ROY CAMPANELLA·1953

1953 finds Campy behind the dish at Ebbets Field, and the man is a wrecking crew in a chest protector. Forty-one homers and 142 ribs from a catcher — numbers that read like a typo. He hit .312 and drove a hundred runs before the leaves turned. The league takes one look at that line and hands him his second MVP. A guy does this between foul tips and foul poles, and Brooklyn knows what it's watching.

41 HOMERS

Forty-one HR from the tools of ignorance — numbers that read like a typo.

142 RBI

One hundred forty-two ribbies — a wrecking crew in a chest protector.

SECOND MVP

The league hands him MVP again — foul tips and foul poles, same thunder.

Roy Campanella, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1953. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (US).