Waite Hoyt

Infobox MLB retired
name=Waite Hoyt
position=Pitcher


bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=September 9, 1899
city-state|Brooklyn|New York
deathdate=death date and age|1984|8|25|1899|9|9
city-state|Cincinnati|Ohio
debutdate= July 24
debutyear= by|1918
debutteam= New York Giants
finaldate=May 15
finalyear=by|1938
finalteam=Brooklyn Dodgers
stat1label=Win-Loss
stat1value=237-182
stat2label=Earned run average
stat2value=3.59
stat3label=Strikeouts
stat3value=1206
teams=
* New York Giants (by|1918, by|1932)
* Boston Red Sox (by|1919-by|1920)
* New York Yankees (by|1921-by|1930)
* Detroit Tigers (by|1930-by|1931)
* Philadelphia Athletics (by|1931)
* Brooklyn Dodgers (by|1932, by|1937-by|1938)
* Pittsburgh Pirates (by|1933-by|1937)
highlights=
*World Series champion: 1923, 1927, 1928
*American League pennant: 1921, 1922, 1926, 1931
* American League wins champion: 1927
* 2 20-win seasons
hofdate=by|1969
hofmethod=Veteran's Committee

Waite Charles Hoyt (September 9, 1899 – August 25, 1984) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, one of the dominant pitchers of the 1920s, and the winningest pitcher for the New York Yankees during that decade. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in by|1969.

Early life

Hoyt was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended Erasmus Hall High School. [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/12312006/sports/the_rumble_sports_.htm?page=3 "The Rumble: AN OFF-THE-BALL LOOK AT YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS CELEBRITIES"] , "New York Post", December 31, 2006. Accessed December 13, 2007. "The five Erasmus Hall of Fame legends include Raiders owner Al Davis, Bears quarterback Sid Luckman, Yankee pitching great Waite Hoyt, Billy Cunningham and Knicks founder Ned Irish."] Despite being a Dodgers fan he was signed to a professional contract by New York Giants manager John McGraw when he was but 15. Because of his extreme youth, he was immediately nicknamed "The Schoolboy Wonder." But Hoyt would not achieve his greatest success as a Giant.

After a brief stint with the Giants, McGraw sent the young pitcher to the minors for seasoning. It wasn't long before he reappeared in the majors, this time with the Boston Red Sox. His performance there attracted the attention of the Yankees, who acquired him in by|1920. In his first season as a Yankee, by|1921, he rose to instant stardom, winning 19 games and pitching three complete games in the World Series without allowing an earned run — over his career, he would win six American League pennants with the Yankees and one with the Philadelphia Athletics. In his finest years with the Yankees, by|1927 and by|1928, Hoyt would post records of 22 wins and 7 losses with a 2.64 ERA and 23 wins and 7 losses with a 3.36 ERA. During his 21 year career, he won ten or more games twelve times, eleven of them consecutively. Hoyt pitched for 8 years after leaving the Yankees in by|1930, but did not consistently display similar levels of pitching dominance.

Hoyt finished his career with a win-loss record of 237–182 and an ERA of 3.59. By the time he retired in by|1938, he was the winningest pitcher in World Series history (his World Series record with the Yankees and A's is 6 wins and 4 losses).

His Brooklyn origins along with his unique surname led to the probably-apocryphal story that he was injured on one occasion, and a fellow Brooklynite remarked, "Hurt's hoyt!"

In addition to the "Schoolboy" moniker appearing on his Hall of Fame plaque, Hoyt was also known as "The Merry Mortician." For when he wasn't playing baseball he spent days working as a funeral director and nights appearing on vaudeville. As a vaudevillian, he appeared with many of the most well-known performers of the day, including Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, and others. He kept in good shape during the off-season by playing semi-pro basketball.

He added to his repertoire by becoming an accomplished painter and writer. He was well-known as the pre-eminent authority on Babe Ruth, who was his teammate for almost 10 years. Robert Creamer, author of the definitive Ruth biography "Babe", indicated in that book's introduction that the novella-length memoir written by Hoyt shortly after Ruth's death was "by far the most revealing and rewarding work on Ruth."

A longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous, during the by|1978 Old-Timers' Day, Hoyt said wistfully that he'd have won 300 games if he had stopped drinking during his playing days. After joining A.A., he remained sober for more than forty years.

As a broadcaster

After retiring as a player, Hoyt went into broadcasting. During a stint as the host of "Grandstand and Bandstand" on WMCA, he tried to audition for the Yankees, but sponsor "Wheaties" vetoed him out of hand. The common view at the time was that former players didn't have enough of a vocabulary to be successful broadcasters. However, Hoyt was well known for telling umpire George Moriarty that he was "out of his element" and was better suited to being a policeman so he could "insult people with impunity."

Dodgers' voice Red Barber, however, thought more of Hoyt's abilities and hired him as color commentator and host of the pre- and post-game shows in by|1940. After two years, he became the play-by-play voice of the Cincinnati Reds, a post he held for 24 years. He became as much a celebrity with the Reds as he was while a player. He was well known for calling games exclusively in past tense, which was and still is unusual for sportscasting. Where most baseball announcers would say, "Here's the pitch!" Hoyt would say, "There was the pitch!" A typical Hoyt call went, "The shortstop fielded it (the ball), threw it to first, and the runner beat the throw." He told author Curt Smith that he felt using past tense was more accurate because "as I speak to you, what happened a moment ago is gone." On August 16, by|1948, Hoyt paid tribute to Babe Ruth, speaking on the air without notes for two hours upon learning of his death after a game. [ cite Cincinnati Enquirer] He called the 1961 World Series for NBC, during a time when it was common for the network to use the home team's primary broadcasters for the Fall Classic. [cite book |last=Smith |first=Curt |authorlink=Curt Smith (author) |coauthors= |title=Voices of Summer |year=2005 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York City |isbn=0786714468 ]

He retired from full-time broadcasting work in by|1965, though he would later make appearances on both radio and television including doing the color commentary for the Reds telecasts in by|1972. Hoyt was known for entertaining radio audiences with anecdotes during rain delays. A selection of these stories is collected on two record albums "The Best of Waite Hoyt in the Rain" and "The Best of Waite Hoyt in the Rain, Volume 2." Whether one considers it a blessing or a curse on the subsequent evolution of sports broadcasting, Hoyt was one of the first professional athletes to develop a successful career in broadcasting and his name frequently appears on "all-time best" broadcaster lists.

On June 10, by|2007, the Cincinnati Reds honored Hoyt, Marty Brennaman, and Joe Nuxhall with replica microphones that will hang on the wall near the radio booth.

Later life

An eternal optimist, Hoyt married his third wife, Betty Dearie in 1982. Dearie, a longtime fan, was an associate of Warren Giles, first President of the Reds and subsequently of the National League Betty still lives in Cincinnati. Betty is interviewed extensively in the video biography "Waite's World". The bio was released on VHS in 1997 (is now DVD www.waitehoyt.com) and includes interviews with his son Chris, the late hall of fame broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, reporter and television personality Nick Clooney, former Red Jim O'Toole and many more.

The aging Hoyt died of heart failure while preparing for what he realized would be his final visit to the Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York.

ee also

* List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
* List of Major League Baseball saves champions
* List of Major League Baseball wins champions

References

4. Waite's World: The Life and Times of Waite Hoyt. Dir. Donn Burrows. DVD. Schoolboy Wonder Productions, 1997, www.waitehoyt.com

External links

*baseball-reference|id=h/hoytwa01