Talk:Honus Wagner

Infobox Spells 'Eligible' Incorrectly
Infobox has eligible misspelled as 'elligible'. I'm amazed that I seem to be the only one to notice this! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.30.5.160 (talk) 16:21, 27 February 2007 (UTC).

Saying
There was a saying that he threw so hard from short to first that some infield dirt arrived with the ball. Apocryphal, but fun.

Also that he had a showdown with the other "greatest" dead-ball era player, Ty Cobb, at the 1908 (?) World Series. He out-hit Cobb and got him out stealing once. User:134.4.61.136 16:49, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
 * They faced each other in 1909. Some apocryphal stories indeed came from that meeting. Wahkeenah 17:46, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Wagner gained his reputation as "the man who made the Georgia Peach bleed" during this series.--Philvid2 02:46, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

As to personal life, all I was able to find on a fairly quick web search was that he had a granddaughter (which is mentioned in the article). From that, we can of course deduce that he had a wife and at least one child. But that's all I got.

Wife, Marriage & Children
If he married his wife in 1894 and his first daughter was born in 1918 and his last in 1922, then his wife must've been quite young to have had her last child 28 years later. IOW, something about this doesn't add up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.215.51.175 (talk) 06:48, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Illusion
Okay, this is probably nitpicking, but I wanted to comment on the sentence that says, "Magician David Copperfield once tore up a Honus Wagner baseball card during a televised magic show, he then restored the card piece by piece, until it was again intact."

As someone who dabbled in sleight of hand as a youth, I can assure you David Copperfield did not tear up and "restore" a Honus Wagner baseball card, he only gave the illusion he did so. The secret to this trick can be purchased in any major bookstore for under ten bucks. In fact, it might even be free online somewhere.

Like I said, this is probably trivial, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. Great article!

"David Copperfield Torn and Restored Baseball card" (with Gretzky and McNall!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0mMofqlS3g 199.214.24.196 23:32, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Card
Should mention that the reason the card is so rare is that he didn't want to be associated with tobacco... AnonMoos 21:28, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

That's not a confirmed fact. His first "card" (for lack of a better term) is a tobacco card. --Wolverinegod 21:33, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Bogus Image
Why is there a picture of Matty in the article? Does anyone know how to remove it, i don't see it in the code under 'edit this page'--Wolverinegod 00:48, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * It's in the "MLB HoF" template. Fixed. Wahkeenah 01:09, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Please feel free to discuss the choice of the picture at Template talk:MLB HoF. Thanks. ~ trialsanderrors 03:58, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

The text from the "early life" section runs into the picture at right of (presumably) the MLB Hall of Fame. Ths is surely different in different browsers/resolutions, but for reference, I'm in Firefox 1.5.0.7 with res of 1280x1024. Not sure how to fix this, or I would. SINsApple 03:28, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Simpsons
Not to be the guy that tries and gets Simpsons on every page, but if there is ever a section that discusses Honus Wagner in popular culture or something, it would be worth mentioning that he is one of Mr. Burns three dream team players in the episode "Homer at Bat".--Twintone 17:16, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Card Section
While I certainly believe that the T206 card deserves some mention on this page, I feel the majority of the content should be moved to the T206 page. There is already a section there and these two sections can be combined with some effort. Does anyone object? If so, please provide some rationale. If nothing happens, i'll move the text in question. Thanks // Tecmobowl 20:17, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Re-write
I am currently overhauling this article in my sandbox. I would like to get it up to atleast a GA class article. All questions, comments, help are welcome on my talk page or in the sandbox. Thank you.  Black  ngold29   04:04, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation of Honus Wagner
The final IPA symbol for Wagner does not appear in the list of IPA symbols. It looks like a check mark, but should probably be an "r". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.142.96.240 (talk) 23:08, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Number of Brothers and Sisters
Someone please address this: "Wagner was one of five children, although only five lived past childhood." 71.234.37.99 (talk) 23:51, 14 February 2009 (UTC)Will in New Haven71.234.37.99 (talk) 23:51, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Websites  Honus Wagner
www.honuswagner.com

What does this mean? (card section)
I'm having some trouble interpreting this part in bold: "There are 57 known copies and there are many other cards that only have 1 or 2 known examples depicting Wagner." What does that mean? Is there a word missing? Zagal e jo^^^ 03:51, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Teams
OK I'm a little confused. The article says Ed Barrows signed Wagner to play for the Atlantic League in 1896. This makes sense -- the Atlantic League didn't exist before 1896. Honus played for the Paterson Silk Weavers, if the Atlantic League (1896–1900) article is to be believed.

Anyway, this article then goes on to say that Honus hit .313 in 1896 and then .375 "the next year." I take this to mean 1897. But the infobox says he was playing for the Louisville Colonels from 1897 to 1899.

So point of confusion. Who was Honus Wagner playing for in 1897? The Silk Weavers or the Colonels? When did he start with the Colonels?

Mûĸĸâĸûĸâĸû (blah?) 06:01, 9 October 2011 (UTC)


 * The great Flying Dutchman played partial seasons for both clubs in 1897: He made his major league debut on July 19, 1897. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:05, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

IWW membership
There's apparently a long-running rumor that Honus Wagner was a "Wobbly", or an Industrial Workers of the World member. I'm not entirely sure of the basis of this rumor, and I've read an argument that suggests that he may instead have been a member of a miner's union that predates the IWW if a member of any at all. If there are any reliable sources that describe his early life, the "Early life" section could be expanded a bit and likely shed light to this. Djr13 (talk) 22:11, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Nickname "The Flying Dutchman"
The article says that Honus Wagner's nickname "The Flying Dutchman" derived from his speed and from a corruption of "Deutchman" into "Dutchman". While the story of "Deutch" being corrupted to "Dutch" has been popularized in the case of the "Pennsylvania Dutch", I suspect it is not so clear in the case at hand. Surely it can't be a coincidence that there is an opera by the same name, written by a German composer with the same surname as Honus Wagner's. Can anyone cite an authoritative source for this?--Steviesk (talk) 08:48, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Still outstanding so tagged. Davidships (talk) 22:56, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Taking out a hit?
I've read the Louisville Colonels had one player who led the American Association in hitting for its entire existence. Am I right thinking it was Wagner? Does it merit a mention here? (Regrettably, the source might fail WP:RS: it was a factoid in Out Of the Park Baseball...)  TREKphiler   any time you're ready, Uhura  17:41, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 18:13, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Honus as a person
One thing that strikes me when I read about Honus in various books is how people just loved this guy. I've never read a bad word about him. In fact, I suspect that one reason his contemporaries routinely considered him a better player than Cobb was because they liked him so much. Is there a place for that in the article, or does it need to be all baseball? Carlo (talk) 14:35, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Discrepancy in Statistics
The first (unattributed) set of statistics shows 327 strikeouts, while the Baseball-Reference.com set shows 737 SO. Which if either number is correct? That looks like a typo. And what's the origin of the first set? Milkunderwood (talk) 04:26, 7 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Definitely a typo, mistakenly restating the batting average as the strikeout count. It was posted over 10 years ago, by a user who hasn't been active in over four years. Good catch! Also, Retrosheet's numbers vary a little bit. I couldn't say which numbers are considered "official". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:16, 8 March 2019 (UTC)