Sherry Magee


Sherwood Robert "Sherry" Magee was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1904 through 1919, Magee played with the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Braves and Cincinnati Reds. He batted and threw right-handed and in a 16-season career posted a.291 batting average with 83 home runs and 1,176 runs batted in through 2,087 games played.

Career

A native of Clarendon, Pennsylvania, Magee was one of the premier hitters of the dead-ball era. From 1905 through 1914, Magee finished in the National League Top 10 in home runs and RBIs seven times, including leading the NL in RBIs four times. He led the league for a fourth time in the campaign, which was shortened by World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. Magee also hit over.300 five times, including a batting title to his credit as well, while also being known as one of the finest defensive outfielders of his day. He collected 2,169 hits and 441 stolen bases, including 23 steals of home.
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Magee was obtained by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1904 and remained with them for eleven years. His 85 RBIs in 1905 were an NL high. His most productive season came in 1910, when he led the league in batting, RBIs, runs, total bases, on-base percentage, slugging average and OPS, and finished second in doubles and triples.
On July 10, 1911, Magee struck umpire Bill Finneran as a result of disputing a called third strike, knocking him unconscious, at which he was suspended for the remainder of the season, although on appeal the suspension was shortened to just over a month, 36 games.
In 1914 Magee led the league in hits, doubles, RBIs, extra base hits, total bases and slugging. A year later, he was traded to the Boston Braves. He remained at Boston until the 1917 midseason, when he was sent to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1918, he led the league in RBIs for the fourth time. In 1919, Magee was seriously ill for two months and he concluded his major league career by pinch-hitting twice during the 1919 World Series.

Later life

Magee later played in the minors and also umpired in the New York–Penn League and the National League. A victim of pneumonia, Magee died in Philadelphia, at age 44.
He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.
In 2008, he was one of ten pre-1943 players to be considered by the Cooperstown Veterans Committee for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.