Rogers Hornsby slammed the door on the Cardinals but it didn’t shut.
On Oct. 25, 1932, the Cardinals signed Hornsby for a second stint with them.
The reunion seemed unimaginable six years earlier when Hornsby and Cardinals owner Sam Breadon quarreled during contract talks. Reaching a boiling point, Hornsby stormed out of Breadon’s office, slamming the door behind him and triggering his banishment from the club.
Hit and miss
In December 1926, Hornsby was at the height of his popularity in St. Louis. A second baseman and right-handed batter of exceptional skill, he hit better than .400 three times with the Cardinals and earned six of his seven National League batting titles with them. In May 1925, Hornsby became Cardinals player-manager, replacing Branch Rickey, who moved into the front office. Hornsby led them to their first World Series title the following year.
The relationship between Hornsby and Breadon became strained during the 1926 championship season. As the St. Louis Star-Times noted, Breadon grew uneasy with the amount of gambling Hornsby was doing on horse races. According to author Mike Mitchell in his book “Mr. Rickey’s Redbirds,” Hornsby often was visited at the ballpark by a bookmaker, Frank Moore.
For his part, Hornsby was miffed that Breadon scheduled exhibition games for the Cardinals during the pennant stretch. Hornsby also resented Rickey’s authority in player personnel decisions and clashed with him, upsetting Breadon.
Shortly before Christmas Day 1926, Hornsby and Breadon met to discuss a contract, but neither was feeling the holiday spirit.
According to the Star-Times, Breadon offered a one-year deal for $50,000. Hornsby demanded three years at $150,000. Wanting control of all player personnel decisions, Hornsby also insisted that Breadon fire Rickey.
The talks deteriorated further when Breadon introduced a contract clause banning Hornsby from attending a horse race or from betting on one, and prohibiting him from associating with bookmakers, author Mike Mitchell noted.
The meeting unraveled and so did Hornsby, who exited in a huff. Fed up, Breadon called the Giants and agreed to trade Hornsby to them for second baseman Frankie Frisch and pitcher Jimmy Ring.
Hornsby played in 1927 with the Giants (filling in as manager in September when John McGraw became ill) and in 1928 with the Braves (taking over as manager in May) before going to the Cubs. Near the end of the 1930 season, he became player-manager of the Cubs.
Cubs capers
Hornsby had the support and admiration of Cubs owner William Wrigley Jr., who, according to the Chicago Tribune, called Hornsby “the smartest manager and the smartest player I have ever seen.”
When William Wrigley Jr. died in January 1932, his son, Philip Wrigley, took over and relied on the experience of club president William Veeck Sr. Without William Wrigley Jr., to protect him, Hornsby and Veeck Sr. clashed. “The temperature between them had dropped to freezing,” The Sporting News reported.
In addition, Hornsby’s relations with some Cubs players became strained. He “snarled at the athletes and injured the tender feelings of quite a few,” The Sporting News noted.
In his autobiography, “My War With Baseball,” Hornsby said Veeck Sr. “tried to make some of my managing decisions from his office and it was obvious we didn’t see eye to eye.”
On the night of Aug. 2, 1932, with the Cubs in second place at 53-46, five behind the Pirates, Veeck Sr. fired Hornsby and replaced him with Charlie Grimm.
A subsequent investigation by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis disclosed that Hornsby had borrowed about $6,000 from four Cubs players to cover his horse racing bets, the Star-Times reported.
The Cubs went on to overtake the Pirates and win the National League pennant. When Cubs players met to determine how to divide their share of the World Series proceeds, they voted to give Hornsby nothing.
Forgive us our trespasses
After winning National League pennants in 1930 and 1931, the Cardinals finished 72-82 in 1932, 18 behind the champion Cubs. The Cardinals ranked sixth in the eight-team league in both hits and runs scored.
Seeking a hitter, Breadon and Rickey turned to Hornsby, who was at his St. Louis County farm. According to Red Smith of the Star-Times, Hornsby “had been an apparent outcast from baseball, passed up by every major-league club except the Cardinals, and his farm property is under federal attachment for unpaid income taxes and penalties.”
The Cardinals signed Hornsby to a one-year contract for $15,000. The deal included a provision “that at the close of the 1933 season he will be given his unconditional release and therefore will be free to sell his services to the highest bidder,” the Star-Times reported.
In essence, Hornsby had a contract that would grant him free agency. Ever the gambler, he was betting on himself that he would parlay a productive 1933 season into a more lucrative offer the following year.
Another unusual twist: With second basemen Frankie Frisch and Rogers Hornsby, the Cardinals had the players who were swapped for one another six years earlier.
Considering the genuine animosity expressed after Hornsby’s departure in 1926, the reconciliation was surprising to some. “I could hardly believe the setting before my eyes was a reality,” Sid Keener wrote in the Star-Times. “Hornsby and Breadon were chatting and making plans again. They had been pals, then enemies, and now they’re pals again.”
