Paul Waner, Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirates rightfielder
Paul Glee Waner was born April 16, 1903 in Harrah, Oklahoma. After high school, he began attending college to become a teacher, but when that didn't work out for him, he dropped out. At the age of 20 he signed a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was assigned to the Pacific Coast League to play for the San Francisco Seals. Two years later, Paul led the league in hitting with a scorching .401 average, spanking a league-record 75 doubles in the process. The next year he got the call up to the big leagues.
Paul's rookie year was a big success; he clubbed 22 triples to lead the league while batting .336. The following year the 24 year old had his best year in the league, earning National League MVP honors by leading the league with a .380 average and 237 hits, including a league-leading 19 triples and 131 runs batted in. Many of those runs came courtesy of Paul's younger brother Lloyd, then a 21 year old rookie who batted .355. Paul and Lloyd were such a fearsome duo that one Brooklyn Dodgers fan lamented: "Those Waners! It's always the big person on third and the little person on first!" With his thick accent, the Brooklynite pronounced person "poison" - and from then on, Paul was known as Big Poison.
Although not the biggest or strongest player on the team, he was perhaps its best fielder, his arm displaying an enormous range in spacious Forbes Field. From 1928 to 1937 Paul batted .300 or better in every season and was consistently the most valuable player on the Pirates team. But in 1938 he only batted .280, the curious result related to the most interesting aspect of Paul's life and career: his alcoholism.
A constant party hound, Paul partied all night and then came to the stadium to play the next day. To sober up, he would do back-flips in right field and run laps with his brother. True to his name, Paul was Big Poison 24 hours a day. In 1938, however, the Pirates looked like real pennant contenders, something they hadn't done since Paul's MVP season of 1927, when they had been swept by Murderer's Row. So management demanded that Paul give up drinking. He did so reluctantly - and proceeded to bat below .300 for the first time in his career. After that, the team never told him what to do off the field, but by then, Paul was 35 years old and on the decline.
After two more average seasons with the Pirates, Paul's old nemesis Frankie Frisch took over as manager of the club, and Paul was shipped to the Brooklyn Dodgers. However, after only ten games with the team, he was moved again to the Boston Bees (later the Boston Braves.) Paul never really got off the ground in Boston, though in 1942 he collected his 3,000th hit against his old team the Pirates, becoming only the 6th player to do so in modern Major League history. In 1943, he rejoined the Dodgers. As a 40 year old reserve outfielder, Paul still managed to bat .311.
Paul finally retired in 1945 and became a manager for Miami in 1946. Paul's alcoholism and lack of discipline proved problematic for a managerial track, and so Paul was relegated to being a hitting coach. He helped several teams throughout the 1950s, including his old team, the relocated Milwaukee Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Philadelphia Phillies.
In 1952, Paul was awarded a membership in the Hall of Fame. Big Poison passed away August 29, 1965 in Sarasota, Florida.
I may have got Paul Waner out, but I never fooled him.
Burleigh Grimes
Career Statistics
YEAR TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA
1926 PIT NL 144 536 101 180 35 22 8 79 11 66 19 .336
1927 PIT NL 155 623 114 237 42 18 9 131 5 60 14 .380
1928 PIT NL 152 602 142 223 50 19 6 86 6 77 16 .370
1929 PIT NL 151 596 131 200 43 15 15 100 15 89 24 .336
1930 PIT NL 145 589 117 217 32 18 8 77 18 57 18 .368
1931 PIT NL 150 559 88 180 35 10 6 70 6 73 21 .322
1932 PIT NL 154 630 107 215 62 10 8 82 13 56 24 .341
1933 PIT NL 154 618 101 191 38 16 7 70 3 60 20 .309
1934 PIT NL 146 599 122 217 32 16 14 90 8 68 24 .362
1935 PIT NL 139 549 98 176 29 12 11 78 2 61 22 .321
1936 PIT NL 148 585 107 218 53 9 5 94 7 74 29 .373
1937 PIT NL 154 619 94 219 30 9 2 74 4 63 34 .354
1938 PIT NL 148 625 77 175 31 6 6 69 2 47 28 .280
1939 PIT NL 125 461 62 151 30 6 3 45 0 35 18 .328
1940 PIT NL 89 238 32 69 16 1 1 32 0 23 14 .290
1941 BRO NL 11 35 5 6 0 0 0 4 0 8 0 .171
BSN NL 95 294 40 82 10 2 2 46 1 47 14 .279
TOT NL 106 329 45 88 10 2 2 50 1 55 14 .267
1942 BSN NL 114 333 43 86 17 1 1 39 2 62 20 .258
1943 BRO NL 82 225 29 70 16 0 1 26 0 35 9 .311
1944 BRO NL 83 136 16 39 4 1 0 16 0 27 7 .287
NYY AL 9 7 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 .143
TOT 92 143 17 40 4 1 0 17 1 29 8 .280
1945 NYY AL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000
CAREER 2549 9459 1627 3152 605 191 113 1309 104 1091 376 .333
* Bold denotes led league.
Hall of Fame Index
Lloyd Waner | John Ward