Sherwood Robert "Sherry" Magee (August 6, 1884 – March 13, 1929) was an American

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. From 1904 through 1919, Magee played with the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

(1904–1914),

Boston Braves The Boston Braves were a Major League Baseball club that originated in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, and played from 1871 to 1952. Afterwards they moved to History of the Atlanta Braves#Milwaukee, Milwaukee (and became the Milwaukee Braves). ...

(1915–1917) and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

(1917–1919). He batted and threw right-handed and in a 16-season career posted a .291

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 ...

with 83

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 1,176

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

through 2,087

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

Career

A native of Clarendon, Pennsylvania, Magee was one of the premier hitters of the

dead-ball era In major league baseball, the dead-ball era refers to a period from about 1900 to 1920 in which run scoring was low and home runs were rare in comparison to the years that followed. In 1908, the major league batting average dropped to .239, and ...

. He was picked out by local Phillies scout Jim Randall when he had heard about the exploits of Magee on the local diamond, and it resulted in an impromptu tryout that resulted in a spot for Magee on the Phillies. He started his first game as a left fielder against the Brooklyn Superbas on June 29, 1904. From 1905 through 1914, Magee finished in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

top 10 in home runs and runs batted in (RBI) seven times, including leading the

in RBIs four times. He led the league for a fourth time in the campaign, which was shortened by World War I and the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

pandemic. Magee also hit over .300 five times, including a batting title to his credit as well, while also being known as one of the finest defensive outfielders of his day. He collected 2,169

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

and 441

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out ...

s, including 23 steals of home plate. Sherry magee

Magee would play eleven years with the Phillies while spending the last year as team captain. His 85 RBIs in 1905 were a league high. His most productive season came in 1910, when he led the league in batting (.310), RBIs (123), runs (110),

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hit (baseball), hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single (baseball), single, 2 for a double (baseball), double, 3 for a triple (baseball), triple and 4 ...

(263),

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

(.445),

slugging average In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, a ...

(.507) and OPS (.952), and finished second in doubles (39) and triples (17). On July 10, 1911, Magee (allegedly drunk) struck umpire Bill Finneran as a result of disputing a called third strike, knocking him unconscious, at which he was suspended for the remainder of the season, although on appeal the suspension was shortened to just over a month, 36 games. In 1914 Magee led the league in hits (171), doubles (39), RBIs (103), extra base hits (65),

(277) and slugging (.509). A year later, he was traded to the Boston Braves. He remained at Boston until the 1917 midseason, when he was sent to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1918, he led the league in RBIs (76) for the fourth time. In 1919, Magee was seriously ill for two months and he concluded his major league career by pinch-hitting twice during the

1919 World Series The 1919 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the 1919 Major League Baseball season, 1919 season. The 16th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion 1919 Chicago White Sox season, ...

, which resulted in one hit and a championship for Magee.

Later life

Magee later played in the minors and also umpired in the

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

(1927) and the National League (1928). A victim of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

, Magee died in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, at age 44. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in

Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania Drexel Hill is a neighborhood and census-designated place (CDP) located in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,181 at the 2020 census, an increase over 28,043 in 2010, and accounting for over one-third of Up ...

. In 2008, he was one of ten pre-1943 players to be considered by the Cooperstown Veterans Committee for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* *
Baseball Hall of Fame: Magee Had Live Bat in a Dead Era
at The Deadball Era * {{DEFAULTSORT:Magee, Sherry 1884 births 1929 deaths Major League Baseball left fielders Boston Braves players Burials at Arlington Cemetery (Pennsylvania) Cincinnati Reds players Philadelphia Phillies players Baseball players from Warren County, Pennsylvania National League batting champions National League RBI champions Major League Baseball umpires Columbus Senators players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players St. Joseph Saints players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Baltimore Orioles (International League) players 20th-century American sportsmen Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania

Career

Later life

See also

References

External links