Scrapbook
Articles
Memories of
Rogers Hornsby

Rogers Hornsby
Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, 1942
Hornsby
Rogers Hornsby
Born: April 27, 1896 at Winters, Tex.
Died: January 5, 1963 at Chicago, Ill. Obituary
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 5.11 Weight: 175

Rogers Hornsby was the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup on January 6, 2013, January 12, 2015, and July 24, 2019.

Non-playing roles with Mets
  • Coach 1962

Share your memories of Rogers Hornsby

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Andrew Jarosh
December 18, 2001
Second to Ty Cobb, Hornsby was a great player but a crude, coarse, unpopular manager and coach in all his years after he retired from playing. The Mets were his last major league gig; he died the following year. You should read his bio; tons of talent, a thimble-full of people skills.

johnny Met
June 23, 2002
The first edition of the '62 Met yearbook had a great photo of Hornsby holding a bat like a rifle. Alas, midway through the season, a second edition was issued without the photo. He's not in the official '62 Met team photo, either. All the other coaches are.

Richard Kissel
September 14, 2002
As my 10 year old son tells me, if there was never a Babe Ruth, the twenties would have been known as "The Age of Hornsby." He is arguably the greatest righthanded hitter that ever lived. A lot of people wouldn't realize this, but he has the highest slugging percentage in NL history (thanks to my son for this info).

mets
May 29, 2003
Hornsby was an outstanding hitter. He hit .400 multiple times. Some people claim Robbie Alomar is the best offensive second baseman of all time. They should research Mr. Hornsby. Hornsby would not go to the movies because he believed that it would ruin his batting eye. I don't think it would have mattered with the 62 Mets team.

Tim S
June 27, 2003
Casey had few rules that first spring training. One was "Play Good" and another "don't wear your spikes in the clubhouse". It soon became obvious that Hornsby wasn't going to get along with Stengel because he kept wearing his spikes on the carpeted clubhouse floor, tracking mud and dirt inside.

Joe Figliola
June 30, 2003
Great hitter, but seemed to be a real pain in the ass towards his teammates. I read a book called "The Giants of the Polo Grounds," where he was ordering his fellow mates to do things his way. Freddie Lindstrom, a great shortstop from that era, told Hornsby that "(John) McGraw told us to (make a play) this way." Hornsby replied that they should listen to him when McGraw wasn't around.

He also was involved in the final play of the 1926 World Series. The Cardinals player/manager tagged out Babe Ruth when he tried to steal second. I think that's the only time a World Series ended with a caught stealing.

Am curious to learn how the Mets got along with him. Anyone?

Jonathan Stern
March 6, 2005
What a beautiful thing! The man who ended the 1926 World Series by catching Babe Ruth on a stolen base attempt coaching the 1962 Mets. Even then, there was justice in Metsland.

Said Hornsby about the Bambino: "I'll always remember putting the ball on him. He didn't say a word. He didn't even look around or up at me. He just picked himself off the ground and walked away."

Mark Corrao
December 20, 2008
Hornsby died in 1963 of a heart attack after cataract surgery. He is buried in the Hornsby Bend cemetery east of Austin, Texas.

Gary Raehse
February 18, 2022
My uncle (RIP) played minor league ball in the '50s. He was called up for a spring training look and Hornsby (retired and coaching by then) was taking batting practice and just killing the ball. He would call out where he was going to hit the next pitch, and then hit a screaming liner to exactly that spot. My uncle said he never saw anyone else with that kind of bat control. Said Hornsby would have been the best hitter on the team if he wasn't retired a few years by then.

Hot Foot
April 26, 2023
On the Mets broadcast from July 28, 1993 (on YouTube), Ralph Kiner mentions that Rogers Hornsby was not a pull hitter but went the other way. In other words, he hit to all fields.

Not that this information does me any good now, and it's kind of obvious; in order to hit .424 it helps to hit to all fields.

Because of his high averages, I always thought Hornsby was a left-handed hitter (like Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and Ruth & Gehrig, Stan Musial, George Brett, Tony Gwynn, John Olerud) but he was actually a righty.

I was wondering who might be his competition as the greatest right handed hitter of all time, so I googled "greatest right handed hitter of all time mlb" and this was the result (from a Bleacher Report article):

The Top 10 Right-Handed Hitters in MLB History

1. Rogers Hornsby. Some people may want to quibble over the other nine, but you cannot take this prize from Rajah.

2. Nap Lajoie 3. Hank Aaron 4. Willie Mays 5. Jimmie Foxx 6. Joe DiMaggio 7. Al Simmons 8. Honus Wagner 9. Albert Pujols 10. Cap Anson

By the way, Mike Piazza should be on this list. Piazza ended his career with a .308 batting average, while Pujols finished up with a .296 lifetime average.

Also missing from this list are: Kirby Puckett, Vladimir Guerrero, Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Greenberg. But still, you can't argue that Hornsby was far and above his closest competition.

It may be worthwhile to note that in the postseason (49 at bats), he batted .245.

I invoke the Baseball Gods to deliver the Mets a DH who hits like Rogers Hornsby in the regular season.








Meet the Mets
  • All-Time Roster
  • Mug Shots
  • Player Awards
  • Transactions
  • Managers and Coaches
  • Mets Staff
  • Birthplaces
  • Oldest Living Mets
  • Necrology
  • Games
  • Game Results
  • Walkoff Wins and Losses
  • Post-Season Games
  • No-Hitters and One-Hitters
  • All-Star Games
  • Opponents and Ballparks
  • Daily Standings
  • Yearly Finishes
  • Mayor's Trophy Games
  • Stats
  • Interactive Statistics
  • Team Leaders
  • Decade Leaders
  • Metscellaneous
  • Fan Memories
  • Mets Uniforms
  • Uniform Numbers
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • FAQ



  • Copyright 1999-2024, The Ultimate Mets Database