Earl Averill Marquee Hall of Fame 1975

He was twenty-six when he played his first major-league game, on April 16, 1929. Over thirteen seasons he batted .318 with 2,019 hits, 401 doubles, 128 triples and 238 home runs, and he scored 1,224 runs. Eleven of those seasons belonged to Cleveland. He was named to six straight All-Star teams, from 1933 through 1938.

He remains Cleveland's franchise leader in runs scored, with 1,154, in runs batted in, with 1,084, and in triples, with 121. His best year was 1936, when he led the American League in hits with 232 and in triples with 15, and batted .378. He hit three home runs in a game in 1930 and hit for the cycle in 1933.

None of it produced a pennant. Cleveland finished third at best in his eleven seasons there, and he left in 1939, first for Detroit and then for eight games with Boston in 1941. The writers never gave him more than fourteen votes in a Hall of Fame election. The Veterans Committee elected him in 1975.