Willie Keeler

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Born: 3 March 1872 Died: 1 January 1923

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 4"

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Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, Part 2 (100 items)
list by fullfathom

Published 1 year, 2 months ago

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Description: William Henry Keeler (March 3, 1872 – January 1, 1923), nicknamed "Wee Willie" because of his small stature, was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1892 to 1910, primarily for the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas in the National League, and the New York Highlanders in the American League. Keeler, one of the best hitters of his time, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. One of the greatest contact hitters of all time and notoriously hard to strike out, Keeler has the highest career at bats-per-strikeout ratio in MLB history: throughout his career, on average William Henry Keeler (March 3, 1872 – January 1, 1923), nicknamed "Wee Willie" because of his small stature, was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1892 to 1910, primarily for the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas in the National League, and the New York Highlanders in the American League. Keeler, one of the best hitters of his time, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. One of the greatest contact hitters of all time and notoriously hard to strike out, Keeler has the highest career at bats-per-strikeout ratio in MLB history: throughout his career, on average he went more than 60 at bats between individual strikeouts.

He was one of the smallest players to play the game, standing 5 feet 4½ inches and weighing 140 pounds (64 kg), resulting in his nickname. Keeler was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 as part of the third class. He appeared as number 75 on The Sporting News' list of the "100 Greatest Baseball Players". That same year, he was named as a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Having played his last game in 1910, he was the most chronologically distant player on both Top 100 lists.

Keeler had the ability to bunt most balls pitched to him, enabling him to avoid striking out; his skill at prolonging at bats by fouling pitches off with this method was the impetus for the rule change that made a foul bunt with two strikes a strikeout. In the 1899 season for the Brooklyn Superbas, in 570 at bats, Keeler struck out only twice, setting an AB-per-K mark of 285, an MLB single-season record. With Ned Hanlon's Baltimore Orioles, he perfected the "Baltimore chop", in which he would chop the ball into the ground hard enough to cause a high bounce, which enabled him to reach first base before a fielder could glove the ball and throw him out. Bill James speculated that Keeler introduced the hit and run strategy to the original Orioles and teammate John McGraw. In James' theory, Boston's Tommy McCarthy was the first manager to make wide use of the hit and run. McCarthy then taught it to John Montgomery Ward, who taught it to Keeler. ... (more)