In the days before television and certainly before social media, professional athletes and famous individuals in general were shrouded in mystique. What little the public knew about them came from the newspapers. When baseball emerged as America’s Pastime, sportswriters described the games and the players in epic terms so that readers could visualize what had transpired on the field. Players such as Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Babe Ruth were more than just star athletes, they were folk heroes come to life. Yet one of baseball’s folk heroes has been forgotten as the decades have passed. Hack Wilson was the kind of phenomenon who only comes along once. An anomaly who is never seen before and never again. Neil Young once said that it was better to burn out than fade away. Hack Wilson did both.
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