Dummy's Rise to Glory

William Ellsworth Hoy, also known as “Dummy”, faced all odds and became one of the greatest baseball players of his time.   Hoy was born in Houcktown, Ohio on May 23, 1862.   When he was three years old, Hoy came down with Meningitis and slowly began to lose his ability to hear and speak.   When Hoy was growing up, someone who could not speak was described as “dumb”.   Many people, both in the 1800s and now, use the word “dumb” to describe someone’s intelligence level.   Hoy, however, used the word to describe himself and often corrected others who would call him William, instead of his personal preference, “Dummy”.   Hoy was very far from being dumb.   In fact, he is known as one of the most intelligent baseball players of his time.   Many people believe that he may have had a role in developing the hand signals that umpires, to this day, use in umpiring their games.   However, this is a much disputed idea and has yet to be proven true or false.  
Hoy attended college at Ohio State School for the deaf in Columbus and graduated as class valedictorian.   After college, he opened a shoe repair shop in his hometown and started playing baseball in his spare time.   Hoy soon earned a professional contract in 1886 with an Oshkosh, Wisconsin team under the management of Frank Selee.   After a year, Hoy joined the Washington Nationals of the American Association, and became the third deaf baseball player in the major leagues.   Hoy’s career started to grow quickly as his statistics started to rise off the charts.   He took the lead in the most stolen bases, during his rookie year.   He also, came in second in the most walks while batting, setting a high record of sixty-nine.   His throw was as first-rate as his batting.   He was a lefty batter, but a righty thrower.   As Hoy started pitching and striking players out left and right, he was soon known as one of the most valuable players.   Besides his throw and batting abilities, Hoy had great speed and was a very strong asset in the...