Deaf Historian Research Paper

Nierra Coleman

17 November 2015

Prof. Brown

Deaf Historian Research Paper

William Ellsworth, better known as ‘Dummy,’ Hoy was the first deaf Major League Baseball player. Not only was he famous for being a deaf baseball player, Hoy also was very talented and highly skilled at what he did. He became one of the many legends in the MLB.  He was the first deaf person to have a long running, successful career in major league baseball.

Born in 1862 to Rebecca Hoffman and Jacob Hoy in Houcktown, Ohio, Hoy contracted meningitis at the tender age of three years old which left him mute and deaf. Hoy grew up with three brothers and a sister. In 1879, Hoy graduated from the Ohio School for the Deaf as valedictorian. After graduation, Hoy was self-employed, and he opened a shoe store that repaired and made shoes. This was common for deaf people during this era.  

Hoy was discovered one day by man who just happened to be in the area. Hoy had a slow day at work and went outside to play ball. The man was shocked to discover that Hoy was deaf, but that impressed him even more. He asked Hoy to play in a game against Urbana, a rival team of Kenton, Ohio. Hoy accepted, and after that game the rest was history. The day after, Hoy closed his shop and set out to pursue a career in baseball. Most teams turned him down, because of the fact that he was deaf but he finally found a team with a Northwestern League in Wisconsin, called Oshkosh. While playing with this team, Dummy arranged a system with the third base coach with allowed the coach to signal Dummy when the pitcher threw a ball or a strike. These hand signals eventually became common in the baseball world. These signals are actually still used today on the field and in the stands among fans.

In 1888, Dummy was picked up by the Washington Senators after two seasons with the Northwestern League in Wisconsin. By the end of his first year with the Senators, Hoy held the lead record in stolen bases with 82. Currently, he still holds this record with the team. In 1889, from the outfield he threw out three Indianapolis base runners at home plate. Hoy was the first of only three outfielders in history to do so.

Dummy was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1894. He played center field with them for four seasons. This was the longest time he had spent with any team. He also liked to stay in Cincinnati during the off season. Four years later, in 1898, Hoy married Anna Maria Lowry, who was also deaf. Anna was a well known teacher for deaf students in Ohio after she married Hoy. They had three children: Carson, Carmen, and Clover. The two girls followed in the footsteps of their mother and became schoolteachers while Carson became a lawyer.

 In 1900 and 1901, Dummy played with Chicago. In between the three of these MLB teams, he also managed to play with a few smaller leagues in Buffalo, St. Louis, Louisville, and Los Angeles. Hoy’s final major league season ended in 1902 after he was released from his contract with the Reds. During his time with these teams, Hoy set many records and played exceptionally well, arguably one of the best in the League. Hoy led the league with 119 walks and he also led the Browns with 136 runs. His time in Louisville were two of his best seasons, including batting averages of .318 in 1898 and .306 in 1899. In 1901, Hoy hit the second grand slam in the newly-formed American League.  On May 16, 1902, “Dummy” Hoy, batting for the Reds, faced Luther Haden “Dummy” Taylor, of the New York Giants. It was the only time in major-league baseball history that two deaf players faced each other. Playing a total of 1,792 games in the major leagues and with a .288 lifetime batting average, Hoy finally finished out his career in Los Angeles with the Looloos, in the newly-founded Pacific Coast League, with 46 stolen bases and 413 putouts.