Chick Hafey
Outfielder
Born: (1903-02-12)February 12, 1903 Berkeley, California
Died: July 12, 1973(1973-07-12) (aged 70) Calistoga, California
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 28, 1924 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB appearance
September 30, 1937 for the Cincinnati Reds
Career statistics
Batting average	.317
Home runs	164
Runs batted in	833
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1924–1931) Cincinnati Reds (1932–1935, 1937)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star selection (1933) 2× World Series champion (1926, 1931) NL batting champion (1931)
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1971
Election Method	Veteran's Committee

Charles James "Chick" Hafey (February 12, 1903, Berkeley, California – July 2, 1973, Calistoga, California) was an American player in Major League Baseball. Hafey was part of two World Series championship teams (in 1926 and 1931) as a St. Louis Cardinal, and was selected by the Veteran's Committee for the Hall of Fame in 1971.

Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924-1931) and Cincinnati Reds (1932–1935, 1937), Hafey was a strong line-drive hitter who batted for a high average on a consistent basis. Hafey also had a power peak, averaging 27 home runs and 114 RBI from 1928 to 1930. In the field, he was known for having a "rifle arm."^[1] In 1931, Hafey won one of the closest races for a batting title in history, hitting .349 to beat New York's Bill Terry by just .0002, and teammate Jim Bottomley by .0007. The title was only secured by a hit in Hafey's final at-bat of the season. Hafey was fifth in the voting for the 1931 MVP award.^[2] When Hafey's Cardinals faced Al Simmons' Athletics in the 1931 World Series, it marked just the second time that two reigning batting champions had opposed one another in the Fall Classic.

Hafey was originally a Cardinals' pitching prospect, but after seeing him bat and run the bases, general manager Branch Rickey converted him to an outfielder. Hafey would be the first major success of Rickey's expansive farm system, breaking through in 1927 when he led the National League in slugging. Hafey, however, had suffered multiple beanings in 1926. He developed sinus trouble and his vision deteriorated, and Hafey began to wear eyeglasses while playing. Although Specs Toporcer was the first baseball player to wear glasses, Hafey was the most prominent; he is one of two Hall of Famers with eyeglasses, Reggie Jackson being the other. Because his vision became so variable, Hafey was obliged to rotate among three different pairs of glasses. In July 1929, Hafey tied a National League record with ten hits in ten consecutive at-bats. In August 1930, he hit for the cycle.

Although the soft-spoken Hafey was overshadowed by some of his raucous Cardinals teammates, he was frequently at odds with management. Hafey's 1931 and 1932 seasons both began late due to salary disputes. Cardinals general manager Rickey fined Hafey for being late and out of shape in 1931. In 1932, coming off his batting title, Hafey demanded that the previous year's fine be added to his 1932 salary. When Rickey refused, Hafey bolted from St. Louis' spring training camp. Rickey responded by trading Hafey to the last-place Cincinnati Reds.

Hafey was happy to join the Reds, who gave him the raise he had sought, but his career faltered. His vision was still erratic, and his persistent sinus condition cost him half of the 1932 season, though he hit .344. In 1933, he was chosen for the inaugural All Star Game, recording the first-ever All-Star hit. Although he maintained a solid batting average as a Red, his offensive production decreased. He missed most of 1935 on the voluntary retired list, and all of 1936. An abortive comeback in 1937 produced tepid results, and Hafey retired for good.

He finished his career batting .317, with 164 home runs and 833 RBI. Hafey played in four World Series, hitting .205 in 92 plate appearances.In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included Hafey 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 might rank with the all-time greats on merit, despite a career sharply curtailed by injury.

See also[link]

• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions

References[link]

External links[link]

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

Lloyd Waner
Center fielder
Born: (1906-03-16)March 16, 1906 Harrah, Oklahoma
Died: July 22, 1982(1982-07-22) (aged 76) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Batted: Left	Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 12, 1927 for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Last MLB appearance
September 16, 1945 for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Career statistics
Batting average	.316
Hits	2,459
Runs batted in	598
Teams
Pittsburgh Pirates (1927–1941) Boston Braves (1941) Cincinnati Reds (1941) Philadelphia Phillies (1942) Brooklyn Dodgers (1944) Pittsburgh Pirates (1944–1945)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star selection (1938)
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1967
Election Method	Veteran's Committee

Lloyd James Waner (March 16, 1906 – July 22, 1982), nicknamed "Little Poison", was a Major League Baseball center fielder. His small stature at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and 132 lb (68 kg)^[1] made him one of the smallest players of his era. Along with his brother, Paul Waner, he anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield throughout the 1920s and 1930s. He was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

Early life[link]

Lloyd Waner was born on March 16, 1906 in Harrah, Oklahoma, and grew up on a farm with his older brother, Paul. The two worked from dawn to dusk every day, and baseball was their only form of entertainment. Influenced by their father, who was a minor league player in Oklahoma City, Paul and Lloyd's love and natural talent for the game developed over the years. The Waners learned to hit against corncobs and cut down saplings in the woods to use as bats.^[1]

Lloyd graduated from McLoud High School and attended three semesters at East Central State University in Ada before going into professional baseball.^[2]

Professional career[link]

Waner started his professional baseball career in 1925 with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, but he hit poorly. The next season, however, he batted .345 in the Class B South Atlantic League. He also won the league's most valuable player award.^[3] He was offered a tryout for the Pirates at the urging of his brother, who by then was already a star player.

