Lefty O'Doul Marquee

He was a failed pitcher — 34 major-league games as one, a bad shoulder, five years back in the minor leagues — who came back as an outfielder at thirty-one and hit .398 in 1929 with 254 hits, still the most anyone has had in a National League season. He hit .368 in 1932, the best in the league, and finished with a .349 average, higher than all but a handful of men who ever played.

Eleven seasons gave him 1,140 hits and 113 home runs, most of it packed into six years, because the game did not want him until he was almost thirty and did not want him long after thirty-five. He finished second in the 1929 Most Valuable Player voting and third in 1932.

He then spent thirty years managing in the Pacific Coast League and taking American teams to Japan, where he helped organize the first professional league, named the Tokyo Giants, and was called the father of Japanese baseball. A bridge in San Francisco carries his name. Ten writers' ballots and fifteen committees have taken him up without electing him. He died in 1969, at seventy-two.