September 14, 1915: Rogers Hornsby Picks Up His First Major League Hit

On September 14, 1915, Rogers Hornsby picked up the first hit of his major league career in a 6-2 win over the Brooklyn Robins at Robison Field in St. Louis. Hornby would only go onto become of the greatest hitters in the history of the game, only Ty Cobb's career batting average of .366 is above Hornby's .358. Hornsby would pick up a grand total of 2,930 hits over the course of 23 years in the big leagues, 2,110 of those hits came with the birds on the bat across his chest.  He played with the club from 1915 to 1926, then again in 1933. He not only holds the highest career batting average for a Cardinal, he ranks among the best in just about every offensive category in the all time rankings in the history of the organization. Among the all time Cardinals records, Hornsby's .427 on base-percentage ranks third, his .568 slugging percentage ranks fifth, he recorded 143 triples which is second to only Stan Musial, he scored 1,069 runs which is good for third, his 2,110 hits in a Redbirds uniform is also good for third. He sits seventh on the all time Cardinals list with 193 home runs, fourth in RBIs with 1,072, fourth in doubles with 367, and ninth in games played with 1,580.  Hornsby was a just a kid when the Cardinals found him playing ball in the Texas-Oklahoma League in Denison, Texas. When he made his debut with the team four days before he picked up his first hit he was 19 years old and had his whole life ahead of him, it was life that would lead to legendary status.