Breaking Barriers

William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy For Hall Of Fame

Dummy Hoy (1862-1961) was the most accomplished deaf player in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is credited by many sources as causing the establishment of out and safe, as well as ball and strike calls by umpires. His accomplishments are too long to list.

Greatest "Hits"

Most successful deaf major league baseball player

Introduced hand signals for calling balls and strikes

First deaf player to hit a grand slam in major league baseball history.

First player to be entered in the American Athletic Association for the Deaf’s Hall of Fame

2,000 hits

1,400 runs

total chances as an outfielder

Walks

records for career putouts

Vote William Hoy For
Baseball Hall of Fame

Latest News

Admitted to Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame

The most celebrated deaf athlete in baseball history, and one of the most important in sports history, Dummy Hoy’s long career spanned 14 seasons, seven clubs, and four different major leagues.

The William Hoy Story

The William Hoy Story is on many state reading lists and a part of many school curriculums. The book is available in hardcover and paperback in English, in paperback in Japanese and Korean, as an ebook in Spanish and will be available in Swedish in Fall 2023.

Baseball Field named after Hoy

Gallaudet University has honored him by naming their baseball field after him.

Documentary Channel aired the biography

In 2008, the Documentary Channel aired the biography: “Dummy Hoy: a Deaf Hero” aka “I Can See the Crowd Roar”. In 2019, there was a limited release movie called “The Silent Natural.”

What The Experts Say

"Dummy Hoy was a gentleman star, a wonderful baseball player, and he brought a new dimension to the game of baseball, to see somebody out there that had the difficulties he had to overcome. Dummy Hoy was a front-‐runner for the sport. He gave inspiration to a lot of people and the Deaf community could go to higher levels. You have to have somewhere along the line somebody who is going to set a standard, and Dummy Hoy did that."

“Hoy is the Deaf community’s Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Hoy broke the communication barrier. Hoy’s induction would be enthusiastically acclaimed by the (48 million) Americans who are hearing impaired.”

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"A lot of the problems for the Deaf in the late 1800’s came down to the communication barrier. It would quite often be a misinterpretation of Deaf people. As for Dummy Hoy, I’m still trying to figure out why he has not been selected for the Hall of Fame. He’s a hero for Deaf people."

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“We never questioned anything other the fact that he had started hand-‐ signals. We knew that he had, and it was an accepted fact in our family. We were taught not to say, “My grandfather was a great ballplayer, and he invented hand-‐signals for baseball.” We would never say such a thing as that because that would be nothing that he would ever want us to do.”