Wesley Garvin Hamner (March 18, 1924 – December 15, 2003) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player. A second baseman and

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

, he appeared in one season (

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

) for the Philadelphia Phillies of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. His younger brother, Granny Hamner, would become the Phillies' star shortstop of the 1950 "Whiz Kids"

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

championship team, while Garvin spent all but two months of his 11-year career in minor league baseball. The two Hamners were teammates briefly on the 1945 Phils. While Granny was the better prospect, and had a 17-year MLB career, the similarity in their names caused a mixup during the Rule 5 draft. The

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

had scouted Granny and wanted to draft him off the Phils'

Utica Blue Sox The Utica Blue Sox was the name of two minor league baseball teams based in Utica, New York. In the 2010s, the ''Utica Blue Sox'' is the name of a collegiate summer baseball team of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) based in ...

minor-league roster. But they selected Garvin's name by mistake – and Granny remained with the Phillies, for whom he would later star. Garvin Hamner, a lifelong resident of Richmond, Virginia, threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed . In 32 Major League games in 1945, he collected 20 hits in 101

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

, including three doubles, for a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .198. He was sent to the

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were Minor League Baseball teams based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. History Atlanta played its first ...

of the

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cla ...

in June and played the rest of his career in the minors.Baseball Reference
/ref> He died at age 79 in Richmond.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamner, Garvin 1924 births 2003 deaths Baseball players from Richmond, Virginia Burials in Virginia Major League Baseball second basemen Philadelphia Phillies players