Harland Stimpson Rowe, better known to baseball followers as “Hypie,” was sent to Hebron Academy by his father Hiram in 1912 to frustrate future athletic pursuits. You're going up there to get a good education not to become an athlete,” his father told him.
Nonetheless, the quiet and unassuming Rowe pulled off a bit of a flim flam (going by the name of H. Stimpson, that being his middle name) to excel in sports there. Especially baseball, his career culminating this year in his selection to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
Hypie's son, Richard, said of his father’s deception: ‘“‘My father thought he was getting away with something at Hebron, but his father wasn’t a stupid man. The whole charade coming to an end when his parents decided to visit the school on the same day of a baseball game.”’ From shortstop duties at Hebron, Hypie moved to the University of Maine where he starred in baseball and track. The Springvale native next put a year under his belt in the big leagues with Connie Mack's Philadelphia A’s in 1916. But Rowe, a third baseman then, only lasted one season in the Pros. He refused to play in the minors.
Known for his sense of humor, Rowe died at age 73 in 1969. Old-timers thought his nomination to the Baseball Hall of Fame should have come sooner and, in essence, lobbied for him. One such campaigner was Limerick’s Joe Goss, a Maine Baseball Hall of Famer himself; who says of Hypie:
“The most important thing was he was such a good man. I can remember when we played ball and I was just a kid. He’d come up after a ballgame, pat a person on the back and say ‘Good Game.’ I was just in awe of him. But he treated everybody so kindly.”
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harland_Rowe
Harland Stimson "Hypie" Rowe (April 20, 1896 – May 26, 1969), was an American professional baseball third baseman who played in 1916 with the Philadelphia Athletics of Major League Baseball. He batted left and threw right-handed. Rowe had a .139 batting average in 17 games, five hits in 36 at-bats, in his one year in the major leagues. He was born and died in Springvale, Maine.
He attended the University of Maine, where he played college baseball for the Black Bears from 1914–1916.
