Baseball Signs of the Times

Nancy Churnin
Story Snoop

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​Who introduced the signals for ball and strike, safe and out in baseball?
William Klem, an umpire who took credit for creating the signs for strikes and balls in 1906, a practice that became standard in 1909, was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 for changing the game of baseball with that brilliant addition to the game of baseball.

​But did he deserve the credit? On August 20, 2019, the Major League Baseball Umpire Association itself called this claim into question (https://mlbua.com/press-single?id=134).
It turns out that there was another umpire, Francis O’Loughlin, who had used hand signals during that very same 1906 season. But here’s the kicker. In a Washington Post article from that time, after spraining his voice, O’Loughlin “employed [William] Hoy’s mute signal code.”
William Hoy’s mute signal code? That’s right. William Hoy, a Deaf player who started his 14-year major league career in 1888, had taught umpires signals, including American Sign Language gestures for safe and out, so he could play the game he loved. Local newspapers covering Hoy’s games described and at times sketched how he would watch his third base coach hold up his right arm for a strike and his left for a ball after each pitch.

​Now, even William Hoy fans don’t claim he was the first to use hand signals, mainly because he wasn’t the first Deaf player in baseball. That honor goes to Ed Dundon, a pitcher who used hand signals both as a player from 1883-1884, followed by pitcher Tom Lynch, who played one season in 1884.

But while Hoy was the third Deaf player in professional baseball, his career was longer and encompassed eight teams in four leagues (the now defunct Players’ League and American Association as well as the ongoing National League and the American League). That’s a lot of umpires and players who would have observed the use of Hoy’s hand signals.

Why is it important to give credit where it is due? For many in the Deaf community, Hoy brings pride as someone who didn’t “overcome” a challenge of being Deaf, but used the gift of being Deaf to change the game of baseball for the better. To overlook the contributions of Deaf players to baseball feels, to many, like giving white musicians credit for playing the jazz that Black artists created. Today, Steve Sandy, a Deaf historian and friend of the Hoy family, continues a campaign to get Hoy inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where he would be the first Deaf player honored there.
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Steve Sandy is acknowledged as a key resource source for The William Hoy Story, How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game (illustrated by Jez Tuya, Albert Whitman & Company) and the co-writer and co-producer of an independent film about Hoy called The Silent Natural. If you’d like to help his efforts, visit the Hoy for the Hall page on nancychurnin.com for the address of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and write a letter on his behalf.

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https://youtu.be/sMAE8R0E2_o
Learn more about William Hoy in The William Hoy Story, How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Jez Tuya (Albert Whitman & Company). Check out the resources, including video of the real William Hoy, a free teacher guide and Readers Theater play, the Hoy for the Hall project and more.
https://mobile.twitter.com/cammillerfilms/status/1097574123071569921?lang=en
https://youtu.be/vUyXyp_yWkI

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