Charles Leo Hartnett was born in 1900, two towns down the Blackstone River in Woonsocket, R.I. His family moved upstream to what was then part of the town of Blackstone because that’s where the mill jobs were. (Millville broke off and became its own town in 1916.) Hartnett’s father was also a catcher who passed the genes along. He got the ironic nickname “Gabby” because, for a backstop, he was surprisingly untalkative.
Recognized even today as perhaps the best catcher of the 1920s and 1930s, Hartnett is most famous for a home run he hit toward the end of the 1938 season. On a day when the game was about to be called for darkness (and would have had to be replayed because it was tied), he drilled a two-out pitch over the wall at Wrigley Field to help lift the Cubs to the National League pennant. Echoing a popular song of the day, “Roamin’ in the Gloamin’”, Hartnett’s shot became known as the “Homer in the Gloamin’”.
Hartnett died on his birthday in 1972 and was laid to rest in the Chicago suburbs, where he lived out his days after his playing and managing career. His old hometown honored him by having their stretch of the old Providence to Worcester highway dedicated in his memory.