page_title: Hack Wilson
section_title: Glory years with the Cubs
hierarchical_section_title: Hack Wilson / Baseball career / Glory years with the Cubs
caption_attribution_description: English: Hack Wilson plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame
context_page_description: Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
  While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
context_section_description: Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar.  He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
  Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
  Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
  Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport."  His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.")  Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
  In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day 
caption: Plaque of Hack Wilson at the Baseball Hall of Fame
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