MLB’s Art Shires: hitter, peacock, boaster, boxer and accused killer

Bearing in mind that everyone has easy access to baseball bats, serious violence is rare in Major League Baseball. Breaches of the peace such as 23 August’s cleared benches at Minute Maid Park are usually theatrical, the emphasis more on posturing than punching.

Still, there are exceptions, the kind of confrontations that might interest the police, rather than the compilers of SportsCenter highlights, if they happened anywhere else but a sports field. Rougned Odor lamping José Bautista in 2016, for example, and the infamous Giants-Dodgers fracas in 1965 that led to John Roseboro suing Juan Marichal for injuries sustained when he was whacked above the left eye.

No one loved slugging in and out of the batter’s box more than Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox, who beat up his manager, pursued an off-season boxing career and was implicated in the deaths of two people.

Shires was a tempestuous character even by the standards of Prohibition-era Chicago, but teams readily pardon the sins of special talents. Signed by the White Sox in the summer of 1928 from Waco of the Texas League, the 21-year-old initially refused to report to the team because he preferred a more lucrative move to Cleveland.

After four hits on his major league debut he gave himself the nickname Art The Great, opining that the American League was nothing special and he would hit .400 that season. He wasn’t far wrong, notching .341 in 33 games and being named team captain.

Heading back to his hometown of Waxahachie, Texas, after the season, he is said to have hired a band, arranged for a display of signs hailing “The Great Shires” and staged his own homecoming parade down Main Street. But he was soon to face the consequences of a serious incident earlier in