Hack Wilson 1933 Goudey

1933 Goudey Hack Wilson

There he is, the slugger twisting after taking a mighty swing. It's just for show, a pose, but you know if he truly connected with a fastball, it would ignite and disintegrate before it left the field. He resembles a cartoon baseball predecessor of the Gas-House Gorillas, but drawn more handsome and clean-shaven. His tiny feet couldn't possibly hold the large frame as he swivels quickly to slug 56 home runs and drive in a record amount of runners in 1930.

It seems unlikely, but Goudey's caricature accurately depicted the real man. Lewis (Hack) Wilson possessed cartoonish body proportions. He was 5 feet, 6 inches tall, but had powerful shoulders moulded from years as a youth wielding a sledge hammer.. He wore a size 5 and a half shoe, but required dress shirts with a size 18 neck. His perfect nickname could have derived as much from his all-or-nothing swing as his physical resemblance to turn of the 20th century wrestler George Hackenschmidt. He was one of a kind, but he succumbed to an addiction that was all too common among his peers.

Wilson loved to drink. Whiskey, gin, beer, it didn't matter. Nightly visits to brothels and speakeasies kept his weight up and his production down. Empty beer bottles surrounded his dug-out locker. He never replicated his production during the 1930 season, and major league baseball had no more use for him by 1935. Over 30 years after his death, the Veteran's Committee saved Wilson from obscurity and enshrined him into Cooperstown.


Hack Wilson's biography: Fouled away: The baseball tragedy of Hack Wilson
Hack Wilson's stats: Baseball Reference