About Hack Wilson
Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years, and 191 runs batted in, an MLB record yet to be approached; the closest any player has come to having that many RBIs came in the very next season, when Lou Gehrighad 185 for the New York Yankees. "For a brief span of a few years," wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth." Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season, Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel.
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