People from Hill County, Texas - Tris Speaker (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: As Player As Manager Tristram E. Speaker (April 4, 1888 - December 8, 1958), nicknamed Spoke (a play on his last name) was an American baseball player known as one of the best offensive and defensive center fielders in history. Speaker was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during the second year of voting, 1937. Tris Speaker was born on April 4, 1888 in Hubbard, Texas, to Archie and Nancy Poer Speaker. As a youth, he suffered a fractured right arm in a fall from a horse, forcing him to throw left-handed, which he continued to do throughout his baseball career. In 1905, Speaker played his only year of college baseball, for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. His left arm was severely injured in a football accident, to the extent that surgeons advised amputation. Tris refused, and fully recovered to become one of baseball's great hitters and outfielders, manager of a World Championship team, and the seventh member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Speaker's abilities drew the interest of Doak Roberts, then owner of the Cleburne Railroaders of the Texas League in 1906. He batted .318 for the Railroaders, and wanted to be a professional ballplayer, but his mother opposed his being sold into slavery, stating that she would never give her consent to Tris going to Boston, even after he had had success in Houston. Roberts sold the youngster to the Sox for $800 the Red Sox scout beating the St. Louis Browns by a mere half-hour. Speaker played in seven games for the Red Sox in 1907, with three hits in 19 at bats for a .158 average. The following year, the Red Sox traded Speaker to the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern League in exchange for use of their facilities for spring training in 1908. Speaker ended up batting .350 for the Travelers and his ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=205846