Born: September 29, 1867
Died:
MLB Debut: May,16, 1895
Goto Baseball-Reference.com for Hunkey Hines
Henry "Hunkey" Hines was signed by the Whites on November 3, 1887 at the age of 20. He played a handful of games for Milwaukee in the Northwestern League in May of 1887, mostly in the outfield. He later played for Rockford, IL (near his hometown of Elgin) in 1887, where he caught and played in the outfield. With the Whites in 1888, he played in right field in the first three games, and then switched to center field on May 3, the Whites fourth game. He missed the next 11 games, presumably with an injury of some sort, and returned to the lineup in center field on May 22. This was his best game offensively for the season. He went 4-4 with a double in a 6-3 win over Des Moines. Hines played center field every game after that until Herr moved to the Browns, at which point Hines took over at short stop. In 28 games with the Whites, he hit just over .250 with just two extra base hits. After the Whites disbanded, Hines returned to his home in Illinos. The Globe-Democat reported that he was going to take a job at the Elgin Watch Factory, while the Sporting News reported that he took an offer from the Rockford Club. Baseball-Reference doesn't list him as playing professionally again until 1890, when he played with Burlington and Aurora in Illinois. Hines moved out to California in 1891 with Oakland, where he caught Pete Somers. After not playing in 1892 (he ran a saloon in Elgin), he returned to Oakland for the 1893 season.
In 1894, Hines hit .427 with 34 home runs in 130 games for Minneapolis in the Western League. He was signed by Brooklyn the following spring, and played in two games in the majors (batting cleanup in both games) before being released to Kansas City in the Western League. Hines continued to play in the minors through 1903, mostly with clubs in the Western League, and then in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. In September of 1903, after hitting .339 for Davenport, Hines suffered a serious eye injury, and it was thought he would lose vision in that eye. He recovered enough to play three more seasons, although in a much more limited role than prior to his injury. Hines was a player-manager in Des Moines and Dubuque for a few seasons, and he later managed in his hometown of Rockford in 1908. In 1910, at the age of 42, he managed and played a few games in the Class D Northern Association. After he retired from baseball, he lived and worked in Rockford until his death in 1928 at the age of 60.
The first use of the nickname "Hunkey" (or "Hunky") seems to have been when Hines played in California in 1891.
Major League record for Hunkey Hines Batting stats Year Team Pos Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1895 Bro-N OF 27 2 8 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0.250 0.400 0.250 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals (1 yrs) 2 8 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0.250 0.400 0.250 Stats with the St. Louis WhitesBatting stats
Year Team Pos Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1888 STW 20 28 107 6 27 1 1 0 6 0.252 0.28Spring stats for the Whites Date Opponent Pos. AB R BH 2B 3B HR SB BB K 3/25/1888 Browns lf 4 0 1 0 3/27/1888 Browns lf 3 0 1 1 3/28/1888 Browns lf 4 0 0 0 3/29/1888 Browns lf 3 0 0 1 1 4/1/1888 Prickly Ash rf 5 0 0 0 3 4/12/1888 Kansas City rf 4 1 1 4/15/1888 Browns rf 4 1 1 1 1 4/16/1888 Bloomington rf 5 0 2 0 4/19/1888 Peoria rf 4 1 0 4/21/1888 Davenport rf 3 0 1 0 4/22/1888 Davenport rf 4 0 0 0 4/23/1888 Rockford rf 3 0 0 4/24/1888 Rockford rf 5 2 2 1 2 4/25/1888 Dubuque rf 4 0 0 0 4/26/1888 Dubuque cf 2 0 0 0 Totals (15 G) 57 5 9 1 0 0 5 1 4 1 HBP, 23 putouts, 4 assists and 5 errors