William “Dummy Hoy” is a deaf baseball player.He was born on May twenty third, 1862, and died on December fifteenth 1961. He could hear when he was born, but when he was three years old he got diagnosed with meningitis and became deaf.Dummy went to the Ohio School of the Deaf to learn how to play baseball, and learn sign language.He had many nicknames such as Bill or Billy, but he only accepted the nickname “Dummy.”People called him this because he was deaf, and the people referred it as him being dumb. Hoy was known mostly because he created hand signals for baseball, so that people who were deaf could use them.Now many deaf people and coaches use Hoy’s sign language to talk to each other. He had two hand signals that everyone
knew, raising the right arm means to strike and raising the left arm means to call for balls. Hoy thinks being deaf is an advantage for playing baseball because nothing can distract you. William played for many teams in the MLB, but played mostly for the Cincinnati Reds. He was a center fielder throughout his career.Hoy became the first one in baseball history to hit a grand slam when deaf. He was also the first deaf athlete to be In the Baseball Hall OF Fame for the deaf. Before he had all the fame he worked at a shoe repair shop.Since Dummy could not hear, the fans made him a sign language cheering just for him. MSM Productions honored Hoy with a whole illustration web just for him. In there, there is his career stats, a biography, quotes that he has, a detailed report, and a news page going on for publicity for these efforts.MSM wanted to do this because they wanted to share with the public how being a deaf baseball player is like. There is also there is a effort going on to produce a documentary about Dummy Hoy’s life and career.
After Hoy retired he operated a dairy farm with his wife Anna who was also deaf. They had six kids together. Sadly just before Hoy’s one hundredth birthday he died. He was the longest former MLB player to live when he was alive. His remains were scattered all over Lytle Park in Cincinnati. Since then he was the smartest MLB deaf player alive.