Vern Stephens Marquee

In 1949 he hit 39 home runs and drove in 159, tying his own teammate Ted Williams for the most in the American League. No man who played that season mostly at shortstop has driven in more, before or since; the next best is 150. He led the league in runs batted in three times and in home runs once, with 24 in 1945.

Fifteen seasons gave him 1,859 hits, 247 home runs, 1,174 runs batted in and a .286 average, with 1,330 games at shortstop and 322 at third base, and eight All-Star selections. He came up with the St. Louis Browns and was their best hitter in 1944, the one year in the franchise's fifty-two that it won a pennant.

Boston bought him after 1947 and got 137, 159 and 144 runs batted in out of the next three years. Then he moved three times in three seasons and was done at thirty-four. He died at forty-eight. The writers never put him on a ballot at all; the Veterans Committee first considered him in 2003, thirty-five years after his death.