"I don't want my picture in any cigarettes, but I also don't want you to lose the ten dollars, so I'm enclosing my check for that sum. Tobacco may shorten a man’s life and interfere with his baseball career, but I guess it hasn’t shortened mine a great deal. I have noticed that where a player starts to quit hitting, it will shorten his career a good deal quicker than tobacco. There ain't much to being a ballplayer, if you're a ballplayer." Honus Wagner. "Honus Wagner was the greatest athlete in baseball. Acknowledging that there may have been one or two whose talents were greater, there is no one who has ever played this game that I would be more anxious to have on a baseball team. The difference between the number one shortstop, all time, Wagner and the number two shortstop, whoever it is, is about the same as the distance between the number two shortstop and the number 30 shortstop. Honus Wagner was a gentle, kind man, a storyteller, supportive of rookies, patient with the fans, cheerful in hard times, careful of the example he set for youth, a hard worker. He was the most beloved man in baseball before Ruth." Bill James. Honus Wagner still ranks in the top 10 all-time, in hits, singles, doubles, triples and stolen bases. Honus Wagner hit an astonishing 20 triples at age 38 and 17 triples at age 41.
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