Baseball - 1996

Harry “The Horse” Danning was born in Los Angeles, but played for the New York Giants from 1933 to 1942. Catching some of baseball’s greatest legends, including Carl Hubbell, Hal Schumacher and Fred Fitzsimmons, he was selected to four National League All Star Teams, played in two World Series, and had a career .285 batting average.

Among the many highlights of Danning’s career: Hitting for “the cycle” on June 15, 1940 (single, double, triple, homerun in one game); five hits in a single game; one of five Giants to hit a record five homeruns in the same inning (with Joe Moore, Burgess Whitehead, Frank Demaree, and Manny Salvo); hit 57 career homeruns, 53 of them in five seasons; won what is now the “Golden Glove Award” in 1939; and, in 1946, was named by Babe Ruth on his All-America Team as “the best catcher in baseball”.

Danning’s stats are all the more impressive considering he saw limited action his first four big league seasons, playing behind Giant catching star Gus Mancuso. In those days, the regular catcher rarely took a day or an inning off.