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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.

clubhouse report
May 14, 2002
 I knew '62 was rough year for the Mets but who knew that two of their coaches died that winter? Neither Hornsby or Red Kress made it to opening day '63. Yikes.

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."

original mets
June 3, 2005
 I have just finished reading the book Spirit of St. Louis by P. Golenbock. Mr. Golenbock portrays Mr. Hornsby as the greatest right handed hitter in NL history but as far as his personality was concerned he was a loser. He was addicted to gambling, lost numerous managerial jobs because of this (with the Browns) and got along with no one. How could the Mets hire this guy, even though he was a great hitter? They say he never went to the movies because he was afraid he would hurt his eyes. Who would go to the movies with this guy anyway?

PAT PIZZONIA
July 25, 2005
 It seems the only reason "the Rajah" was hired to coach the Mets in 1962 had everything to do with name recognition for this fledgling franchise. This was (and IS) a National League town, and Hornsby (personality not withstanding) was a name that most serious fans would certainly recall with awe. His .424 batting season was just 37 years earlier, thus still within many people's lifetime and memory range back in '62. I cannot vouch for his ability as a hitting instructor, but the club's offensive output that year was actually pretty good. However, the other aspects of the "Original Mets" game skills, personalities, and exploits will always be recognized as functioning somewhat "below" championship level- 60 1/2 games to be exact!

Shickhaus Franks
April 12, 2007
 In the 1992 baseball movie "A League Of Their Own", in the scene where Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) is reminding Bitty Schram that "There's No Crying In Baseball"; he also reminds her that "Rogers Hornsby was my manager and he called me a talking pile of pig &#@$". That and I read in Ken Burns "Baseball" book that once during a game, an umpire informed of an opposing pitcher that "Mr. Hornsby will let you know when I call Strike One".

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.

Orange and Blue Forever
November 2, 2015
 There is an episode of the Happy Days television series that mentions Hornsby. In one scene, Howard Cunningham tells Fonzie that he was one of the greatest hitters of all-time, but didn't make it as a manager because he expected all his players to be as good as he was. This is probably true, but it's also known that he had poor communication skills and did not get along with people very well. He had problems with many interpersonal situations. Being able to relate to different kinds of personalities is essential for any coach or manager.

An athlete is one thing, but an instructor is something else. Some can be successful at a certain craft and still lack the ability to teach it to others. Rogers was a person who put his physical talents to good use. He just didn't have what it took to be a good mentor.

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.








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