Shanty Hogan

James Francis "Shanty" Hogan (March 21, 1906 – April 7, 1967) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1925 to 1937. Hogan was listed at and — an exceptionally large player, especially for his era. He was generally known as a good natured ballplayer and a decent hitter who had his best years with the Giants, hitting over .300 for four consecutive seasons in New York. Playing alongside his Somerville High teammate and fellow future-major leaguer Danny MacFayden, the pair led Osterville to the league title.

Professional career

Boston Braves

Hogan was signed by the Boston Braves on June 18, 1925 as an amateur free agent at the age of 19, and made his major league debut five days later as an outfielder. He was promptly sent to the minor leagues where he played for the Worcester Panthers and the Albany Senators. In 1926, he was sent to play for the Lynn Papooses where he was converted into a catcher.

New York Giants

Before the 1928 season, the Braves management wanted to increase Hogan's home run productivity, so they built bleachers in the left and center fields of the cavernous Braves Field, reducing the distance from home plate to left field from 403 feet to 353 feet and in center field from 550 feet to 387 feet. The Braves then made an about face when they traded Hogan to the New York Giants. In a controversial decision on January 10, 1928, the Giants owner, Charles Stoneham, traded Rogers Hornsby, one of the best hitters in the major leagues, to the Braves in exchange for Hogan and outfielder Jimmy Welsh. The controversy resurfaced in 1929 when the Giants filed suit against their former treasurer, Francis McQuade, stating that he had hurt the club with his poor decisions regarding trades.

Despite the controversy, Hogan experienced his first success in the 1928 season, hitting .333, with 25 doubles, 10 home runs and 71 runs batted in to help the Giants finish in second place, two games behind the St. Louis Cardinals.

He was part of a vaudeville act, telling jokes and singing parodies with Andy Cohen, a Jewish teammate from the Giants who played second base for the team. After the 1928 season they started performing on the Loew Circuit, with their first appearance on stage at the Loew's Commodore Theatre in Manhattan on October 15, 1928. The duo earned $1,800 a week, billed as "Cohen & Hogan", except in Boston, when the billings were reversed. In a 1960 interview, Cohen reminisced that "if we didn't kill vaudeville, we sure helped."

His vaudeville / baseball partner Andy Cohen recalled Hogan as someone who "could have been one of the best catchers ever... but he ate himself out of the big leagues." Hogan showed up for camp one year weighing and would run in a rubber suit and take hot showers in an effort to lose weight, but then he'd eat more to regain his strength, and weight. Giants manager John McGraw tried to control Hogan's weight by watching his meal checks, but Hogan developed a system where he would write down foods McGraw would want him to eat, which the waitresses knew to replace with the foods Hogan wanted to eat. As Cohen recalled, "He'd write down spinach, but that meant potatoes. He had a whole code of his own." 1930 marked Hogan's best season offensively. His performance was aided by the introduction of a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, resulting in a league batting average that was above .300 for the only time in baseball history. Hogan finished the season with a .339 average, 13 home runs, and 75 runs batted in, as the Giants once again finished in third place. On August 19, 1931, Hogan was the first catcher to start three double plays – only one other catcher‚ Damian Miller in 1999 – has matched him. He finished the season having committed only 2 errors in 525 total chances, to establish a National League fielding record with a .996 fielding percentage. The record would only last for one year, as it was eclipsed by Earl Grace of the Pittsburgh Pirates in . The Giants sold Hogan to the Boston Braves on December 29, 1932, for $25,000. Between May 1933 and August 1934, Hogan set a since-broken National League record for catchers by playing in 121 games without committing an error. His batting average improved to .262 in 1934, with four home runs and 34 RBI. He was signed as a free agent one week later by the Cleveland Indians, who sent him to the Washington Senators in December 1935. Hogan died on April 7, at the age of 61 in Boston, Massachusetts.