Johnny Cooney Marquee

He came up as a left-handed pitcher in 1921 and went 20-24 across nine seasons for Boston, then hurt his arm and reinvented himself as an outfielder in his thirties. In 1939, in his nineteenth professional season and thirty-eighth year of life, he hit the first home run of his career — and hit his second the very next day, having gone eighteen years and thousands of at bats without one.

Twenty seasons gave him 965 hits, 130 doubles, 30 stolen bases and a .286 average as a batter, on top of 34 wins and a 3.72 earned run average as a pitcher — one of the very few men to have a substantial career at both. He hit .318 with 130 hits at thirty-five for Brooklyn in 1936.

He coached in the major leagues for two more decades after he retired as a player in 1944, at forty-three. No Hall of Fame ballot ever listed him. He died in 1986, at eighty-five.