My War with Baseball

Rogers Hornsby, nicknamed "The Rajah", is regarded as one of the best hitters of all time. Known as someone who was difficult to get along with, not well-liked by his fellow players, and reviled or adulated as a manger, through it all he had an enduring love of the game.

This is his story, his outlook, his vision for the game. Originally published in 1962 many of the issues Roger had with the game still exist today. His outlooks and opinions may be shared by many fans regarding salaries, managers, and the game itself.

He never smoked, drank, or went to the movies, but frequently gambled on horse races during his career. Hornsby was a great baseball player, but he never learned much about human relations. "I have never been a yes man," he boasted a few years before his death. Baseball was his life; he cared for little else-except which horse looked good that day. Asked what he had gotten out of life, he said simply, "I wore a big-league uniform, and I had the best equipment, and I traveled in style, and I could play baseball every day. What else is there?"

His Baseball Career

Roger Hornsby had 2,930 hits and 301 home runs in his career; his career batting average of .358 is third only to Ty Cobb, at .366 and Oscar Charleston, at .364, in MLB history. His batting average for the 1924 season was .424, a mark that no player has matched since. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942.