Dummy Hoy

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Dummy Boy.
William Hoy
Runs batted in
725
Stolen bases596
Teams
Career highlights and awards

William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy (May 23, 1862 – December 15, 1961) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for several teams from 1888 to 1902, most notably the Cincinnati Reds and two Washington, D.C. franchises.

Hoy is the most accomplished deaf player in MLB history, and is credited by some sources with causing the establishment of signals for safe and out calls.[1][2][3] He held the MLB record for games in center field (1,726) from 1889 to 1902, set records for career putouts (3,958) and total chances (4,625) as an outfielder, and retired among the leaders in outfield games (2nd; 1,795), assists (7th; 273), and double plays (3rd; 72).

He was an excellent

baserunner, scoring over 100 runs nine times, and often finishing among the top base stealers. He is one of only 29 players to have played in four different Major Leagues. His 1,006 career walks put him second in MLB history behind Billy Hamilton when he retired. He ended his career ranking eighth in career games played
(1,796).

Career

Born in the small town of

Tom Lynch. In his rookie year he led the league in stolen bases (although the statistic was defined differently prior to 1898),[4] and also finished second with 69 walks while batting .274. At 5'4" and batting left-handed, he was able to gain numerous walks with a small strike zone, leading the league twice and compiling a .386 career on-base percentage
.

Hoy's speed was a great advantage in the outfield, and he was able to play shallow as a result. On June 19, 1889, he set an MLB record (which has since been tied twice) by throwing out three runners at home plate in one game, with catcher

Washington Senators of the National League
. He was traded to the Reds in December 1893, where he was reunited with Comiskey.

Hoy later joined the

last minor league season
in 1900, where Comiskey was now the team owner, Hoy stayed with the team when the AL achieved major league status in 1901, helping them to the league's (and his) first pennant.

In 1901, he broke

New York Giants in the first faceoff between deaf players in the Major Leagues. Hoy got two hits
.

Hoy retired with a .288 batting average, 2,048 hits, 1,429 runs, 725 runs batted in, 248 doubles, 121 triples and 40 home runs. He had 488 stolen bases from 1888 through 1897, and 108 more after the statistic was redefined to its present meaning in 1898. His 1,795 games in the outfield ranked second to Jimmy Ryan (then at 1,829) in MLB history. Jesse Burkett broke his MLB record for career putouts in 1905, and Clarke topped his record for career total chances in 1909. His record for career games in center field was broken by Tris Speaker in 1920.

Personal life

A baseball card of Hoy

In Hoy's time, the word "dumb" was used to describe someone who could not speak, rather than someone who was stupid. But since the ability to speak was often connected to one's intelligence, the epithets "dumb" and "dummy" became interchangeable with stupidity. Hoy himself often corrected individuals who addressed him as William, and referred to himself as Dummy.[citation needed] Said to have been able to speak with a voice that resembled a squeak,[5] he was one of the most intelligent players of his time.[6]

He is sometimes credited with developing the hand signals used by umpires to this day, though this view is widely disputed. Cy Rigler is believed to have created signals for balls and strikes while working in the minor leagues. In the November 6, 1886 issue of The Sporting News, the deaf pitcher Ed Dundon is credited as using hand signals while umpiring a game in Mobile, Alabama on October 20 1886. Bill Klem is credited with introducing those signals to the Major Leagues, in the early 20th century.[6]

No articles printed during Hoy's lifetime have been found to support the suggestion that he influenced the creation of signals, nor did he ever maintain that he had such a role. Nonetheless, due to the possibility that he may have played a role in the use of signals, as well as for his all-around play, there is a movement to support his election to the

Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.[6]

In retirement, Hoy and his wife Anna Maria, who was also deaf, operated a dairy farm in

Paul Hoy Helms, the founder of the Helms Athletic Foundation in Los Angeles. Hoy also worked as an executive with Goodyear after supervising hundreds of deaf workers during World War I.[7][8]

In 1951 he was the first deaf athlete elected to membership in the

Lytle Park
in Cincinnati.

Legacy

Upon his death in 1961 at the age of 99, Hoy was the longest-lived former MLB player ever. In 1973,

Chet Hoff
, who was 107 when he died in 1998.

At the time of his death, Dummy Hoy was the last surviving participant of both the

American Association and the Players' League
.

In

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003. Hoy was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2004.[10]

The William "Dummy" Hoy Classic is a baseball game held every two years during Rochester, New York Deaf Awareness Week; it is contested between members of the Rochester Recreation Club of the Deaf and the Buffalo, New York Club of the Deaf, at a recreated 19th-century ballpark at Genesee Country Village and Museum.[11]

In 2008, the

Documentary Channel aired the biography Dummy Hoy: A Deaf Hero (aka: I See the Crowd Roar). The documentary, using photographs of Hoy and actors to recreate certain events, chronicled the highlights of Hoy's life and his contributions to baseball; Hoy was portrayed by Ryan Lane.[12]

At least three picture books for children have been published: Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise (2012), The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game Nancy Churnin (2016).[13], and The Little-Known Heroes: William 'Dummy' Hoy by Kaushay and Spencer Ford (2021).[14]

The 2019 limited-release movie The Silent Natural, tells the story of Hoy, who is played by Miles Barbee, who is deaf in real life.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ Sandy and Miller, p. 48.
  2. ^ Gould, pp 127–9 refutes this.
  3. ^ Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, Maryland: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 291–295 (PDF Archived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine)(PDF Archived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine)
  4. ^ Sandy and Miller, p. 50.
  5. ^ Buffalo Morning Express, April 13, 1890, p.14
  6. ^ a b c Sandy and Miller, p. 49.
  7. ^ a b Sandy and Miller, p. 53.
  8. ^ Drebinger, John (October 7, 1961). "Reds Bow in Ninth" (PDF). The New York Times. Cincinnati. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  9. ^ Drebinger, John (October 7, 1961). "Reds Bow in Ninth" (PDF). The New York Times. Cincinnati. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  10. ^ "Shrine of the Eternals – Inductees" Archived 2020-09-19 at the Wayback Machine. Baseball Reliquary. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
  11. Gannett Company. pp. 1B, 4B. Archived from the original
    on September 20, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
  12. ^ Rich Davis (19 October 2008). "Crew films documentary on 19th century deaf baseball player 'Dummy' Hoy". Evansville Courier & Press.
  13. ^ "The William Hoy Story".
  14. ^ "William 'Dummy' Hoy (Hard Cover)". 26 February 2021.
  15. ^ "The Silent Natural (2019) - IMDb". IMDb.

References

  • Sandy, Steve; Miller, Richard. "No Dummy: William Ellsworth Hoy." Timeline, March–April 2000, pp. 48–53.
  • ISBN 0-393-32557-1
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dummy Hoy.
Records
Preceded by Oldest recognized verified living baseball player
October 31, 1956 – December 15, 1961 		Succeeded by
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