Gil McDougald Marquee

He was Rookie of the Year in 1951 with 13 of the 24 first-place votes and hit a grand slam in that year's World Series, at twenty-three. He then played 599 games at second base, 508 at third and 284 at shortstop over ten seasons, wherever Casey Stengel needed him, and was an All-Star at all three.

Ten seasons, all with New York, gave him 1,291 hits, 112 home runs, 576 runs batted in and a .276 average. The Yankees won eight pennants and five World Series in them.

In May 1957 a line drive off his bat struck Herb Score in the eye and nearly ended that pitcher's life; McDougald said he would quit the game if Score lost his sight, and he was never the same player. He retired after 1960 rather than be exposed to the expansion draft. He went deaf later from an unrelated batting-practice injury and had his hearing restored by a cochlear implant at sixty-six. He died in 2010, at eighty-two.