MEL OTT

Melvin Thomas Ott was born in Gretna, Louisiana, in 1909, and he stood five-foot-nine and weighed a hundred and seventy pounds, which in the mythology of the New York Giants made him either the smallest giant who ever lived or the largest man in the batter's box. He was called Master Melvin, and he arrived at the Polo Grounds in April of 1926, a seventeen-year-old outfielder, and he never wore another uniform, playing all 2,730 of his games for the Giants across twenty-two summers.

What he did with a bat was not the work of a large man. It was the work of a short one with a high kick at the plate, and the numbers came out of it anyway: 2,876 hits, 488 doubles, 511 home runs, 1,860 runs batted in, 1,859 runs scored, 1,708 walks. He finished with a .304 average, a .414 on-base percentage, a .533 slugging percentage. He stole 89 bases in his life, which tells you he understood his own gifts well enough not to waste them.

The peak summers came in a run. At twenty, in 1929, he hit 42 home runs and drove in 151 and batted .328. In 1932 he hit 38 and drove in 123 and batted .318. In 1934, 35 and 135 and .326. In 1936, 33 and 135 and 111 walks and .328 again. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1951. He died in 1958, at forty-nine, and left behind a swing the National League never quite figured out.