| Buck Ewing was called the greatest player according to Francis Richter, a sports writer. Richter wrote in 1919 that Ewing, Cobb, Wagner were the three best but "Ewing was the best of all with his supreme excellence in batting, catching, base running, throwing and baseball brains; a player without any weakness".
Ewing was the first catcher to study hitters weaknesses and share this information with his pitchers. Sports' writers wrote, "...as a thrower to bases, Ewing never had a superior". Another write wrote the following about this great catcher's powerful throwing, "...it look like he handed the ball to the second baseman from the batters box".
In this era, the catchers position was so taxing that most catchers played half the time. "Buck" Ewing would play either outfielder or infielder when he wasn't behind home plate. Ewing led the league in home runs in 1883 and in 1884 he led the league in triples.
Buck Ewing career stats are: played in 1315 games, scored 1129 runs, hit 178 triples and 70 homers. He batted .303 and stole 336 bases. This Hall of Famer was honored with gold medals for his fielding as a catcher and as a first baseman. |
