Literary birthday greetings: Rabbit Pie

November 11, 2010

Although not together.

Pie Traynor was born this date in 1898. The Hall of Fame third baseman is the subject of a recent biography — Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography, by James Forr and David Proctor.

Born in 1891, Rabbit Maranville was one of those players whose inclusion in the Hall has been a source of head-scratching. He was a .258 hitter over a career that lasted 23 years (and included just 28 home runs). Considered the Joe Garagiola of his day, Maranville published his memoirs — Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville — shortly before his death in 1954. The Society for American Baseball Research republished the slim volume in 1991.

Also born on this dated: Al Schacht, aka “The Crown Prince of Baseball.” Schacht was a pretty good pitcher for his brief (three-year) career, 1919-21 with the Washington Senators. An arm injury brought that to an abrupt end, but he stayed in baseball as a sort of good-will ambassador. He published his own story, Clowning Through Baseball by Al Schacht, in 1954.

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Tagged as: Al Schacht, Pie Traynor, Rabbit Maranville

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