Famers
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|