Not to be confused with his brother Bubbles Hargrave who was also a catcher (and won the batting title in 1926, William McKinley “Pinky” Hargrave was a journeyman catcher in the 1920s and early 1930s.
In 1924, Hargrave hit .147 (5 for 34) with one double and one triple. He walked once and struck out four times.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 Totals | 24 | 3 | 36 | 34 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .147 | .171 | .235 |
Hargrave is an interesting case because he came to bat exactly 36 times, the exact number of dice results on an APBA card. His card bears this out with his power numbers. He hit one double and one triple and as a result, he received one 6 and one two. After that, he receives the standard 8-8-8-9-9 combination. With his one walk, he receives yes, one 14.
Ugly numbers: 31-38, 51-13, 25-36
Hargrave’s 1924 card is rated Catcher-5 due to his lack of playing time, I assume. He didn’t make an error in the eight games he played.
Pinky Hargrave probably had his best year for Detroit in 1928. He batted .275 with 10 homeruns with 63 rbis. Keep in mind that only Ruth and Gehrig reached 20 HR in the AL that year.
Aside from the famous Ray Chapman case, Pinky Hargrave is one of the few baseball players to actually die on a ball field. He died of a heart attack in his hometown of Fort Wayne at the age of 46. He died while he was assisting with the transition of the municipal diamond for use as a football field. The Deadball Era has his obit.
