An Interview with a Descendant of Honus Wagner

Honus Wagner is an all-time great baseball player. For those of you unfamiliar with "The Flying Dutchman", his career spanned from 1897-1917 wherein he had a lifetime batting average of .327. He was known for his speed, and his fielding ability. Over the course of his career he won seven batting titles, and in 1908 his BA was almost 50 percent better than the league average. He is considered one of greatest shortstops in the history of the game.

I attend a small university in central Indiana where I met Connor Wagner. Connor is the great great nephew of Honus. I will not bore you details about how we met, or anything such as that. I'll just let you know that when I discovered this link in ancestry my shit was officially flipped.

We have a simple motto for this blog, "If we find it interesting, then we know someone else will." Thus, we decided to interview Connor about what it is like for him and his family to be connected to an all-time great.

With that, we now bring you the first interview in Sixty Feet, Six Inches history.

SFSI: I know in my family we still celebrate the fact that we had a relative in our bloodline fight in the Revolutionary War, and he's generations away with no link to him besides a family tree and a name. Meanwhile, you have one of the all-time greats in baseball as an ancestor only a few generations away. Is that a fact your family takes pride in?

CW: I'd say that our family is proud of it, but not to any extent of celebration or gloating. However, we have taken a couple family photos with the statue of Honus outside of PNC Park, as well as Three Rivers Stadium before it was taken down.

SFSI: That's fantastic, a "family photo." While we're on the subject of family, are there any stories that are passed down about Honus that generally don't find their way into documentaries, books, biographies, etc? If so, is there one you could share with us?

CW: I don't know of any stories that have been passed down, at least in our branch of the family tree.

SFSI: Going back to the statue outside of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Is it weird looking at that thing and knowing that's a relative?

CW: No, it's not really weird to look at the statue. It's pretty cool actually.

SFSI: Building off of that last question, is it strange to hear an ancestor brought up in conversation about being one of the game's greats?

CW: As surprising as it may seem, I haven't been in too many conversations where old baseball greats are brought up. In fact, you'd be surprised how many times I have had to tell people who Honus Wagner is, even amongst baseball fans. I usually qualify the statement by telling such and such ignorant person, "He was one of the first five players inducted to the hall of fame." That is usually followed by an "ohhhh...cool."

SFSI: Bill James has Honus listed as the second greatest player in history behind Babe Ruth. Did any of that talent and passion for the game find its way through the bloodline to you? Does anyone in the family currently play baseball in a level higher than Little League?

CW: As far as following the MLB, I don't know of anyone in my family that is crazy about it, but almost every male on my dad's side has played baseball to some extent. My dad pitched through college and was part of a championship winning team at Grove City College, a small Christian school. Also, my grandpa, we call him Pappy, was invited to try out for the Pirates after his short stint in college. Unfortunately, he did not make the team.

SFSI: Just because this question has to be asked, does anyone in the family own the famous T206 Honus Wagner baseball card?

CW: Oh the famous card. (laughs) Pappy always tells a story of how he had one growing up and buried it in his backyard with the rest of his baseball card collection to hide it from his older brothers. I guess we'll never know if he was telling the truth.

SFSI: That's a shame, if that story is true it makes me a little sick to my stomach to think about. Well thank you for letting us interview you. Any closing remarks you'd like to make?

CW: Go Pens! and Pirates, I guess...

So there you go. Our first interview under our belts. If anyone else has an interesting person for us to talk to, as always, let us know at [e-mail]

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Sixty Feet, Six Inches is an Indianapolis based sports blog covering a wide range of sports. If you like what you read here, check out our home page for more. Sixty Feet, Six Inches