HANK GREENBERG

He stood six-foot-three and weighed two hundred and ten, and when he leaned into a fastball the ballpark got very quiet and then very loud. Hank Greenberg, born in New York in 1911, made his name in Detroit, where for a dozen summers he was the most dangerous right-handed hitter in the American League.

The numbers are mountainous. In 1,394 games he batted .313 with 1,628 hits, 379 doubles, 71 triples, 331 home runs, and 1,276 runs batted in. He walked 852 times and posted a .411 on-base percentage and a .605 slugging mark. That slugging figure is the kind of thing that makes pitchers wake up at night.

His best years were not merely good; they were historic. In 1937 he hit .337, reached base at a .436 clip, slugged .668, collected 200 hits, launched 40 home runs, and drove in 183 runs. The following season he hit 58 home runs, batted .315, and slugged .683. In 1940 he hit .340 with 41 homers and 150 runs batted in. And in 1935, on the way to the American League's Most Valuable Player Award, he hit .328 with 36 home runs and 170 runs batted in.

Then came the war. He served, and the prime seasons he gave to it are the ones we can only guess at.

He returned, played on, and finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947. The Hall of Fame called in 1956. Hammerin' Hank Greenberg did not waste an at-bat.