Waner broke into the majors with the Pirates in 1927 and quickly built his reputation as a slap hitter with an astute sense of plate discipline. In his rookie campaign, he batted .355 with 223 hits while only striking out 23 times (the highest strikeout total of his career). As the leadoff hitter of the powerful Pittsburgh offense, he led the National League with 133 runs scored. The runs scored mark set an MLB rookie record.^[4]

The Pirates won the 1927 NL pennant; Lloyd then batted .400 in his first and only World Series, but the New York Yankees won in four games. He continued to bat well early in his career. Coming off a .353 season, he missed most of 1930 due to appendicitis but returned with a vengeance in 1931, leading the NL with 214 hits and 681 at-bats while hitting .314.

Waner was also an accomplished center fielder. He led the league in putouts four times, using his excellent speed to cover the spacious Forbes Field outfield.

Waner played for the Pirates until the beginning of the 1941 season. In the preceding years, he batted .300 or higher ten times, finished in the top ten in MVP voting twice (1927 and 1929), and was an All-Star once (1938).

After splitting time in the early 1940s with the Boston Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, and Brooklyn Dodgers, Waner returned to Pittsburgh, where he finished his career in 1945. He compiled a career .316 batting average.

He (2,459) and his older brother Paul (3,152) hold the career record for hits by brothers (5,611), outpacing the three Alou brothers and the three DiMaggio brothers, among others. For most of the period from 1927 to 1940, Paul patrolled right field at Forbes Field while Lloyd covered the ground next to him in center. On September 15 1938, the brothers hit back-to-back homeruns against Cliff Melton of the New York Giants.^[5] Paul was known as "Big Poison" and Lloyd as "Little Poison." They got their nicknames from a Brooklyn Dodgers fan's pronunciation of "Big Person" and "Little Person," which was then picked up by a sportswriter in the stands. In 1927, the season the brothers accumulated 460 hits, the fan is said to have remarked, "Them Waners! It's always the little poison on thoid (third) and the big poison on foist (first)!"^{[1][6][7][8][9]}

Later life[link]

After retiring as a player, Waner was a scout for Pittsburgh and for the Baltimore Orioles.^[10]

He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. Sabermetrician Bill James has listed Waner as one of ten examples of Hall of Fame inductees who do not deserve the honor.^[11] Possible reasons for his selection include his brother being a fellow inductee and the inflated batting averages of his era, which also helped many other 1920s and 30s players in the eyes of the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee.

In 1982, Waner died of complications related to emphysema.^[1] He was survived by his wife Frances and his two children.^[6]

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball players with 2000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples
• List of Major League Baseball players with 20 triples
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
• List of Major League Baseball triples champions

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Lloyd Waner at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Lloyd Waner at Find a Grave
• Obituary at The Deadball Era

Mark "Neeldy" Neeld (born 13 July 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong and Richmond in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1990s. He is currently the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club.

Playing career[link]

Neeld, originally from St Joseph's Football Club, started his footballing career with Geelong. He spent four seasons with Geelong and had his only full season in 1991, when he played 21 games, three of which were in the finals. Used on both ends of the ground, as both a defender and forward, he kicked three goals in the semi final against Hawthorn and two goals in Geelong's preliminary final loss to West Coast.^[1][2] In 1994, Neeld joined Richmond after being traded for the 38th pick of the draft, which Geelong used to recruit David Innella. He retired at the 1996 AFL season, having played 74 AFL games,48 for Geelong and 26 for Richmond.

Coaching career[link]

Shortly after his retirement as an Australian Rules Football player, he was appointed the new head coach of the Ocean Grove Football Club in the Bellarine Football League. As coach of Ocean Grove, Neeld steered the club to four successive premierships from 2000 to 2003. He spent three years as the Western Jets senior coach in the TAC Cup before appointed the defensive assistant coach of Collingwood in 2008. His coaching duties changed in 2010 when he was put in charge of Collingwood's midfield.

Melbourne Football Club[link]

On 17 September 2011 it was announced that Neeld had agreed to become the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club beginning in season 2012 on a three-year contract. Neeld agreed to leave Collingwood immediately, despite the fact that the club was still competing in the finals.^[3]

Upon being appointed Melbourne coach, Neeld promised that the Demons would play hard.^{[citation needed]} This promise was fulfilled partially when Melbourne upset 2011 runners-up Collingwood in a NAB Cup match in early 2012. However, when the home-and-away season got underway in March, the Demons were defeated by the Brisbane Lions by 41 points in Round 1.

References[link]