Smoky Joe Wood Marquee

In 1912 he won 34 games and lost 5 with a 1.91 earned run average, ten shutouts and 258 strikeouts, at twenty-two, and then won three more in the World Series. Walter Johnson, asked whether anyone threw harder, said no man alive did.

He broke his thumb fielding a ground ball the following spring, altered his delivery to protect it and wrecked the arm. He pitched parts of three more seasons — including a 15-5 record with the best earned run average in the American League in 1915 — sat out 1916 entirely, and then went to Cleveland as an outfielder.

He hit .297 with 150 hits in 1922 at thirty-two, and .366 in 1921 in part-time work, finishing with 553 hits and a .283 average to go with 117 wins and a 2.03 earned run average. He coached at Yale for twenty years afterward. Nine writers' ballots and five committees have considered him. He died in 1985, at ninety-five.