Wilson’s Record May Be the Most Awesome of All

There were many one-liners associated with Hack Wilson when he played for the Chicago Cubs during the Roaring ‘20s and Great Depression ‘30s.

* “He was a low-ball hitter and a highball drinker” ... “He ripped by day and nipped by night” was how some writers described his tendencies -- on and off the field.

* After he lost two fly balls in the sun in the same inning of a 1929 World Series game, his teammates dubbed him “Sunny Boy Hack.”

* In hotel dining rooms, the good-natured Wilson told waiters to dim the lights and pull the shades. “I don’t want to misjudge the soup.”

* One day Cubs manager Joe McCarthy tried to teach Wilson a lesson regarding his drinking. “If I drop a worm in a glass of water, it swims around,” McCarthy told Wilson. “If I drop it in a glass of whiskey, the worm dies. What does that prove?” Wilson’s response? “If you drink whiskey, you’ll never get worms.”

But the best line of all is this one, from Wilson’s 1930 season: Games (155) At-Bats (585) Runs (146) Hits (208) HR (56) RBI (190) Avg. (.356).

It’s one of the greatest offensive seasons in major-league history, and two of the numbers have stood the test of time. His 56 home runs remains the National League record, a mark that has endured nearly twice as long as Babe Ruth’s 60 in 1927 and Roger Maris’ 61 in 1961 did. Wilson’s 190 RBI remains the major-league record, and hadn’t been challenged since well before World War II until this season, when Texas Rangers slugger Juan Gonzalez’s 101 RBI at the All-Star break brought the record back into play.

“If Gonzalez breaks Wilson’s RBI record (he had 116 through Thursday’s games), it’s a more monumental achievement than anyone breaking Maris’ record,” said Steve Hirdt, stats guru, historian and vice president of Elias Sports Bureau, the official record-keeper of major league baseball. “Why? Because in Maris’ case there have been warning signs. Five times in the last three years a guy has hit at least 50 homers. (Mark) McGwire hit 58 and (Ken) Griffey hit 56 last year. It’s not sneaking up on us.

“But there were no articles coming into this season asking, ‘Is this the year of 190?’ No one even considered the possibility,” Hirdt said. “We’ve only had two players -- Tommy Davis and Andres Galarraga -- drive in 150 runs since World War II. Wilson’s RBI record is a more astounding achievement, but Maris’ record is sexier and will attract more attention, as it should.”

Still, the story of Lewis Robert (Hack) Wilson has some appeal of its own. “He was a fascinating character,” said William Mead, author of the book “Two Spectacular Seasons,” which chronicled the hitting-crazed 1930 and pitching-dominated 1968 seasons. “He had some gangster ties -- he hung around with Al Capone -- that were considered stylish in Chicago then. He drank -- like so many ballplayers did -- went to the speakeasies and participated in the lifestyle of the era.”

But like his hero and role model, Babe Ruth, Wilson could close down the nightclubs and still open eyes on the ballfield a few hours later. “Hack loved the bright lights,” McCarthy once said, “but you could forgive Hack his little escapades because he was always ready the next day.”

One reason was Wilson’s exceptional strength. He had an odd build -- his barrel chest, huge shoulders and 18-inch neck were in stark contrast to his short stature and size-6 shoes. At 5-6, 195 pounds, Wilson was described by Mead as “the hardest-hitting hydrant of all time.” He had short, thick arms, developed in his youth when he swung a sledgehammer in a steel-forging plant, and a quick bat. Despite the catchy highball/low-ball wisecracks, he actually thrived on high fastballs. He also was a fine outfielder despite the two muffs in the 1929 Series that allowed the Philadelphia Athletics to rally from an 8-0 deficit to win Game 4, 10-8.

Wilson’s offensive barrage a year later erased the painful memories of his 1929 October crash. After trying for four seasons (1926-29) to match Ruth’s hitting, Wilson finally surpassed the more famous and wealthier Bambino, who batted .359 with “only” 49 homers and 153 RBI in 1930.

The road to the record was paved with detours early. The Cubs’ leading hitter and supreme “table-setter” for Wilson, future Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby (.380 in 1929), broke his ankle and missed most of the season. Wilson completed July with a respectable but not outlandish 91 RBI. But he floored it in August with a remarkable 53 RBI -- a record for one month that still stands -- and raced through September with another 46. The defending NL champion Cubs came up short at the finish line, but Wilson set records that should have brought him fame and fortune.

Instead, 56 and 190 were met with indifference. Only the magic “60” of Ruth drew interest, and the RBI record went largely unnoticed.

“People didn’t care about RBIs in those days,” Mead said. “In fact, they weren’t even listed in the box scores that ran in the papers.”

But his manager appreciated Wilson’s efforts. “I never saw a guy win games the way he did that year,” McCarthy, who managed Joe DiMaggio, said years later. “We never lost a game all year if he came up in the late innings with a chance to get a hit that would win it for us ... No tougher player ever lived.”

An interview given by Wilson in his later years provides a fitting epitaph for the under-publicized and oft-overlooked slugger, who finally was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1979: “I started to drink heavily. I had a lot of natural talent ... but I sure lacked a lot of other things, like humility and common sense.”