Chick Hafey

Charles James Hafey signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1923. Branch Rickey watched him hit during spring training and changed the plan immediately. "By Judas Priest, who is that boy?" Rickey said. The boy became one of the most feared right-handed hitters in the National League, a .317 career hitter who played 13 seasons and won a batting title while struggling to see the ball clearly enough to swing at it. Sinus infections damaged his eyesight so badly that he wore glasses on the field, rotating among three pairs depending on which day treated his vision best. Rickey later said that if Hafey had been blessed with normal eyesight and good health, he might have been the best right-handed hitter baseball had ever known.

Berkeley

Hafey was born on February 12, 1903, in Berkeley, California, one of eight children. His father, James, was an Irish immigrant who worked as a laborer. His older brother Albert pitched for Portland in the Pacific Coast League in 1913, and two cousins, Bud and Tom Hafey, also reached the majors. Hafey attended Berkeley High School, where he played halfback before turning to baseball, hoping to follow his brother to the mound.

Charles Chapman, a University of California professor who moonlighted as a Cardinals scout, spotted Hafey and signed him. The Cardinals sent him to Fort Smith in the Western Association in 1923, where he hit .284 with 16 home runs. He moved up to Houston in the Texas League in 1924, hit .360, and reached St. Louis that August. Rickey's conversion from pitcher to outfielder had worked.

The Cardinals

Hafey played eight seasons with the Cardinals and appeared in four World Series. He was part of the 1926 championship team that beat the Yankees in seven games, the team remembered for Grover Cleveland Alexander striking out Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded in Game 7. Hafey singled in that game and helped score runs in the 3-2 victory. The Cardinals returned to the Series in 1928 (a loss to the Yankees), 1930 (a loss to Connie Mack's Athletics), and 1931, when they beat the Athletics in seven games.

Between 1927 and 1930, Hafey averaged 25 home runs and 102 RBI per season, with batting averages of .329, .337, .338, and .336. He led the National League in slugging in 1927 at .590. He had one of the strongest throwing arms in the game, and Ernie Lombardi, who later roomed with him in Cincinnati, remembered seeing Hafey throw a ball over the left field fence from the outfield, roughly 330 feet and 20 feet high.

The trouble was his health. A sinus infection in 1926 damaged the vision in his left eye so severely that he had "virtually no use" of it by season's end. Surgery that winter helped, and he wore glasses beginning around 1929, making him one of the first prominent position players to do so. He used separate pairs for hitting and fielding, and stuffed a lamb's wool filter in his nose to ward off further infections. He played 100 or more games in only seven of his 13 seasons.

The 1931 Batting Title

The 1931 race was one of the closest in National League history. Hafey, Bill Terry of the Giants, and Jim Bottomley of the Cardinals were separated by fractions of a point through September. Terry sat out most of the final week to protect his average but returned on September 27. On September 27, a Robins game was suspended after three and a half innings due to cloud cover and fans swarming the field, erasing a Terry single from the books. The final averages were Hafey at .3489, Terry at .3486, and Bottomley at .3481. National League president John Heydler confirmed Hafey's title.

Cincinnati

Hafey's relationship with Rickey had always been contentious over money. After the 1931 season he asked for $17,500. The Cardinals offered $13,000. Hafey drove home to California in his 1929 Auburn sedan, reportedly at 90 miles an hour, and the Cardinals traded him to Cincinnati for Benny Frey and Harvey Hendrick.

He hit .344 in a shortened 1932 season with the Reds and .303 in 1933, when he was selected for the inaugural All-Star Game at Comiskey Park. He batted cleanup for the National League and singled off Lefty Gomez in the second inning, the first hit in All-Star Game history.

His health failed again in 1935. He hit .339 in early May, then caught the flu in Philadelphia, suffered a relapse, and returned to California. He missed the rest of 1935 and all of 1936. He came back for 89 games in 1937, hitting .261, and never agreed to contract terms for 1938. Warren Giles, the Reds' general manager, let him go as a holdout. When Giles called him 33 years later to inform him the Veterans Committee had elected him to the Hall of Fame, Hafey got a good laugh out of who was delivering the news.

Calistoga

Hafey bought farmland near Calistoga, California, for $10,000 and eventually owned 1,200 acres, raising cattle and sheep and building his own milling equipment. He rarely left the ranch. He and his wife, Bernice Stigaliano, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in December 1972. He died on July 2, 1973, at 70, in failing health after years of asthma, stomach problems, and a stroke in the late 1960s. The funeral was private.

In 13 seasons he accumulated 1,283 games, 1,466 hits, 341 doubles, 164 home runs, 833 RBI, and a .317 batting average. The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1971. The St. Louis Cardinals added him to their own hall of fame in 2014.