Hot Young Shortstop Tired Of Being Compared To Honus Wagner

ALTOONA, PA--Todd Hanson, 20, is an up and coming shortstop in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. A member of the Double A Altoona Curve, he is dazzling fans and scouts alike with his slick fielding and prolific bat, so much so that he is being saddled with the inevitable Honus Wagner comparisons.

However, Hanson rejects such comparisons, claiming he just wants to be himself.

“Sometimes I wonder: will I ever get out of the shadow of Honus Wagner?” said Hanson, owner of a .380 batting average over 35 games. “Everywhere I go, people say ‘there goes the next Flying Dutchman.’ But I can only be myself. I can’t fill anyone else’s shoes. There was only one Honus Wagner, and there’s never going to be another one, so maybe it’s time for people to get over him and move on. If anything, I’m more like Pie Traynor anyway.”

Hanson says the Wagner comparisons started at an early age. When he was a freshman in high school, he earned the nickname “Little Honus” as a result of his versatility in the field and prowess at the plate. Even then, he says, the comparison was burdensome.

“As a high school kid you’re just out there trying to have fun, but from an early age, I was kind of like the chosen one,” said Hanson. “It seemed like from day one I was anointed the heir apparent to Honus, and, of course, when colleges started scouting me, they would always invoke his name to compare me. Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t be more flattered, but talk about pressure. That’s like being a football player and getting compared to Red Grange or Bronco Nagurski. It’s just unfair.”

Still, observers can’t help but make the comparison when they see young Hanson play.

“Any time you have a great shortstop coming up, you’re going to hear a few Honus Wagner comparisons, but with this kid, it’s the real thing,” said David Kerry, a scout in the Cincinnati Reds organization. “The way he leaps in the air when he’s turning a double play, the way he jaunts around the bases after a home run, the way he slaps the ball to the opposite field and slides into home plate in a cloud of dust – it’s like being at a Louisville Colonels game back in 1897. I can almost smell the cigars and hear the…muskets firing, and…whatever the hell went on in games back then.”

Despite resisting the comparisons, Hanson has admitted to being an admirer of Wagner.

“Of course, as a kid I was a big fan of Honus,” Hanson said. “When my friends and I used to play whiffle ball in the back yard, I would always pretend to be Honus Wagner, and my friend would be Cap Anson, and my other friend would be Tris Speaker. Every time I got a hit, I would imagine that it was 1903 and I was hitting the game winning triple against the Boston Americans to win the pennant, and I would scream ‘Huzzah! Huzzah for Honus Wagner, and down with George Prentiss and his hated bean eaters!’ You know. Typical kids stuff.”

As he grew older, Hanson developed his own identity and began to distance himself from the greatest shortest of all time. However, the comparisons keep coming. Next month, ESPN the Magazine plans to run a cover story about Hanson with the headline “The Next Honus?”

“You take one look at this kid and you think ‘Honus Wagner,’” said ESPN the Magazine editor John Leonard. “I know he hates it, but people have been waiting for the next Flying Dutchman for almost a century and now they might have it. Lebron James went through it with the Jordan comparisons, Peyton Manning had to endure the Dan Marino comparisons, and now Todd Hanson will have to go through the same thing. He might not be alone, though. There’s a kid in Single A right now that’s the spitting image of Nap Lajoie.”

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