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ASL Rose Website : Newsletter Volume 2 No.3

ASL Rose Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 3 April 2008

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The Clash of Two Baseball Dummies

The 2008 season is about to start. Baseball umpires will bark loudly, "Play ball!" At the time of this writing, there is no deaf player on any baseball team roster. However, there are several deaf baseball players in the minor leagues. Should Ryan Ketchner, a under the farm team of Toronto Blue Jays, reach the major league baseball later this season, he would become the second deaf pitcher. Curtis Pride played baseball professionally for several teams during his career. Who had the most illustrious professional baseball careers? Most Deaf folks would point to and Dummy Taylor.

Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor spent a good number of years as professional baseball players. Even with the label of “Dummy” attached to their names, both men were not dummies at all. In fact, they graduated as valedictorians from the Ohio School for the Deaf

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and the Kansas School for the Deaf respectively. While playing baseball, both of them were very proud of their Deaf identity and gracefully accepted in the press the label of "Dummy" attached to their names. As a matter of fact, they were smarter than many baseball fans who called them dummies in a derogatory manner.

In 1902, Dummy Hoy was playing for the Reds and nearing the end of his baseball career. Dummy Taylor began his second season of professional baseball for the New York Giants. There was a baseball game between the two teams at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Dummy Hoy was a leadoff batter and faced Dummy Taylor who was the starting pitcher for the Giants on May 16, 1902. Both men were acquaintances before the game, and continued that relationship throughout their careers. It was the first time in major league baseball history that a Deaf player clashed against another Deaf player. To this present day, it has never happened again. In that game, Dummy Hoy got two hits off Dummy Taylor, but the Giants won the game behind his pitching and also a late rally. Dummy Taylor failed to strike out Dummy Hoy and Dummy Hoy, when on the base, failed to steal the base against Dummy Taylor. Both of them played stellar in that game.

William Ellsworth Hoy and Luther Haden Taylor were elected to the American Athletic Association of the Deaf (now United States Deaf Sports Federation) for their baseball greats. Hoy and Taylor were the first two selectees under the history of the Hall of Fame in 1951 and 1952 respectively. After their baseball careers, Dummy Taylor worked for different schools for the Deaf and Dummy Hoy was personnel director at Goodyear Tire where several hundred deaf workers were employed. Both of them were actively involved in the Deaf community.

Dummy Hoy was enshrined in the ' Hall of Fame. Dummy Hoy was known as a dedicated baseball player and seriously devoted to the game of baseball. In 1903 at the age of 41, he ended his baseball career by playing for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League and helped the team win the pennant. He was responsible for inventing the "strike" and "ball" signals. His baseball statistics were fabulous in some categories which should be more than enough to launch him into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Throughout his life, people viewed him as a true gentleman.

Dummy Taylor was recently added to the list in the Baseball Hall of Fame in the State of Kansas. Even though Dummy Taylor was a good pitcher, he was known as a clown during his baseball days. A funny story about him appeared in the book, Deaf Heritage, where he stopped a game on a rainy day by wearing rain boots and carrying an umbrella. He often cussed the umpires over their calls on his pitching. One umpire decided to learn ASL during off season from his deaf niece and was ready for him in the next baseball season. At a game, Dummy Taylor cussed again, of course in ASL, at that umpire. The umpire came to him and told him in sign that he was ejected due to his foul . Believe it or not! Dummy Taylor had two other Deaf baseball teammates, Dummy Deegan and Dummy Leitner, playing for the New York Giants in 1901. They were together just for a few months.

There is hope for a movie coming up soon about Dummy Hoy. Please click here to view about a future movie on Dummy Hoy through YouTube and also click here to see the showing of "Dummy Hoy: A Deaf Hero” which will take place in Columbus, Ohio on April 16th. There is a book Havana Heat by Darryl Brock in which Dummy Taylor was portrayed. These men remain Deaf sports heroes in today's Deaf world. ASL Rose values Deaf heroes so that Deaf boys can be instilled with hope to become successful in their baseball undertaking. Have You Ever Seen...? An American (ASL) Handshape DVD/Book (HYES) has two colorful sketches relating to the following Deaf sports: 1) a

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basketball game between Georgia School for the Deaf and Florida School for the Deaf (see page 13) and 2) a football game between Maryland School for the Deaf and Alabama School for the Deaf (see page 60). Both events gave Deaf players the opportunities to show their athletic prowess. Who knows if some talented Deaf athletes playing for their Deaf schools could become professionals?

Here comes a game of school baseball between the visiting and home teams. An umpire growls, "Strike one" by moving his right hand upward! The batter is Deaf and the pitcher is Deaf too! Go to the Hoy Baseball Classic at Maryland School for the Deaf on April 24-26, 2008 and spot our talented baseball players. Hopefully some of them will make it to the big league one day in the future. We look forward to a baseball game where another Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor clash.

Steve Sandy must be thanked for sharing the information about his idol, Dummy Hoy, and also the story between Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor. Mike Tucci deserves thanks too for capturing through his artwork the spirit of clash between them: Hoy batting and Taylor pitching.

The December 2007 issue of ASL Rose newsletter presents a list of twenty-eight wonderful ideas for creating ASL and English bilingual materials. Below are the four ideas drawn from the list to show some possibilities for learning more about Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor.

1. More entertainment, educational, and documentary films in ASL A movie about Dummy Hoy is coming up. It is really great! What about a movie about Dummy Taylor? At present, there is no plan for making a movie about him. Why don't we produce a movie about Dummy Taylor?

2. Thousands of ASL DVDs about Deaf heroes A DVD collection in ASL about Deaf heroes would not be right without Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor in the collection. They must be included to serve as an inspiration to Deaf baseball players. The DVDs could be in a form of storytelling about their baseball careers and lives outside of baseball. Kudos to Deafplanet for already covering a showpiece on Dummy Hoy along with the nineteen other shows on a DVD. You can visit the website for placing an order of that DVD: deafplanet.com.

3. E-book in ASL The book Havana Heat is printed in the English language. It would be wonderful to have the book translated and/or adapted into ASL and make it available through the E-book. This would make it more accessible to Deaf viewers through ASL and give a greater knowledge to Deaf people about the world as well as the Deaf world.

4. ASL literary clubs and societies in K-16 educational settings Dummy Hoy and Dummy Taylor overcame the greatest odds for becoming professional baseball players. Their successful stories should be told again and again in ASL literary clubs and societies in order for Deaf children and youth to be instilled with a message of "nothing impossible" for overcoming any obstacles that come to them.

An overflowing cornucopia of ASL materials is sorely needed to help Deaf children and youth become more enriched in their world knowledge. ASL Rose is firmly committed to sharing any new, wild and wonderful ideas with the readers. Any takers for implementing the aforementioned ideas?

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ASL Rose is making a promise that any work taken will appear in a future newsletter.

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