Up next in the "Hall of Fame Inductee" parade is former slugger
Ralph Kiner, who was admitted into Cooperstown's hallowed halls in 1975.
Check out my card design:
Imagine averaging 97 runs, 37 homers and 1010 runs batted in over your ENTIRE career?! Just awesome.
As we all know, Kiner broke in with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1946
and promptly led the National League in homers with 23, then proceeded
to lead his league in that same department for the next six years, with
FIVE of those seasons with 40 or more, all
consecutively.
In 1947 he smashed 51 homers, then topped himself two years later
when he outright demolished the ball, hitting 54 home runs while setting
his personal best in slugging with a .658 mark
In his 10 short years as a Major League player he led the league 17 times in a positive offensive category.
Injuries curtailed what could have been a monster career, but he
produced plenty enough for the BBWA to induct him in 1975, cementing his
place in baseball history, and he was already entrenched as the
long-time New York Mets TV announcer, where he even
copped an Emmy Award and kept us all in stitches with malapropisms for
over 50 years.