#196 Solly Hemus
Progress: 1st of this card
244 of 407
60% Complete!!!
How acquired: $5.99 on eBay
Condition: Good'
I ended up getting this one for about half of what I was willing to pay. Not that I "wanted" to pay that much (or even this much), but having tracked it's sales the last year or so, I had set a $12 goal for this guy. Hemus is described on his wiki page as being; "a hard-nosed player known for battling with opponents and umpires." During his final season in 1959 he served as a player/manager for the Cardinals, and then managed the club for another season and a half before being canned. Per wiki, as manager he told Curt Flood and Bob Gibson to find another career as they weren't good enough to cut it in MLB. Gibson didn't describe Hemus as "hard-nosed." He had another term for Hemus. Stan Musial also found himself in Hemus' doghouse along with Ken Boyer and Jim Bronsan, all of whom objected to Hemus's use of racial slurs. It sounds like you can add teammates to the list of umpires and opponents that the "hard-nosed" Hemus was known for battling. Probably not by coincidence, Hemus led the NL in HBP on three different occassions.
Stats: 11 seasons, 731 hits, 51 home runs, .273 avg.
Best Hall of Fame Showing: 0.3% 1966
One of a growing minority of players from the set still alive, it blew my mind when I realized that a manager of a team from the early 1960's was still alive since I usually think of managers as being much older than their teammates. He used to answer his mail regularly but is spotty on it now.
ReplyDelete