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Bob Hunter commentary: First deaf major leaguer deserves recognition | The Columbus Dispatch
The campaign to have Dummy Hoy immortalized on a postage stamp can be a lonely one.
"It's a one-man operation," Steve Sandy said.
That isn't surprising. Probably at least 90 percent of this column's readers have no idea who Hoy was.
William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy was, in fact, baseball's first successful deaf major league player, a native of Houcktown - in Hancock County, south of Findlay - and an 1879 graduate of the Ohio School for the Deaf on East Town Street. He was good enough to play 14 seasons in the majors between 1888 and 1902 and, in Sandy's mind, show America that the deaf deserve recognition, too.
Unfortunately, America doesn't seem to be listening.
Sandy, 49, has been trying to get Hoy inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for 22 years. The West Side resident nominated Hoy for the "Great Ohioian Award," but Hoy was passed over the past two years. Sandy pushed Hoy as a replacement for Gov. William Allen as one of two Ohio representatives in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol, but Hoy didn't make the list for the nine finalists. (Thomas Edison won).
Sandy has been working with David Risotto on a movie about Hoy, but they have been unable to raise the start-up money.
He did help get Hoy elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003. But Hoy's career was so good that he could have made it regardless of his handicap. Hoy played five of his 14 seasons in Cincinnati, where he had two seasons of 50 stolen bases, and he finished his career with 2,048 hits. He was as baseball-worthy as any other candidate that year.
This isn't just about baseball worthiness, though. Sandy, a voucher analyst for the federal government, also is deaf, and he acknowledges that it has a lot to do with his crusade. He knows that renowned deaf educator Thomas Galaudet was honored on a postage stamp in 1983, the last such nod in the deaf's direction. Two things bother him about that: It was almost 30 years ago, and Galaudet wasn't deaf.
"Helen Keller was on a stamp, but she was deaf and blind, and that is different," Sandy said. "I want to see a deaf person on a stamp, and there has never been one. When you're deaf, there are barriers everywhere."
So Sandy wrote letters to the U.S. Postal Service with Hoy's credentials and received an answer from stamp development manager Terrence W. McCaffrey, who referred him to the booklet Creating U.S. Postage Stamps. In the booklet, three criteria are listed for stamp subjects: 1) Stand the test of time; 2) reflect the cultural diversity of our nation; and 3) have broad national appeal.
This is where Sandy's crusade might or might not be on the mark, depending on your viewpoint.
If you have ever played or watched baseball, Hoy might have had an impact on your experience. Some credit Hoy for the development of the umpire's hand signals - and some don't.
Some say Cy Rigler created signals for balls and strikes while working in the minor leagues. In the Nov.6, 1886, issue of The Sporting News, deaf pitcher Ed Dundon is credited with using hand signals while umpiring a game in Mobile, Ala., that year. Bill Klem is credited with introducing those signals to the major leagues, although he umpired his first major league game in 1905 - after Hoy's career was over.
"Hoy introduced them when he was playing," Sandy said. "After Hoy stopped playing (in 1902) there was a two-year gap when there were no hand signals. So why were hand signals not used during that two-year period? Nobody can answer."
In my mind, Hoy's success as a deaf pioneer in sports makes him worthy, regardless. Sandy does, too.
"A friend of mine in California was the one who had success getting the Galaudet stamp," Sandy said, "and he said it took him 30 years to get this process to finally happen. Thirty years to get one itty-bitty stamp. Who are we, chopped liver?"
Sandy's goal is to have the Hoy stamp issued on the ballplayer's 150th birthday, May 23, 2012.
It would be nice if someone finally heard his pleas.
The campaign to have Dummy Hoy immortalized on a postage stamp can be a lonely one.
"It's a one-man operation," Steve Sandy said.
That isn't surprising. Probably at least 90 percent of this column's readers have no idea who Hoy was.
William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy was, in fact, baseball's first successful deaf major league player, a native of Houcktown - in Hancock County, south of Findlay - and an 1879 graduate of the Ohio School for the Deaf on East Town Street. He was good enough to play 14 seasons in the majors between 1888 and 1902 and, in Sandy's mind, show America that the deaf deserve recognition, too.
Unfortunately, America doesn't seem to be listening.
Sandy, 49, has been trying to get Hoy inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for 22 years. The West Side resident nominated Hoy for the "Great Ohioian Award," but Hoy was passed over the past two years. Sandy pushed Hoy as a replacement for Gov. William Allen as one of two Ohio representatives in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol, but Hoy didn't make the list for the nine finalists. (Thomas Edison won).
Sandy has been working with David Risotto on a movie about Hoy, but they have been unable to raise the start-up money.
He did help get Hoy elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003. But Hoy's career was so good that he could have made it regardless of his handicap. Hoy played five of his 14 seasons in Cincinnati, where he had two seasons of 50 stolen bases, and he finished his career with 2,048 hits. He was as baseball-worthy as any other candidate that year.
This isn't just about baseball worthiness, though. Sandy, a voucher analyst for the federal government, also is deaf, and he acknowledges that it has a lot to do with his crusade. He knows that renowned deaf educator Thomas Galaudet was honored on a postage stamp in 1983, the last such nod in the deaf's direction. Two things bother him about that: It was almost 30 years ago, and Galaudet wasn't deaf.
"Helen Keller was on a stamp, but she was deaf and blind, and that is different," Sandy said. "I want to see a deaf person on a stamp, and there has never been one. When you're deaf, there are barriers everywhere."
So Sandy wrote letters to the U.S. Postal Service with Hoy's credentials and received an answer from stamp development manager Terrence W. McCaffrey, who referred him to the booklet Creating U.S. Postage Stamps. In the booklet, three criteria are listed for stamp subjects: 1) Stand the test of time; 2) reflect the cultural diversity of our nation; and 3) have broad national appeal.
This is where Sandy's crusade might or might not be on the mark, depending on your viewpoint.
If you have ever played or watched baseball, Hoy might have had an impact on your experience. Some credit Hoy for the development of the umpire's hand signals - and some don't.
Some say Cy Rigler created signals for balls and strikes while working in the minor leagues. In the Nov.6, 1886, issue of The Sporting News, deaf pitcher Ed Dundon is credited with using hand signals while umpiring a game in Mobile, Ala., that year. Bill Klem is credited with introducing those signals to the major leagues, although he umpired his first major league game in 1905 - after Hoy's career was over.
"Hoy introduced them when he was playing," Sandy said. "After Hoy stopped playing (in 1902) there was a two-year gap when there were no hand signals. So why were hand signals not used during that two-year period? Nobody can answer."
In my mind, Hoy's success as a deaf pioneer in sports makes him worthy, regardless. Sandy does, too.
"A friend of mine in California was the one who had success getting the Galaudet stamp," Sandy said, "and he said it took him 30 years to get this process to finally happen. Thirty years to get one itty-bitty stamp. Who are we, chopped liver?"
Sandy's goal is to have the Hoy stamp issued on the ballplayer's 150th birthday, May 23, 2012.
It would be nice if someone finally heard his pleas.