Chick Hafey

Template:Infobox MLB retired Charles James "Chick" Hafey (February 12, 1903, Berkeley, California – July 2, 1973, Calistoga, California) was an American player in Major League Baseball.

Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924-1931) and Cincinnati Reds (1932 – 1935, 1937), Hafey was known as a strong line-drive hitter who batted for a high average on a consistent basis. Hafey also showed flashes of power, averaging 27 home runs and 114 RBI from 1928 to 1930. He won the batting title in 1931 with a .349 clip and was considered for the MVP award.

Hafey was part of two World Series championship teams (in 1926 and 1931), both times as a member of the Cardinals.

On April 11, 1932 Hafey was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where his career faltered due to a sinus condition that led to his becoming one of the first players to wear glasses on the field (Specs Toporcer was the first). Although he continued to bat for a solid average, his offensive production decreased. He missed most of 1935, all of 1936 and retired after a tepid 1937 season.

Hafey finished his career batting .317 with 164 home runs and 833 RBI. He holds the National League record for most consecutive at-bats with a base hit with 10, set in July, 1929.

Hall of Fame

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They cited what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players.

See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions

External links

• Chick Hafey at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs