Major League Baseball Player. He was born in Houckstown, Ohio and at the age of two lost is hearing due to spinal meningitis. He graduated as valedictorian from the Ohio School of the Deaf and returned to his hometown to make shoes and play amateur baseball. His professional baseball career began in 1886 when he was invited to play for Oshkosh, Wisconsin. His speed in centerfield and his quick bat soon drew the attention of major league teams and in 1888 he began his fourteen year major league career with the Washington Senators. He led the National League in stolen bases his rookie year with eighty-two. He spent most of his career with the Senators and the Cincinnati Reds. He had a lifetime .288 batting average, 2,054 hits and 1,004 walks. In 1900 the centerfielder had 337 putouts, 45 assists and a .997 fielding percentage. It is the only time an outfielder led the majors in all three fielding categories. He is one of only three major leaguers to throw three players out at home plate in one inning. Some baseball historians credit him for having an essential role in the development of the hand signals system that is used worldwide in baseball today. He retired in 1902 and spent twenty years building a successful dairy farm business outside Cincinnati. He also worked as a personnel director for Goodyear. He was the first person enshrined into the American Athletic Association of the Deaf's Hall of Fame and was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. He died five months shy of his one hundredth birthday just months after throwing out the first pitch in a Cincinnati versus the New York Yankees World Series game. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Lytle Park located on Fourth Street in Cincinnati.