HONORING JEWS IN SPORTS

CLASS OF 2025 UNVEILED

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Sport: Baseball
Inducted: 2000
Country: USA
Born: September 6, 1911
Died: November 29, 2004

DESCRIPTION:

Harry "The Horse" Danning was a four-time Major League All Star catcher for the New York Giants from 1933 to 1942. He hit better than .300 three consecutive seasons (1938 to 1940) and finished his career with a .285 batting average.

Danning did not become a New York starting player until his fifth big league season (1937), and then only because the Giants' everyday catcher was injured. In 1938, his first full season in the starting line-up, Danning hit .306. He was chosen as the replacement catcher on the National League All Star Team. Hitting .313 in 1939 and .300 in 1940, he would again be named the NL’s All Star backstop both years, as well as in the 1941 season.

Behind the plate, "The Horse" caught three of the National League's premier pitchers: Carl Hubbell, Fred Fitzsimmons, and Hal Schumacher. At the start of the Giants' 1939 season, manager Bill Terry said of the man he kept on the bench the better part of five years: "Danning will be the best catcher in the National League this year, possibly in baseball, and I include [Gabby] Hartnett and [Bill] Dickey."

After the 1942 season, Danning was drafted into three years of military service. When World War II ended, he decided not to resume his baseball career.

Danning was dubbed "The Horse" by sportscaster Ted Husing during the 1936 World Series. Noting the hardworking manner of the Giants' substitute catcher (he played briefly in the Yankees 4-2 victory over the Giants), Husing borrowed "Harry the Horse" from one of journalist Damon Runyon's cast of offbeat characters.

Ike Danning, Harry’s older brother, preceded him as a Major League player. Also a catcher, Ike saw limited action as a member of the American League’s 1928 St. Louis Browns, batting .500, with three hits in six at-bats.

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