Willie Keeler Marquee Hall of Fame 1939

His advice was to keep a clear eye and hit them where they ain't. He worked with bunts, with balls chopped hard into the dirt, and with placement, and it produced 239 hits in 129 games in 1897. He led the National League in hits three times and in runs in 1899.

Keeler finished with 2,932 hits, 495 stolen bases and 1,719 runs in nineteen seasons, and he hit 145 triples against 33 home runs. His 1897 hitting streak is still the National League record, tied once and never broken. He came up as a third baseman and spent almost all the rest of his career in right field.

The Baltimore Orioles won three straight pennants in the middle of the 1890s with Keeler in right field, and their method of place hitting, bunting and hard running became the style of the decade. He died in Brooklyn, where he was born, on New Year's Day 1923 at fifty, and was elected to the Hall of Fame sixteen years later.