There are many words to describe me, but fast has never been one of those words. I was always the kid plodding along while being forced to run the mile in high school gym class, the kid who could hit singles consistently in softball but never legged out doubles or triples and the adult who as I like to say “meanders” instead of speed walks.
The word fast does however describe New York Giants first baseball Dan McGann. Even Dan McGann’s name sound fast, it runs out of your mouth in a rapid staccato of syllables and rhyme. On May 27, 1904, he stole five bases in one game; a National League record which stood until Davey Lopes stole five bases in one game in 1971 and Otis Nixon stole six bases in one game in 1991. In fact, Dan McGann stole forty-two bases that year, coming in fourth in the National League. Pittsburgh Pirate great Honus Wagner was number one in the National League with fifty-three stolen bases.
Dan McGann was not only quick on the bases but also quick to anger with a pugilistic reputation. During an April 1908 game between McGann’s new team the Boston Doves and his former team the New York Giants, McGann’s former manager John McGraw referred to his former player as a “dammed ice wagon” intimating that McGann’s slowness was the reason the Giants lost a lot of games the previous season. Dan McGann waited for McGraw at the Giant’s hotel and fought him in the hotel’s billiard room.
Sadly, no matter how fast Dan McGann was, he could not run away from his family’s unfortunate history of severe depression. One of his sisters committed suicide in 1890 after their mother’s death, another brother died in 1907 and a second brother committed suicide in 1909. Dan McGann himself suffered from severe clinical depression and on December 13, 1910 he was found dead in a Louisville hotel room after shooting himself in the heart. This was after a career low batting average of .225 playing for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and few prospects for the upcoming 1911 season.
Dan McGann had an impressive career in baseball despite a troubled personal life. In twelve years in the majors, he had a lifetime batting average of .284, with 842 runs, 181 doubles, 100 triples, 42 home runs, 727 RBI, 282 stolen bases, 429 bases on balls, .364 on-base percentage and .381 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .987 fielding percentage playing 1377 games at first base and 53 games at second base.
Time Out With Jenn & Lisa 