Rick Dempsey Marquee

He hit .385 with four doubles and a home run in the five games of the 1983 World Series and was named its Most Valuable Player, which surprised everyone including him: he had hit .231 that season and .233 for his career.

Twenty-four seasons gave him 1,093 hits, 223 doubles, 96 home runs, 592 walks and 1,633 games behind the plate. Only a handful of catchers have lasted that long. He caught for Baltimore for eleven years, through two pennants and the 1983 championship, and won another ring with the 1988 Dodgers at thirty-nine.

During rain delays he did a pantomime of Babe Ruth rounding the bases and sliding across a wet tarpaulin, which the crowds at Memorial Stadium came to expect. He managed and coached for two decades after. The 1998 ballot gave him one vote of 473.