Jim O'Rourke Marquee Hall of Fame 1945

He is generally credited with the first base hit in National League history, in the league's opening game in 1876. Nineteen major-league seasons brought him 2,304 hits, 1,446 runs, and 1,010 runs batted in, and he led the league in runs and walks in 1877, home runs in 1880, hits in 1884, and triples in 1885.

He grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and studied law at Yale while he played. He appeared everywhere on the diamond: 770 games in left field, 463 in center, 230 as a catcher, 213 at first base, 148 at third, and six as a pitcher. He is said to have refused a Boston request that he drop the O from his name.

He was among the established players who jumped to the Players' League in 1890, and he batted .360 there. Fourteen years later the Giants let him catch a game on September 22, 1904; he was fifty-four, and he got a hit. The Old Timers Committee elected him in 1945, twenty-six years after his death.