Paul Waner

Paul Waner ranks high on our greatest all-time players of the MLB that wore the Number 1 on their uniform. Here are a couple of facts and stories about the legend.

Paul Glee Waner  was born on April 16, 1903 in Harrah, Oklahoma. Paul played 20 seasons in the big leagues, 15 of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates and many of those alongside his brother Lloyd in the outfield.  Paul was had been given the nickname of "Big Poison."  Waner was notorious for being able to play and hit after tying one on the night before. The effects of hangover seemed to influence his game for the better so much that is said that when he gave up drinking in 1938, his batting average dipped. That is true to a point, Waner hit .309 in 1938 after a lifetime average of .333. 

One interesting tale from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Takes a Swing at Baseball says that an intersting thing occurred as Paul Waner got his 3000th hit. He was playing for the Boston Braves later in his career in 1942 and his team was visitong his former club the Pirates in a game. Waner had 2,999 hits when he went up to bat. He nailed a line drive right at the Pittsburgh shortstop who klnocked it down, picked the ball up and tossed it to first, but not in time to get Waner at first. After some time the scorekeepers ruled that it was a hit. At the next time out Waner approached the scorekeeper and asked them to count it as an error, he wanted to have a good clean, undisputed hit to mark the milestone. The scorekeeper listened to the reasoning and agreed, and a correction to an error was made. A few innings later the slugger belted a shot to the outfiled to reach safely. He is the only MLB known to have ever refused a hit!

Paul Waner retired with 3,152 hits, 1,647 runs scored and 1,309 RBI. Big Poison was selected to four All-Star games in the 1930s and earned the National League’s Most Valuable Player honors in 1927. Paul and his brother Lloyd (Little Poison) hold the record forsiblings with the most career hits with 5,611. Paul still holds the Major League record for consecutive games with an extra-base hit with 12 doubles, four triples and four home runs in 14 games in 1927. Paul Glee Waner was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of a cropped installment of 1936 Goudey World Wide Gum card of Paul Waner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Special thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, SABR.org and the sources sited above.