Willie Keeler

Baseball Player

• Born: March 3, 1872
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Died: January 1, 1923
• Place of death: Brooklyn, New York

Sport: Baseball

Early Life

William Henry Keeler was born on March 3, 1872, in Brooklyn, New York. At that time, Brooklyn was not yet part of New York City, but was an independent municipality. The Keeler family was working-class Irish; Willie’s father was a conductor on the horse-car trolley line that served Brooklyn. William was known as “Wee Willie” because of his small size. Even when fully grown, he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed no more than 140 pounds. Although small in size, Willie had great natural ability. He developed this by playing sandlot baseball in Brooklyn and in the areas around New York. During a time when many Irish Americans were either laborers or members of the police force, Willie’s baseball talent offered him a career suitable to his small stature.

The Road to Excellence

Willie began his baseball career with a semiprofessional team called the Acmes. He impressed those who saw him, including an established player named Gus Moran. In 1892, when a member of Moran’s own team broke his leg and a replacement was needed at once, Moran suggested Willie. The team was located in Binghamton, New York, and was part of the Eastern League. After a shaky start as pitcher, Willie was stationed at third base.

In his rookie season, Willie batted .373 and won the batting title for the Eastern League. That was impressive enough for the major league’s New York Giants to purchase his contract, but he was soon sold to Brooklyn in July, 1893. John Montgomery Ward, manager of the Giants, later confessed that selling Willie was a major mistake.

Willie did not remain long with Brooklyn either. He was sent back to Binghamton in August, after playing only twenty games. Even though he had proven his batting talent, he was not a long-ball hitter. He collected only 34 home runs during his entire career. Managers were skeptical of his small size, and, at this early stage in his career, he was not very effective in the field. Playing shortstop and third base, he had made forty-eight errors during his stay with Binghamton in 1892. Willie did not become a well-rounded ballplayer until he was moved to the outfield.

Still, Willie’s obvious abilities made him valuable, and he was traded in 1894, to the Baltimore Orioles, who were managed by Ned Hanlon. The Orioles’ roster boasted some of the finest players in baseball, including John McGraw, who would later be the successful manager of the New York Giants. With Baltimore, Willie established himself as one of the game’s greatest players.

The Emerging Champion

At Baltimore, Willie established his mastery at the plate. Using a small bat and holding it with a high grip, he had great control. In 1894, he batted .361 and had 213 hits for the season. For eight consecutive seasons, he had more than 200 hits, a record no other player had matched until Ichiro Suzuki in 2008. Twice he came close to batting .400, with a .391 average in 1895 and a .386 average in 1896.

Opening Day, 1897, was the start of another of Willie’s most famous achievements. In that first game, on April 22, he had a single and a double in five at bats. Willie hit safely in the next forty-three games. This consecutive-games hitting streak remained untouched until 1941, when Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees broke it with his own fifty-six-game streak. Willie’s record was tied, but not broken, by Pete Rose in 1978. Willie’s hitting record remains one of the most significant in Major League Baseball. At the end of the 1897 season. Willie had an average of .424, the fifth highest single-season average in all of baseball history.

Because Willie was not a long-ball hitter, he relied upon his excellent command of the bat to hit singles, doubles, and sometimes triples. He was an accomplished bunter and also invented what became known as the “Baltimore chop,” hitting the ball so that it bounced over the heads of the infielders. He was very quick and stole 495 bases during his career, including a personal high mark of 67 in 1896.

When asked the secret for his success as a batter, Willie coined a line that has become famous in baseball legend, saying, “Hit ’em where they ain’t.”

In 1899, Willie went to Brooklyn with manager Ned Hanlon, whose team was then called the Superbas. The Superbas won the pennant that year, with Willie batting .379. The team won again in 1900, when Willie hit .362. Altogether, Willie played for five championship clubs during his career.

Continuing the Story

In 1903, the New York Highlanders, who later became the Yankees, lured Willie to their roster with a large salary offer. Playing with the Highlanders, Willie hit more than .300 for the next four years, capping a fifteen-season consecutive streak of batting more than .300.

Willie’s last great year was 1906. In 1907, his batting average dropped to .234, and he never again hit more than .300. In 1908, he had the chance to become manager of the Highlanders but went into hiding to avoid the offer. Willie was a small, shy man, and he may have been unwilling to give orders to players who were bigger than he was.

After 1909, Willie left the Highlanders and played briefly with the New York Giants, managed by his old friend, John McGraw. He ended his active career with Toronto, a team in the Eastern League. In a sense, he came back to where he had started; his first team, Binghamton, was also in the Eastern League. Willie was manager of the Brooklyn team of the short-lived Federal League in 1914; they finished fifth. In 1915, he was a scout for the Boston Braves.

Never married, Willie died in his lifelong home in Brooklyn on New Year’s Day, 1923. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, three years after it was opened.

Summary

Willie Keeler was the best control hitter of his times. Although small in size, he had one of baseball’s highest career batting averages. He achieved this through skill, practice, and his determination.

Bibliography

James, Bill. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. New York: Free Press, 2003.

Morris, Peter. A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball—The Game on the Field. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006.

Ritter, Lawrence S. The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It. New York: Perennial Currents, 2002.

Shatzkin, Mike, Stephen Holtje, and Jane Charlton, eds. The Ballplayers: Baseball’s Ultimate Biographical Reference. New York: Ideal Logic Press, 1999.