They say that the younger something happens to you, the easier you adapt to it. That may be true in some cases but it can also be a generalisation, as we tend to only hear about those who go on to be successful.
William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy was one such person. Hoy was born in the small town of Houcktown, in Ohio, in 1862. At the age of three he contracted meningitis, which resulted in him losing his hearing and ending up deaf. Being deaf at such a young age meant he never learned to speak. He was also mute.
He attended a specialist school and graduated from the Ohio State School for the Deaf in Columbus as class valedictorian.
In Hoy’s day the word dumb was used only to describe someone who was unable to speak. Only in the last century did the word evolve and refer to someone who was stupid. This came about from the misconception that those who had difficulty speaking must be stupid. So ‘dumb’ over time became unfairly connected to a person’s intelligence. Hoy was at some stage given the name “Dummy” in spite of his obvious intelligence.
It was a name he didn’t seen to mind, as it has been written that he would often correct those who addressed him as William, and always referred to himself as “Dummy.”
After leaving school he opened a shoe repair business in his home town of Houcktown. This was a common trade for those who were deaf. In Ohio in the Summer months people would tend to walk around barefoot to safe money on shoe-leather, so business slowed considerably. That suited Dummy as it allowed him more time to play sport. The sport he played was Baseball.
After impressing, but then being passed over due to his hearing impediment, at the age of 24 he was offered a professional contract with a team, and after one year in the minor leagues the Washington Nationals signed him up for the National League; which is the equivalent of what we know today as Major League Baseball.
With that signing Hoy became the third deaf player in the major leagues, following two pitchers Ed Dundon and Tom Lynch.
When Hoy joined Washington he is said to have posted a statement on the clubhouse wall: “Being totally deaf as you know and some of my teammates being unacquainted with my play, I think it is timely to bring about an understanding between myself, the left fielder, the shortstop and the second baseman and the right fielder. The main point is to avoid possible collisions with any of these four who surround me when in the field going for a fly ball. Whenever I take a fly ball I always yell I’ll take it–the same as I have been doing for many seasons, and of course the other fielders let me take it. Whenever you don’t hear me yell, it is understood I am not after the ball, and they govern themselves accordingly.” As mentioned his speech was also impaired due to the meningitis, and so this yell has been recorded as being more of a loud squeak.
“Dummy” was only 5’4″ in his stocking feet, and batted left-handed, this enabled him to gain numerous walks, and left pitchers with a very small strike zone. He led the league twice in this in his career. In his rookie year he led the league in stolen bases; although this statistic was not defined as such at the time. In that year he also finished second with 69 walks.
He was, it has been said incredibly nimble, and due to his pace when in the outfield was able to play in a very shallow position. This clearly had its positives as on June 19, 1889, he set an MLB record -which has since been tied twice- when he threw out three runners at home plate in one game.
When he joined Louisville Colonels as a mark of respect for his ability, most of his team mates are said to have learned sign language.
In May 1902, his last season with the Cincinnati Reds, he batted against pitcher Luther “Dummy” Taylor of the New York Giants. This was an historic moment as it was the first face-off between two deaf players in the Major Leagues.
When Hoy came to bat for the first time that day he greeted Taylor by hand signing, “I’m glad to see you!” He then cracked a single to centre field! In a nice add on to this event forty years later the two met in Toledo during the Ohio State Deaf Softball Tournament on Labor Day Weekend in 1942. At the time Taylor was 67 and Hoy 80.
There has been much debate amongst Baseball fans as to who started the hand signals used by the umpires that have become such a crucial part of the game. There has always been one section of the game who believe that he played a major part in this, which would make sense due to his lack of hearing.
Hoy retired from professional baseball in his fortieth year. He and his wife Anna Maria who was also deaf and a teacher of deaf children ended up running a dairy farm with their three children. They lost two other children during childbirth, and a third succumbed to the Spanish flu. The couple also ended up raising his nephew, whose mother had passed away and whose father was in bad health.
During World War 1 he worked as an executive with Goodyear supervising hundreds of deaf workers.
Numerous honours came his way in retirement, he was the first deaf athlete elected to membership in the American Athletic Association of the Deaf Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003. The William “Dummy” Hoy Classic is a baseball game held every two years during Rochester (New York) Deaf Awareness Week.
HIs wife passed away in 1951 at the age of 75, after several months of illness, but Hoy would live on for another ten years.
In 1961 at the age of 99 the Reds brought him back to Crosley Field, built on the site of his former home field, and he threw out the first ball before Game 3 of the 1961 World Series. At that time he was the longest living MLB player; a record that was beaten in 1973 by Ralph Miller who became the sports first centenarian. It was said as he walked back out onto that hallowed turf that he could see, if not hear, the standing ovation he received.
Two months later he passed away following a stroke.
Despite a documentary, and a feature film being made of his life, as well as a children’s picture book, “William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game,” and “Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise he has still not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are many in the USA campaigning for that to change.
Such an inspirational man who achieved despite obvious disadvantages in the sporting world, and away from it undoubtedly broke down barriers and perceptions. For that reason as well as his baseball achievements he deserves to be remembered.
