A native of Elwood City, Pa., he lived for a number of years in Leiperville and played for the semi-pro baseball team sponsored there by Baron Dougherty. At 5-foot-6 and 190 pounds, he was nicknamed "Stouts." He played major league baseball for 12 years with the New York Giants (1923-25), Chicago Cubs (1926-31) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1932-34). He finished his career playing seven games in 1934 with the Philadelphia Phillies. One of the top power hitters of his day, he led the National League in home runs in 1926 (21), 1927 (30), 1928 (31) and 1930 (56) and was the league leader in RBI’s in 1929 (159) and 1930, when he set the major league record with 190 runs batted in. He had a career batting average of .307 and hit .319 in two World Series (1924 against the Washington Senators and 1929 against the Philadelphia Athletics). In 1979, he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.