Were he still alive, Sunday would have been Lewis Robert “Hack” Wilson‘s 120th birthday, a number that falls 71 shy of the RBI record he set in 1930. Wilson was an anthropomorphic fire hydrant, and a caricature of one at that, standing 5-foot-6 and weighing 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck and size 5 1/2 feet. Raised in less than ideal conditions, Wilson left school at the age of 16 to swing a sledgehammer in a locomotive factory.
No stranger to hard work, hard living, or hard drinking, Wilson’s prodigious power was matched only by his penchant for ill-advised fisticuffs.