Guy Hecker was one of the best-hitting pitchers in baseball history, but because he played in the 1880s, he is one of the game's better-forgotten hurlers. 

Hecker debuted for the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in 1882, and from 1883 to 1886, he won at least 25 Games, including a 52 Win season in 1884.  That was the season where he also led the AA in ERA (1.80), Games Pitched (75), Innings Pitched (670.2), ERA+ (171), and WHIP (0.868).  This was the best season of Hecker's life, and as you can imagine, with that kind of workload, his arm would suffer fatigue, and in his last four seasons in baseball, he was not nearly as effective.

With his bat, Hecker won the Batting Title in 1866 when he batted .341.  He would have 812 Hits with a .282 career Batting Average, both of which are phenomenal for a player who was mostly used as a Pitcher.

Hecker did not play ten seasons; thus, he has never been on a Hall of Fame ballot, but he has 175 career Wins and a Batting Title.  No other baseball player can say that.

Many of the early baseball players suffered from an addiction to alcohol, but we have to wonder if any of them had anything on Pete Browning, an Outfielder who once quipped, "I can't hit the ball until I hit the bottle."   He hit the bottle a lot, but he also hit the baseball at a high level.

Browning took his hitting seriously, as he was believed to be one of the first players to have his bats custom-made.  He went as far as to give names to each of his bats, which may have been eccentric at the time, but the man who was known as the “Louisville Slugger” was one of the better hitters of his time.

Browning’s career began in his hometown of Louisville in 1882 with the Eclipse of the American Association, the team he played for the rest of the decade.  In his rookie season, Browning swept the Slash Line (.378/.420/.510) and again led the AA in Batting Average (.362) and On Base Percentage (.392).  He batted over .300 in the first eight of his nine years in baseball.

After Louisville, he played in Cleveland in the one season of the Players’ League, and he won the Batting Title (.373).  Browning would bounce around for the rest of his career in the National League with stops in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and Brooklyn.

Over a 13-year career, Browning had 1,646 Hits with a .341 Batting Average.  This was an incredible career for someone who drank himself to death and dealt with mastoiditis and partial deafness.