One day, a boy named William got very sick. He didn't want to leave his bed and fell asleep for many hours.

After he woke up, his mom told him he had a sickness called meningitis but he was all better now. William saw that his mom was talking to him but he couldn't hear anything that she was saying. He lost his hearing.

One day as he was walking home from school, he saw a ball in the middle of a bunch of sand. He decided to walk over and pick it up. He threw it as far as he could. "Wow!" said a boy from across the field. "That went far!"

This started a love of baseball for William. After graduating High School from Ohio School for the Deaf, William was offered a spot on the minor league baseball team called the Osh Kosh Giants.

During his baseball career, William took on the name "Dummy." He took on this name because back in the 1800's people thought that if someone could not speak or hear that they were dumb. He embraced the name and would often correct people if they ever tried to call him William.

Dummy Hoy became the first deaf baseball player to play in the major leagues!

He became the first baseball player to hit a grand-slam home run. This means he hit a home run with all of the bases loaded scoring a total of four runs!

When Dummy Hoy was up to bat, he couldn't tell when the umpire called balls or strikes so he asked the third base coach to raise his right arm for strikes and left arm for balls. Hand signals are still used in baseball today.

Dummy Hoy played baseball as an outfielder in the major leagues for a total of fifteen years. He was the first player to be entered into the American Athletic Association for the Deaf's Hall of Fame. He forever made an impact on the history of baseball.

The End.