Baseball Brothers: Paul and Lloyd Waner

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Baseball Brothers: Paul and Lloyd Waner

“Paul Waner had to be a very graceful player – because he could slide without breaking the bottle of whiskey on his hip!” -Casey Stengel.

“When I walked up there with a half-pint of whiskey fresh in my gut, that ball came in looking like a basketball. But if I hadn’t downed my half-pint of 100 proof, that ball came in like an aspirin tablet.” -Paul Waner, speaking of his, shall we say, “unusual” approach to hitting.

Hall-of-Famers Paul (Big Poison) and Lloyd (Little Poison) Waner were the best hitting brothers in baseball history. They got their nicknames from a Brooklyn Dodgers fan’s mispronunciation of “Big Person” and “Little Person”, which was then picked up by a sportswriter in the stands. The Harrah, Oklahoma farmboys combined for 5,611 hits – the major league record for brothers – easily besting the three Alous (5,094), and the three DiMaggios (4,853). They are the only brothers elected to the Hall of Fame other than 19th-century ballplayers Harry and George Wright.

In 1927, the Waners had the greatest season two brothers ever had. Playing side-by-side in the Pirates’ outfield, Paul and Lloyd had 460 hits between them, with a combined average of .367. Their efforts got them into the 1927 World Series, but neither ever played in the Fall Classic again. On September 15, 1938, the brothers hit back-to-back home runs against Cliff Melton of the New York Giants

The Waners were fixtures in the Pirates’ outfield from 1927 until 1940, Paul in right and the speedy Lloyd in center. Paul compiled 3,152 hits over his 20-year career, with a lifetime batting average of .333, hitting over .300 a remarkable fourteen times. A four-time All-Star, he won three batting titles (1927, ’34, ’36) and was the National League RBI leader and MVP in 1927. He set the major league record for consecutive games with an extra-base hit with 14, since tied by Chipper Jones.

An excellent defensive center fielder, Lloyd’s career average was .313 over 19 seasons, with 2,459 hits, while topping .300 ten times. He led the league in putouts four times, using his excellent speed to cover the spacious Forbes Field outfield.

Although the brothers were very close, they were opposites in many ways. Lloyd was a teetotaler according to photographer George Brace who knew him well [Ed note: this is disputed on his Wikipedia page]; and Paul…well, let’s just say he liked to have a good time. Paul once said that in order to be a good hitter you had to be relaxed at the plate. To Paul, “being relaxed” meant having a shot or two of whiskey before each at-bat. When Paul Waner gave up drinking in 1938 at management’s request, he hit only .280 – the first of only two times that he failed to hit .300 as a Pirate.

Paul Waner was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1952. His brother Lloyd followed with election in 1967. In 1999 Paul Waner was ranked no. 62 on “The Sporting News” list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was later a finalist for the Major League All-Century team. His no. 11 was retired by the Pirates in 2007

-Gary Livacari
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Photo Credits: George Brace collection; the Charles Conlon collection; and public domain.

Information: From the same sources; and the Paul and Lloyd Wikipedia pages.

Statistics from Baseball-Reference.com