There is a brick outside Wrigley Field that honors Hack Wilson; accompanying the flag that flies atop the roof, also glorifying the Great Depression era slugger. Wilson is also enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, largely on the strength of his 56 home run, 191 RBI season of 1930.
His National League single season home run record didn’t fall until the steroid era, and his Major League Baseball single season RBIs record still stands to this day, having made it through the PEDs craziness of the 1990s and 2000s. For a few years, Hack Wilson was legitimately standing eye-to-eye with Babe Ruth. Yet his career end before his mid 30s, with under 250 homers to his name.
He also died penniless, working as a towel boy in a Baltimore community pool.
His son didn’t even show up to claim his father’s remains. Wilson was exceptional on the field, but he had some major demons to say the least. His rampant alcoholism, coupled with his affinity for getting into high profile fist fights, led to his own undoing.
Thus, we present to you, the story of Hack Wilson as the season 1 finale of Let’s Get Weird, Sports. Will there be a “who shot J.R. (or Mr. Burns)?” style cliff-hanger? To be answered in season 2?
Click the link below to find out:
Hammer and Rails.com LGWS #14 Hack Wilson
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.