A contrite Hornsby told Red Smith, “If I had listened to Mr. Breadon and Mr. Rickey six years ago, I’d be a lot better off today financially and every other way. It’s like coming home. I had disagreements with the Cardinals, but I know Mr. Breadon and Mr. Rickey always treated me fairly.”
Hornsby said to Keener, “I’m willing to admit I made the one big mistake of my career when I slammed the door on Mr. Breadon’s face six years ago and refused to accept the contract that was offered.”
According to the St. Louis newspapers, the Cardinals projected Hornsby as their second baseman for 1933, with Frisch moving either to shortstop or third base.
“We believe Rog is still a great ballplayer,” Breadon said to the Star-Times. “We think he will help us win the pennant next year. That is why we are signing him.”
Rickey told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I see no reason why Hornsby can’t have a great year for us.”
Cardinals manager Gabby Street was onboard with the move, too. “Rogers Hornsby is far from being through as a baseball player,” Street said to the Springfield (Mo.) Leader. “I think he’s got a lot left in him and that he’ll be of a real help to the Cardinals.”
Street added, “I don’t anticipate any trouble from him.”
Speculation swirled that Hornsby soon would be lobbying to have Street’s job, but Breadon told the Star-Times that Hornsby had been given “no consideration whatsoever” as a possible successor to Street.
Never a dull moment
Shortly before the 1933 Cardinals started spring training, Hornsby injured his right foot while instructing at a baseball school in Hot Springs, Ark. When the Cardinals opened the regular season against the Cubs at Chicago, Frisch was at second base and Hornsby was on the bench.
Hornsby didn’t appear in either of the Cardinals’ first two games at Chicago, nor did he play in the home-opening series versus the Cubs at St. Louis a week later, but he created controversy with comments accusing Cubs teammates Charlie Grimm and Gabby Hartnett of plotting to get him fired the year before.
According to United Press, Grimm and Hartnett wanted to go into the Cardinals clubhouse at St. Louis and “horsewhip” Hornsby for making what they said were false statements about them, but William Veeck Sr. advised against fighting “a washed up ballplayer.”
In response, Hornsby told the news service, “Whenever Charlie Grimm or Gabby Hartnett want to fight, all they have to do is to roll up their sleeves and come on. I’m ready for them.”
The mood was both tense and electric when the Cardinals returned to Chicago to play a Sunday doubleheader at Wrigley Field on April 30, 1933.
Facing the Cubs for the first time since his firing and for the first time since the war of words with Grimm and Hartnett, Hornsby, 37, started at second base in both games. He had two hits and a RBI and scored a run in the opener, then drove in the winning runs with a two-run home run against Pat Malone in the second game. Game 1 and Game 2.
Hornsby was jeered in every at-bat, but there were no incidents with Cubs players. In the clubhouse after the games, Hornsby displayed “a little extra gleam of satisfaction in his eyes,” the Post-Dispatch noted.
In June, Hornsby had hits in five consecutive plate appearances as a pinch-hitter, including a two-run double that broke a 5-5 tie in a 7-5 victory over the Dodgers. Boxscore
A month later, both the Cardinals and the American League St. Louis Browns made major changes.
On July 19, when their manager, Bill Killefer, resigned, the Browns approached the Cardinals about a replacement. According to the Star-Times, Branch Rickey came to Hornsby and asked, “How would you like to manage the Browns?”
Hornsby replied enthusiastically and accepted Rickey’s offer to negotiate for him.
On July 24, the Cardinals fired Gabby Street and elevated Frankie Frisch to the role of player-manager. Two days later, the Browns hired Hornsby to be their player-manager.
“Mr. Rickey was my guiding adviser throughout the negotiations with the Browns,” Hornsby told the Star-Times. “It may seem peculiar to the fans in St. Louis, but I am indebted to Mr. Rickey for obtaining the position with the Browns. We’ve had many bitter battles in the past, but they’ve been forgotten long ago.”
In 83 at-bats for the 1933 Cardinals, Hornsby had 27 hits and 21 RBI. He batted .325 overall and .333 as a pinch-hitter. His on-base percentage was .423.
“I’ve learned to like him,” Frankie Frisch told the Star-Times, “and I regretted to see him go.”
RetroSimba 
Several years later, Hornsby had a second (brief) stint as Browns’ manager, hired (and fired) by another William Veeck.
Yes, good point. Rogers Hornsby managed to get fired by two Veecks, William Sr. of the Cubs in 1932 and his son, Bill, of the Browns in 1952.
Hornsby’s first stint with the Browns was 1933-37.
After the 1951 season, both the Browns and Cardinals considered hiring Hornsby as manager. The Cardinals, seeking a replacement for Marty Marion, ended up with Eddie Stanky.
In his autobiography, Hornsby said of his second stint with the Browns, “I signed a three-year contract with Bill Veeck, with the complete understanding that he wouldn’t mess up the game with clowns and wouldn’t tell me how to manage … Then Veeck tried to manage the team.”
