A Cub for the first 19 of his 20 seasons, Hartnett was the first Catcher to blast 20 Home Runs in a Season (1925), and he would have 236 overall, a record at the time for anyone at his position. Catchers were not expected to be good hitters in his day, but Hartnett had six .300 Seasons (five for Chicago) and retired with an excellent Slash Line of .297/.370/.489.
Catchers were expected to provide good defense, and while he made his share of errors, he was a six-time league leader in Caught Stealing Percentage and was in the top three in Range Factor per Game 13 times. A six-time All-Star, Hartnett would win the National League MVP Award in 1935 when he had a career-high .344 Batting Average.
While the Cubs did not win the World Series when he was there, they would have not have made the four that they did without Hartnett, especially the 1938 one. That season, Hartnett hit the famed Home Run (called the Homer in the Gloamin’ in reference to the darkness around the stadium) in a series against Pittsburgh that propelled them to a lead in the NL) The man they called “Old Tomato Face” would be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. In 2021, the Cubs inducted Hartnett as part of their first franchise Hall of Fame class.
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