Harry Danning

Harry Danning (September 6, 1911 – November 29, 2004), nicknamed "Harry the Horse", was an American

Danning was born in Los Angeles to Jewish parents:^[3][4] his father, Robert Danning, was a Polish immigrant and owned a used-furniture store; his mother, Jennie Danning (née Goldberg), was a Latvian immigrant. Danning was one of six children, including three sons; Robert Danning took his sons to see baseball games, including the Pacific Coast League and the Negro league games.^[5] Robert's love of baseball inspired both Harry and his older brother Ike Danning, who played for the St. Louis Browns in 1928.^[3]

Danning attended Los Angeles High School in Los Angeles.^[3] His father became ill and Harry started working at 13, including delivering ice.^[5] Danning also worked for a rug salesman after high school.^[5][6] By that time, Danning's father had passed away, and the rug store job paid well — $90 a month — helping Danning support his family. He supplemented his income playing semipro baseball on Sundays, for $7.50 a week.^[5]

Baseball career

In 1931, Danning signed a $150-a-month contract with the Class-A team in

Danning first played with the New York Giants in 1933. From 1934 to 1936, he served as the Giants reserve catcher, working behind Gus Mancuso. In 1934 in spring training, despite a team reservation Jewish ballplayers Phil Weintraub and Danning were refused entry to the Flamingo Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, which had a "No Jews" policy. However, they were allowed to stay when Giants manager Bill Terry threatened he would take the whole team to another hotel if his Jewish ballplayers were not allowed in.^[7][8][9]

In the

In the 1937 series, CBS announcer Ted Husing nicknamed Danning "Harry The Horse" for Damon Runyon's Broadway character.^[5][12]

From

On June 9, 1939 against the pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds, Danning was one of five Giants to hit a home run in the fourth inning, breaking the prior record of four home runs by a team in one inning. Remarkably, all five were hit by the Giants with two outs.[16] Then, on June 15, 1940, he hit for the cycle in a game against Pittsburgh.^[17] His home run came on an inside-the-park home run that landed 460 feet (140 m) on the fly in front of the Giants' clubhouse, wedged behind the Eddie Grant memorial.^[18]

Through 2010, he was ninth all-time in career hits (behind Al Rosen) among Jewish major league baseball players.^[19]

Career statistics

In addition to batting .300 or higher in three consecutive seasons, Danning had a .285 career batting average, tying Yogi Berra for the 18th highest lifetime batting average among Hall of Fame eligible major league baseball catchers. He hit 57 lifetime

After baseball

During

He died in Valparaiso, Indiana, at the age of 93.^[12] His obituary and photograph appeared in the December 13, 2004, edition of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Other highlights

• The
  BBWAA in TSN poll for the 1940 All-Star team for both major leagues comprised Frank McCormick, 1b; Joe Gordon, 2b; Luke Appling, ss; Stan Hack, 3b; Harry Danning, c; and Bob Feller, Bucky Walters and Paul Derringer
  , p (January 8, 1941).
• In 1940 Danning was depicted on a Wheaties box as "the year's best catcher". Bucky Walters and Barney McCoskey were also depicted on that box.

• List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
• List of select Jewish baseball players
• List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise

References

Further reading

• Van Blair, Rick (1994).
  ISBN 078640017X
  .