Hornsby was fired in June 1952 _ and replaced by Marty Marion.
What a love-hate relationship Hornsby and Breadon had. Makes me think of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. I came across a piece where it says that Hornsby once kicked Breadon out of the clubhouse.
Thanks, Phillip. The Martin-Steinbrenner comparison to Hornsby-Breadon is a good one.
Even though the Cardinals won the 1926 World Series title, Sam Breadon wanted Cardinals coach Bill Killefer to replace Rogers Hornsby as Cardinals manager, multiple St. Louis newspaper reports confirmed. In his autobiography, Hornsby said, “We were on our special train coming back to St. Louis after the Series when Breadon called Killefer into his drawing room and offered him my managing job for 1927. Bill turned down the job, and in being loyal like coaches should be, came and told me what Breadon said.”
Seven years later, it was Hornsby who replaced Killefer as Browns manager.
Interesting story, and a very fiery relationship indeed.
Thanks for reading and for commenting.
In explaining in his autobiography why he demanded a three-year contract from Breadon after the Cardinals won the World Series championship, Hornsby said, “I had been playing under the same salary for three years and didn’t get a dime increase for managing the team.”
Hornsby is buried not too far from where I live in Austin, TX. I’ve buggered my girlfriend (who is def NOT a baseball fan) to go with me to check out his grave to no avail. Perhaps soon.
Great write-up as always, Mark.
Thanks, Gary.
Your comment prompted me to do some digging. I found the Austin American Statesman coverage of the Rogers Hornsby burial near, or on, the family property in January 1963. I thought you might appreciate some of these excerpts from the article written by Marj Wightman:
“This place, a quick twist of the hardtop just a couple of miles shy of Webberville on State Road 969, is harder to find these days … You could miss it. There’s no neat black and white highway sign to tell you that here, nine miles east of Austin, is the home of the Hornsbys.
“Hornsby Bend belongs pretty much to the past; at least its history looks more impressive than its tomorrow.
“Down toward the cemetery here, Rogers Hornsby was buried Thursday afternoon, along the dirt road sloping to the river. There, a monument put up by the state where the old home once stood, states: “Site of the home built in 1832 by Reuben Hornsby and his wife Sarah Morrison Hornsby. Second built in Austin’s Little Colony and first in the present county of Travis. Here, Josiah Wilbarger recovered after being scalped in 1833. Mr. Hornsby and his sons fought in many Indian battles and served as scouts in Captain John J. Tumlinson’s company of Rangers in 1836.”
If a guy hits over .400 three times, you could definitely ‘learn to like him.’
Some of the players who hit .400, such as Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Ted Williams, were outspoken, often unlikeable, individualists. Maybe that’s part of what it takes to achieve such a high batting mark.
This piece goes a long way in demonstrating the power of forgiveness, that a player and a team can put aside past differences and start over again. Great write up Mark. I had no idea Hornsby had such a combative spirit, maybe a bit like Cobb? But Hornsby seemed more in the habit of apologizing.
Thanks, Steve.
The comparison of Rogers Hornsby with Ty Cobb is an apt one, in so many ways, including personality. Hornsby and Cobb are the only players to hit .400 in 3 seasons.
in his autobiography, Hornsby said, “Cobb was just about the smartest hitter you’ll ever want to see at the plate. He could move in and crowd the plate if he thought the pitcher was going to give him a curve. Cobb made a science out of hitting. He was liable to hit from 3 or 4 different places in the box, all during one turn at bat.”
I’ve heard that Carew was similar, altering stances and positioning in the same at bat.
Great article! I consider Hornsby a top three all-time Cardinal, along with Stan Musial and Albert Pujols. The Rajah did a great job managing the Cardinals when he took over in 1925, and in ‘26. But had his problems elsewhere. I read a good book about Hack Wilson and Wilson thrived under Joe McCarthy, because McCarthy did not care what Hack did away from the ballpark, as long as he showed up sober and ready to play.
When Hornsby took over he would ride Wilson about his drinking and berated him for it. Hornsby would get on guys about drinking or going to the movies, but would give his own vices, primarily gambling, a pass.
Still a great ball player, and a big influence on Ted Williams when Williams played at Minneapolis and The Rajah was their hitting coach. Williams took to Hornsby’s hitting theories of swinging only at good pitches and taking the walk if you were not going to get anything good to hit.
Thanks for all the keen insights, Michael.
In his autobiography, Rogers Hornsby tells of meeting with baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was lecturing him on why he needed to stop betting on the horses. In a classic example of his blunt, belligerent, self-centered style, Hornsby said he told Landis, “Well, I know it’s gambling, but so is the stock market. You can’t tell me it’s worse to gamble with my own money than it is to gamble on the stock market _ like you putting money that belongs to baseball in the stock market and losing.”