W711-2 Harry Hartman series - tribute card-Hershberger

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

I was just cataloging a set I have had for a while and noticed a different back on the Hershberger card. It was done that way as a tribute card of course.....Sort of neat so thought I would share...Well, it's neat except for the fact that Heshberger is the only major league player to commit suicide because, most likely, of his poor play...Here is a little write up that is on Wiki too...


Willard McKee Hershberger (May 28, 1910 August 3, 1940) was a major league baseball catcher from 1938 to 1940. Hershberger has the distinction of being the only major league player to commit suicide during the season.

Born in Lemon Cove, California, Hershberger did not get to the majors until later in his career. In the minor leagues, he played catcher for the New York Yankees farm team, the Newark Bears. In 1937, Hershberger was on the Newark team that posted a record of 109-43, a team considered by many to be the best minor league team of the 1930s.

In 1938, Hershberger joined the Cincinnati Reds and was the backup catcher to Ernie Lombardi. Hershberger batted .276 and played in 49 games in his rookie year. The next year, he again backed up Lombardi and raised his average to .345 while playing 63 games. He was also part of a Reds team that won the pennant for the first time in 20 years, although the Reds were swept in the World Series 4-0 by the New York Yankees. In that series, Hershberger batted only twice in limited action and had one hit.

The Reds were again in a pennant chase in 1940. A finger injury forced Lombardi out of the starting lineup in July, and Hershberger took over the full-time catching duties. He filled in for Lombardi well, batting .309 and playing solid defense. On July 31, the Reds blew a big lead in the ninth inning of a game against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds and, perhaps in the heat of the pennant race, some Reds players whispered that they would have won the game if Lombardi was catching. On August 2, with Hershberger again catching, the Reds lost to a poor Boston Braves club. The next day, August 3, 1940, Hershberger slit his wrists and throat with a razor in a Boston hotel. Ironically, the Reds went on to win the World Series that year, their first title in 21 years.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

That is not necessarily true. According to some reports, Donnie Moore ended up shooting his wife and then himself due to despondency over his poor postseason play (she survived). It's post-war, but it still counts!



Kind of along the same lines (but not quite) are the suicides of Benny Frey and Pea Ridge Day. Frey became depressed after he was to be demoted to the minors and Day's suicide was attributed to his being distraught over the poor results of an operation that failed to restore his pitching arm.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jimi

I think Leon was saying that he was the only one to commit suicide during the season. Moore had actually been cut from the KC Royals a month prior to him killing himself. It was during the season, but Moore technically was a part of the season.


From wiki:

On July 18, 1989, during an argument with his wife Tonya, Moore shot her three times, the incident occurring in witness of their three children at their Anaheim Hills home. Tonya Moore and daughter Demetria, then 17 years of age, fled from the house and Demetria drove her mother to the hospital. Both survived the shooting.

Back inside the house, still in the presence of one of his sons, Moore then fatally shot himself.

"When he was cut by Kansas City, he'd really been depressed about that. I mean, here he is, the high-life career . . . then all of a sudden, it's gone. He comes back home . . . and the marriage, the family, is all destroyed. I mean, what else does he have left?"

Demetria Moore on what drove her father to his final acts of desperation



Jimi

Always looking for T222 Fatimas!

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

If that was the case, then that would be correct. I must have mis-read something.

Also, interesting stuff on Moore. Other stories/accounts I have read blamed it on a poor performance from one game in the postseason while he was with the Angels, I believe.

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

I was only going by the tiny bit I had read as to the suicide information. Regardless, I still find it interesting, in a grim sort of way, that Hershberger was so upset about his play, and the rumors (according to this article) that he killed himself.....I have been really upset at playing poorly but not quite that much. I can't imagine....

[Archive]

Posted By: Jimi

You are correct. Donnie had a chance to get the Angels further in the playoffs, but he lost it which made Boston go further. In some public perception (Angels' fans, I am assuming), it compared similarly to Buckner, but of course, not quite the magnitude.

Jimi

Always looking for T222 Fatimas!

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

The most interesting thing of all is that Hershberger's own reasons for taking his life supposedly have NOTHING to do with baseball. Suicide and depression ran in his family (I believe his father and one other relative both preceeded Hershy in the same manner). Several years ago I was visiting friend and former NL catcher Harry Danning and the subject of Hershberger came up. He is the one who poo-pooed the whole notion of the suicide being baseball-related. He said that only he, Hershy's roommate Bill Baker and Bill McKechnie knew the real reason, and left it at that. Even after over 60 years, he would not speak of whatever Willard's true demons actually were. I don't know how he found out, but I guess we'll never know. Harry passed away a few years ago, as did Baker.

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

Here's the other W711 of Willard Herschberger ...

[Archive]

Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

Tucked into the back of the same 1939 Scrapbook that produced the 1939 R-Uncat cards we discussed a few months ago was this contemporary account of the events surrounding Hershbergers death, the Headline reads...

"HERSHBERGER, REDS' CATCHER, KILLS SELF"



Truly a sad story.
-Rhett

[Archive]

Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

Another Hershberger...

-Rhett

[Archive]

Posted By: Fred C

Hershberger is card #77 in the 1940 Play Ball set.

[Archive]

Posted By: Greg Ecklund

[IMG][/IMG]

[Archive]

Posted By: Pennsylvania Ted

Hugh Casey killed himself with a shotgun on July 3, 1951. He was was distraught over his marriage break-up. But,
it's also been reported that Casey never forgave himself for pitching a sharp dipping curve that Mickey Owen let
go by him in the famous 1941 World Series "3rd strike" incident in which Tommy Henrich swung at (with 2 outs in
the 9th)....and got to 1st base. The Yankees went on to rally and eventually beat the Dodgers in the 1st of their
many "Subway Series" rivalries.

Owen had called for a fast ball and Henrich was expecting a fast ball.

As a starter Hugh Casey had a mediocre career....but as a reliever, he was very effective. I think he still holds the
all-time Major League W-L percentage record (for relievers with at least 50 decisions) of 51-20....a .727 pct.






TED Z