El Paso Herald · El Paso, Texas · 1913

How Great Men Play the Game: Honus Wagner

Scar takes up Honus Wagner of Pittsburgh in July 1913: he just spreads himself and takes a long wide swing at anything that comes over, he grabs the bat any old place, and did you ever notice the big German going down the base lines from this angle?

The El Paso Herald carried How Great Men Play the Game all through the summer of 1913, and this installment goes straight to the top shelf: “Honus Wagner, Shortstop, Pittsburgh Nat.” Wagner was thirty-nine years old that summer and nearly two decades into being the best shortstop anybody had ever seen, so Scar had plenty of material.

The batting analysis is honest about its subject. “His style of batting is one all his own,” the caption admits. “He just spreads himself and takes a long wide swing at anything that comes over.” As for equipment, “he has no particular way of holding his bat, he just grabs it any old place.” Between those two captions you have the whole scouting report on a man who hit .300 for seventeen straight seasons doing everything wrong. On defense, “on a deep play to make sure of his man he fields the ball with his bare hand,” and on the bases, “one of his great ‘goat getting’ stunts is sliding to the bases with his feet high in the air,” drawn with both cleats up around altitude a runner has no business reaching.

The corner box asks the series’ standing question. “And did you ever notice? The big German going down the base lines from this angle,” with a sketch of Wagner from behind, all elbows and bowed legs and dust. Nobody ever accused Wagner of looking graceful. They just kept losing to him.