In 1954, 27-year-old James "Dusty" Rhodes of the New York Giants compiled these stats.

.341 BA, 15 HR, 50 RBI

The average is impressive, but what's so great about 15 HR and 50 RBI? Here's what's so great about them: he came to bat only 164 times in 82 games! He was used primarily as a left-handed pinch-hitter by manager Leo Durocher as the Giants won the NL pennant by five games over their hated rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. 50 RBI in 164 AB works out to an RBI every 3.28 times at the plate. And he homered every 10.9 ABs. By comparison, Babe Ruth leads all hitters with a career average of one HR every 11.76 AB.

Dusty's season wouldn't merit attention these many years later except for the role he played in almost single-handedly defeating the Cleveland Indians in four games in the World Series.

• Game One at the Polo Grounds: Rhodes hit a three-run pinch-hit HR in the bottom of the tenth for a 5-2 victory. The "blast" was just a high pop fly that dropped into the first row of the short (258') RF porch. Bob Lemon, the Indian hurler, threw his glove in disgust. Rhodes later joked, "Lemon's glove went further than my home run."
• The next day, Durocher called on Rhodes to pinch hit in the fifth inning for LF Monte Irvin with runners on first and third. Dusty's single to CF off Early Wynn scored Willie Mays to tie the score 1-1. The Giants scored another run in the inning to take the lead. Then in the seventh Rhodes hit another HR to right for an insurance run in the 3-1 triumph.
• In Cleveland for Game 3, Rhodes again pinch hit for Irvin, this time in the third inning with the bases full. Dusty smacked a two-run single off the third of Cleveland's right-handed aces, Mike Garcia, to key a three-run rally that put NY up 4-0. The Giants took command of the Series with a 6-2 victory.
• Rhodes wasn't needed in the Giants' 7-4 win over the shell-shocked Indians in Game 4.

Dusty finished the Series 4-for-6 (.667) with two runs scored and seven batted in. His two HRs were the only ones hit in the Series. His OBP was .714 and his slugging pct. was 1.667.

Rhodes got into baseball by luck. Recently discharged from the Navy after World War II, Dusty played in a pickup game in Montgomery AL in 1946. He hit several HRs and a triple on a day when a scout for Nashville of the Southern Association happened to see him and signed him to a contract on the spot. Not much of a fielder, his hitting still brought him to the Giants in 1952. (Twenty years later, Rhodes would have made a marvelous DH.) He hit .250 and .233 before his breakout in '54. In his autobiography, Durocher called Rhodes the "worst fielder who ever played in a big league game." However, he also said, "Dusty was the kind of buffoon who kept a club confident and happy. Between him and Mays, there was nothing but laughter in our clubhouse all season. Pressure? They spit at it!'

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the Alabama-born Rhodes' tenure with the Giants was his friendship with fellow-Alabamian Mays and other black players like Irvin and Hank Thompson. SS Alvin Dark from Louisiana and Whitey Lockman from North Carolina also had no problems with their black teammates. Rhodes: "To be honest, we never thought a thing about it. In my case, I grew up with blacks. We picked cotton side-by-side."

Rhodes, a hard drinker, often missed curfew. But Durocher tolerated his malfeasance because Dusty was never late to the ballpark, and he could hit no matter how much or how little sleep he got. It didn't hurt Rhodes's cause that one of his most frequent drinking companions was Giants owner Horace Stoneham.

Dusty played four more ML seasons, including a last one in San Francisco, but never hit double-digit HRs in any of them.

Rhodes' Game One HR barely makes it into the bleachers.

Willie Mays and Dusty Rhodes after Game One

Wally Bunker, Orioles

In 1964, 19-year-old rookie P Wally Bunker of the Baltimore Orioles went 19-5 to win the AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year award. All his stats were impressive that year.

2.69 ERA, 12 CG, 214 IP, 161 H, 96 K, 62 W

Throwing a great sinker, the Seattle native who grew up in California quickly became the ace of manager Hank Bauer's staff. Milt Pappas trailed Bunker with 16 victories while veteran Robin Roberts added 13 as the O's finished a surprising third, one game behind the White Sox and only two behind the Yankees.

Bunker's season had a number of highlights.

• He scored his first big league victory over Washington, whose veteran players, especially Moose Skowron, rode him unmercifully. However, Wally soon earned their respect by the way he pitched. Around the sixth inning, Skowron told one of the Oriole coaches, "Tell the kid he's OK." OK indeed as he twirled a one-hitter.
• That was the first of six straight victories for the rightie from Seattle.
• In tribute to the instant fan favorite, the Baltimore mayor in June rechristened the pitching mound at Memorial Stadium "Baltimore's Bunker Hill" with a handful of soil from Boston's Bunker Hill. Wally thanked the big crowd, then pitched the Orioles into first place with a 6-1 victory over the league-leading White Sox.
• Soon after that, he threw his second one-hitter.

Wally's success was destined to be short-lived.

• While pitching on a cold September night in Cleveland, Bunker winced in pain. "I thought somebody had shot me in the shoulder with a .22 rifle," he says.
• He probably suffered torn ligaments or tendons, but arm ailments often went undiagnosed in those days. He was never the same P again.

Bunker struggled through four more seasons with Baltimore.

• He won 10 games in both '65 and '66 but only five in '67-'68 combined.
• Wally did start and win Game 3 of the World Series, pitching a 1-0 shut out against the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the Orioles' sweep.
• He was taken in the 1969 expansion draft by Kansas City and threw the first pitch in Royals history.
• After compiling a 14-25 record in three seasons with KC, Bunker retired after the 1971 season.

In 2001, Bret Boone of the Seattle Mariners had the best season by a 2B in American League history.

.331 BA, 37 HR, 141 RBI

The 141 RBI led the league and set an AL record for 2B. His 37 round-trippers also established a new AL 2B mark. Bret never had more than 117 RBI (2003) in any of his other 13 ML seasons. He made the 2001 All-Star team, won a Silver Slugger award, and finished 3rd in the MVP voting. Lou Piniella's Mariners won 116 games to break the 1998 Yankees' league record of 114. Seattle won the AL West by 14 games over Oakland, which had the second most wins in the league. However, the Mariners did not make the World Series as the Yankees eliminated them in five games in the ALCS.

In the six seasons immediately preceding his breakout 2001 campaign, Boone had these numbers.

• 1995 with Cincinnati: .267/15/68
• 1996 with Cincinnati: .233/12/69
• 1997 with Cincinnati: .223/7/46
• 1998 with Cincinnati: .266/24/95
• 1999 with Atlanta: .252/20/63
• 2000 with San Diego: .251/19/74

Bret's HRs and RBI spiked in 1998, but otherwise these numbers are journeyman caliber. His productivity dropped sharply after the 2003 season, which happened to coincide with baseball's new drug testing policy. You can speculate whether that was coincidence or that his age (35) began to catch up with him.

Boone retired after the 2005 season with 252 HRs, which places him sixth all-time among 2B behind Jeff Kent, Ryne Sandberg, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Morgan and Joe Gordon. All but Kent are in the HOF and Jeff will be when he is eligible.

Bret Boone