View Single Post
  #5  
Old 08-08-2005, 10:25 PM
Archive Archive is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 58,359
Default Show me your Luther Taylor!

Posted By: Julie

green background" is a common T206! It took me half a year to figure out that my favorite T206s WERE T206s!

Luther "Dummy" Taylor is the second, second most famous, and probably the second best, deaf-and-dumb player to reach the majors. he pitched for the Giants in the first decade of ther 20th century. He met only once, on field, with William "Dummy" Hoy, who played centerfield for quite a few teams between 1888--1902. The greated eachother in sign language, and then Taylor pitched to Hoy.

Hoy always said "Call me "Dummy" when someone addressed him by his proper first name. It was the 19th century way with the deaf and dumb--they were all called Dummy. There's a novel about Taylor called "Havana Heat," and a play about Hoy called "Call me Dummy."

Taylor had fair-to-middling stats; Hoy was just short of HOF quality--.288 lifetime, stole about 600 bases, and played a great centerfield. It is thought that he originated sign language on the baseball diamond (such as has been refined and used for years now); he certainly taught a lot of teammates sign language. he married a deaf school teacher, and lived to be 99 1/2 years old, dying in 1961.

Reply With Quote