Happy Birthday to the late and great Hughie Jennings, a Hall of Fame Shortstop and a successful coach and manager.
.312 BA, 1,526 HITS, 18 HR, 840 RBI, .391 OBP, 992 RUNS
Being the ninth of twelve kids, he deserted school at 12 to take on a .90 cent-a-day job. In his free time, he played the game of baseball, and at the age of 20, he played the sport for a living. He started his career with the Louisville Colonels in 1891, but his prime years were with the Baltimore Orioles, who were in the NL then, in which he led the Orioles to the pennant in 1894 by hitting .335. Over the next two seasons, he combined for .394 AVG, 413 HITS, and 246 RBIs in 261 games. He's regarded as a tough and gritty player. Jennings was well known as a player who would sometimes lean into a pitch; in 1896, he got hit 51 times, which remains a record. His 273 times being hit by a pitch is the second most in MLB history, behind only Craig Biggio at 285.
After 1903, he would play again on/off over the next fifteen years but never on as an everyday player. In 1907, he took on the manager role for the Detroit Tigers and led them to three consecutive pennants from 1907-1909. He left Detroit after 1920 and joined John McGraw, who was struggling with health issues, to help him coach/manage occasionally, where he'd win two World Series in 1921 & 1922.
Written and Published by Robert Dobek
Follow on Twitter: @RobTheYankee
References:
Hughie Jennings Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jennihu01.shtml
Bleacher Report Editors Ee-Yah!: The Exciting Story of Hughie Jennings via Bleacher Report: Published November 2, 2008: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/76729-ee-yah-the-exciting-story-of-hughie-jennings
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