2.  Born- May 23, 1862.  Died- December 15, 1961.  Contracting meningitis when he was three years old left William Deaf and mute.  Houck town, Ohio.  He was the first Deaf professional baseball player.

3.  His parents were Rebecca Hoffman and Jacob Hoy, and had a farm in Houck town.  He had three brothers named Smith, Frank, and John, and he also had a sister named Ora.

4.  He gave himself the nickname “Dummy”.  He was treated well but he didn’t like being disabled so he gave himself the nickname.  Yes, he did make an impact on the deaf community. He did this by, showing everyone that even if you are disabled you can accomplish great things. He also was the reason that there are signs in baseball.

5.  Hoy played in 1796 games.  He got 2004 hits, 1426 runs, 40 homers and 726 runs batted in.  He went to Gallaudet.  In 1961, Hoy threw the first pitch before game three of the World Series between the Reds and the Yankees in Cincinnati.  He became deaf at a very young age like Helen Keller.  He has a book about him named “Silent Star”.

6.  http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/763405ef  Appendices B "Decisions of the Special Baseball Records Committee" and C "Major Changes in Playing Rules and Scoring Rules." The Baseball Encyclopedia. 10th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1996.  Chase, Dennis T. "Tom." "Hoy, William Ellsworth 'Dummy.'" Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball. David L. Porter, ed. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.  Dummy Hoy files at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York.

7.  The Dummy Hoy Home plate, Online Website.  New York Times, Obituary, December 15, 1961.  Ritter, Lawrence S. The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It. New York: Macmillan, 1966.  Shatzkin, Mike, and Jim Charlton. The Ballplayers. New York: William Morrow, 1990.