| Sherry Magee | |
|---|---|
| Left fielder | |
| Born: August 6, 1884 Clarendon, Pennsylvania |
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| Died: March 13, 1929 (aged 44) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| June 29, 1904 for the Philadelphia Phillies | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 27, 1919 for the Cincinnati Reds | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .291 |
| Home runs | 83 |
| Runs batted in | 1176 |
| Stolen bases | 441 |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Sherwood Robert "Sherry" Magee (August 6, 1884 - March 13, 1929) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1904 through 1919, Magee played for the Philadelphia Phillies (1904–14), Boston Braves (1915–1917) and Cincinnati Reds (1917–1919). He batted and threw right-handed.
In a 16-season career, Magee posted a .291 batting average with 83 home runs and 1,176 runs batted in in 2,087 games played.
A native of Clarendon, Pennsylvania, Magee was one of the premier hitters of the dead-ball era. He could hit, run and 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 RBIs seven times, including leading the NL in RBIs four times. He led the league for a fourth time in the 1918 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. 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 RBIs in 1905 were an NL high. His most productive season came in 1910, when he led the league in batting (.310), RBIs (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), RBIs (103), extra base hits (65), total bases (277) and slugging (.509). 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, for the fourth time, he led the league in RBIs (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).
A victim of pneumonia, Magee died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at age 44. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery Co in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.
In August 2008, he was named as one of the ten former players that began their careers before 1943 to be considered by the Veterans Committee for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.