Enos Slaughter Marquee Hall of Fame 1985

He came off a Roxboro, North Carolina, farm and lost three seasons in the middle of his career to the Army Air Forces, sitting out 1943, 1944, and 1945 at ages twenty-seven through twenty-nine. He still batted .300 across nineteen seasons, with 2,383 hits and 1,304 runs batted in.

He led the National League in runs batted in with 130 in 1946, in hits in 1942, in doubles with 52 in 1939, and in triples in 1942 and 1949. He made ten All-Star teams. He cried when the Cardinals traded him to the Yankees in 1954 after thirteen seasons in St. Louis.

The 1947 Cardinals were reported to have discussed refusing to take the field against Jackie Robinson, and Slaughter was later accused of spiking him at first base. He denied it for the rest of his life and the matter was never settled. The Veterans Committee elected him in 1985, six years after the writers left him twenty-seven votes short.