Associated Press-Phil Cavarretta at Wrigley Field in Chicago in 1945.
Phil Cavarretta played 20 seasons for the Chicago Cubs and won the National League’s most valuable player award and batting championship in 1945, the last time the Cubs captured a pennant. Playing first base and the outfield at Wrigley Field from 1934 to 1953, and serving as the Cubs’ player-manager for two and a half seasons, Cavarretta became one of the most popular figures in the team’s history. A left-handed batter with an unremarkable 5-foot-11, 175-pound frame, Cavarretta was hardly a power hitter in the mold of the Cubs stars Hack Wilson, Ernie Banks and Sammy Sosa. He had only 95 career home runs. But he had 1,977 hits and a .293 career batting average.
Walt Dropo, Star at UConn and 1950 Rookie of the Year
Great name; names aren't made that way any more.
At UConn, Dropo, at 6 feet 5 inches and 220 pounds, was the first baseman in baseball, the center in basketball and an offensive and defensive end in football. When he graduated in 1947, he was the university’s career scoring leader in basketball, UConn said, and still ranks No. 2 in career scoring average, at 20.7 per game. After he finished college, the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America tried to sign him. So did the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. The Red Sox won out with a $15,000 bonus and a Class AAA contract for $600 a month. Besides, he said later, “My first love was baseball.”
With the Tigers in 1952, he got a hit in 12 straight plate appearances over three games against the Yankees and the Washington Senators, tying the major league record set in 1938 by Pinky Higgins of the Red Sox. Dropo said his accomplishment was easy because “the first fastballs I saw, I hit.” During that hitting streak, he also matched another record that remains today, with 15 hits in a four-game stretch.
A 58-year-old record.
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