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American baseball player

Paul Glee Waner (April 16, 1903 – August 29, 1965), nicknamed "Big Poison", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams between 1926 and 1945, most notably playing his first 15 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The greatest Pirate outfielder up to his retirement, he won the 1927 NL Most Valuable Player Award in his second season, collecting a team record 237 hits that year. Waner set the team record for doubles in a season three times, including 1932, when he set the NL record for doubles in a season with 62. In the only postseason appearance of his career, he hit .333 in the Pirates' 1927 World Series loss against the New York Yankees. Waner won three National League (NL) batting titles, led the NL in hits twice and collected over 200 hits each season from 1926 to 1934. On June 19, 1942, Waner became the seventh member of the 3,000 hit club, with a single off Rip Sewell. He led the NL in putouts four times and holds the career record for most putouts by a right fielder. Waner's 191 triples are 10th all time, and his 605 doubles are 14th all time. A career .333 hitter, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952. When Waner's younger brother Lloyd was elected to the Hall of Fame, they became the second pair of brothers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, after Harry and George Wright. Paul and Lloyd also hold the record for the most hits recorded by brothers (5,611). On July 21, 2007, Waner's No. 11 was retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Waner was born in Harrah in the Oklahoma Territory, four years before the region became a state. He was the third child of five of Ora and Etta Waner. His younger brother Lloyd Waner is also a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Ora had once been offered a contract by the Chicago White Stockings but declined it, instead settling a 400 acre farm. Waner was born with the middle name of John but his middle name was changed from John to Glee after an uncle named Glee gave him a shotgun at the age of 6. He stated that he learned batting from hitting corncobs on his father's farm, learning the way to follow the ball by seeing the movement of the cobs. Waner had an astigmatism; he did not like wearing glasses on the field as it made the ball appear smaller and in focus, but without glasses the ball looked grapefruit sized. With the larger apparent size of the baseball he was able to hit the center more often. Waner played baseball at East Central State Teachers College (now known as East Central University) in Ada, Oklahoma; he pitched to a 23–4 record with a 1.70 earned run average in 1922. He signed with the team in Joplin, Missouri in the Class A Western League. Then, Waner was sent to the Southwestern League (equivalent to Rookie League) in Muskogee before being sold again to the Class AA San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1923, the manager of which was former Pirate, John "Dots" Miller. He only pitched one game for the Seals, in 1924 before he was moved to the outfield. With the Seals, Waner hit .378 over his three seasons, including .401 in their 1925 championship season.

In October 1925, the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League purchased Waner and teammate Hal Rhyne from the Seals for $100,000. On April 17, 1926, against the Cincinnati Reds, he collected his first major league hit. On August 26, Waner collected six hits in six at bats during a game against the Giants, and he accomplished this feat using six different bats from six different players. He ended his first season with a .336 batting average and led the NL in triples with 22. He also finished 12th in MVP voting as the Pirates finished in third place, 4.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. The 1927 season was a standout year for Paul. He played in a career high 155 games (which led the league), and led the NL in hits (237), a team record, triples (18), batting average (.380) and RBIs (131). since then this feat has also been accomplished by Chipper Jones in 2006. Aided by the contributions of the Waner brothers, Pittsburgh advanced to the 1927 World Series. His 223 hits in 1928 were tied (with his younger brother Lloyd) for second most in team history. He set a career high with 15 home runs in 1929. He also collected at least 200 hits for the third season in a row and hit .336 with 43 doubles and 100 RBIs for the second place Pirates. Playing in only 145 games (the fewest since his rookie year) during the 1930 season, he still recorded 217 hits with a .368 batting average and 117 runs. By his measure, 1931 was a disappointing year for Waner, who was injured and missed time during spring training. During a game on May 12, Waner hit four doubles, which tied a major league record for doubles hit in a game. He finished second in MVP voting and was selected to his second MLB All Star Game. In 1935, it was suggested by manager Pie Traynor that Waner give up hard liquor and switch to beer, and this resulted in Waner only hitting .242 on May 18. Traynor and Waner went to a bar before playing the Giants on May 19, and when Waner ordered a beer Traynor said, "He will like Hell. Give him a shot of whiskey." It was also his fourth and final MLB All Star Game selection. Famous for his ability to hit while hung over, when 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. That year, he had 69 RBIs, 31 doubles and 175 hits in 148 games. As Casey Stengel said in complimenting his base running skills, "He had to be a very graceful player, because he could slide without breaking the bottle on his hip."

On January 31, 1941, Waner was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers After 11 games he was released by the Dodgers after only hitting .171 with 6 hits. He was released by Boston on January 19, 1943. Two days later, the Dodgers signed him again. A spike injury to his foot meant that he missed time once again,