The retirement of Honus Wagner

Honus Wagner during his coaching days with the Pirates

More than 50 years after arriving in Pittsburgh from Louisville, Hall of Famer Honus Wagner finally retires from the team 72 years ago today.

Wagner is a week shy of his 78th birthday when he retires in 1952.

Wagner begins his stay in Pittsburgh as a 26-year-old outfielder in 1900 before becoming the Pirates’ full-time shortstop in 1903.

Honus Wagner during his playing days

He ends up winning eight batting titles for the Pirates with 3,420 career hits, 723 stolen bases and a .328 batting average before retiring after the 1917 season as a player.

He then begins a second career as a beloved coach with the Pirates, a tenure that ends just before the start of the 1952 season.

Historian extraordinaire Bill James later ranks Wagner second behind only Babe Ruth on his list of the game’s all-time best players with Willie Mays, Oscar Charleston and Ty Cobb rounding out the top five.

“He was a gentle, kind mind,” James says of Wagner, “a storyteller, supportive of rookies, patient with the fans, cheerful in hard times, careful of the example he set for youth, a hard worker, a man who had no enemies and who never forgot his friends. He was the most beloved man in baseball before (Babe) Ruth.”