Sherry Magee

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Sherwood "Sherry" Magee on a 1911 American Tobacco Company baseball card.

Sherwood Robert (Sherry) Magee (August 6, 1884 - March 13, 1929) was a left fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1904 through 1919, Magee played for the Philadelphia Phillies (1904-14), Boston Braves (1915-1917[start]) and Cincinnati Reds (1917[end]-1919). He batted and threw right handed.

In a 16-season career, Magee posted a .291 batting average with 83 home runs and 1176 RBI in 2087 games played.

A native of Clarendon, Pennsylvania, Magee was one of the premier hitters of the Dead Ball Era. He could hit, run, field, and played with intelligence and aggressively. Nevertheless, he has been one of the most underrated ballplayers in major league history.

From 1905 through 1914, Magee finished in the National League Top-10 in home runs and RBI seven times, including thrice leading the NL in RBI. He led the league for a fourth time in the war-shortened 1918 campaign. 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. To top it all off, he collected 2,169 hits and 441 stolen bases, including 23 steals of home.

Magee was obtained by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1904 and remained with them for eleven years. His 85 RBI in 1905 were a NL high. His most productive season came in 1910, when he led the league in batting (.310), RBI (123), runs (110), total bases (263), on base percentage (.445), slugging average (.507) and OPS (.952), and finished second in doubles (39) and triples (17).

In 1914 Magee led the league in hits (171), doubles (39), RBI (103), extra-bases (65), total bases (277) and slugging (.509). A year later, he traded to the Boston Braves. He remained at Boston until the 1917 midseason, when he was sent to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1918, for the fourth time, he led the league in RBI (76), and became a member of the Reds team that won its first NL pennant in 1919. In that year Magee was seriously ill for two months, and concluded his major league career by pinch-hitting twice during the 1919 World Series.

Magee later played in the minors and also umpired in the New York-Penn League (1927) and the National League (1928).

Victim of pneumonia, Magee died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at age of 44.