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Happy Hogan (baseball)
American baseball player (1877–1915) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wallace Louis Bray (known professionally as Happy Hogan; October 13, 1877 – May 17, 1915) was an American minor league baseball catcher and manager in the early 20th century. He is a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.[1][2]

Hogan was born on October 13, 1877, in Santa Clara, California. He played at Santa Clara College and then the University of Southern California (USC), captaining the USC Trojans to a championship.[3] He first played professionally in 1901 in the 1899–1902 iteration of the California League. His team, the Sacramento Solons, moved to the Pacific Coast League (PCL) as a founding member in 1903, and Hogan remained in the PCL for the rest of his career. He played through the 1914 season, serving as a player-manager 1909–1914.
Hogan changed his last name, at least for baseball purposes, from Bray to hide his participation in the then–somewhat–déclassé profession of baseball from his father.[4] Although Hogan was a very poor hitter[3] (his lifetime batting average is .180 and slugging average is .217),[5] he was a good catcher,[4] had a scrappy larger-than-life personality and was a well-known figure in the beginning days of the PCL,[3] was the longest-serving player from the PCL's founding year (1903–1914), and managed the Vernon/Venice Tigers (1909–1915), dying in harness.[citation needed]
After Hogan took over the manager's chair of the Vernon Tigers in 1909, newspapers sometimes called the team "Hogan's Tigers".[6] As a manager, Hogan was an advocate of the controversial innovation of uniform numbers.[7]
Hogan contracted pneumonia[4] and died on May 17, 1915, in Los Angeles at age 37.[5]
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