Sports' Forgotten Heroes

Zack Wheat was overlooked by the baseball Hall of Fame for years. In 1959, after a unanimous vote, Wheat was elected to the Hall – an honor long overdue, but an honor he was able to enjoy in person. When you look back at the history of the great Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers teams, their all-time team reads like a who’s who of baseball history. Names like Koufax, Campanella, Hodges, Robinson, Reese, Snider, Garvey, Cey, Lopes, are all names that fans of the Dodgers from coast-to-coast love to recall and reminisce about. But one name that is usually omitted from that all-time great’s list is that of Zack Wheat. A star for the Dodgers from 1909 through 1926, Wheat was a career .317 hitter and as late as 1925 when he was 37, playing a full season, Wheat hit .359! He was a hitting machine. On this episode of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes, author Joe Niese returns to the podcast for a wonderful conversation about a guy who challenged the system, won … and lost … and was named one of the 100 greatest to ever play the gam