How often is an athlete described as "small in stature but big in heart"?  This analogy has been used more times than we can determine but far too often, but it was an accurate assessment when describing the turn of the century ballplayerTommy Leach.

"Wee" Tommy Leach was a triples machine and one of the fastest ballplayers in his day.  Leach hit a few Home Runs in the Dead Ball era, though most were of the inside-the-park variety.  Leach was a power hitter for this time and often cleared the bases, or would himself get on base for the legendary Honus Wagner who batted behind him during his heyday in Pittsburgh.  It was fitting that it was Tommy Leach who would get the first hit and first run in World Series history.  Injuries would catch up to him by 1910, and he wasn't the same player, but Leach is a forgotten star in the first century of the 1900s.

With the Pirates, Leach had 1,603 Hits and stole 271 Bases.

When the name Bill Mazeroski comes up, the automatic response is "World Series-winning Game 7 Home Run".   Maz was a lot more than that.

Mazeroski played his entire MLB career with Pittsburgh, debuting in 1956 and staying until 1972.  Playing at Second Base, Mazeroski would be an All-Star in seven different years, collecting 2,016 Hits with 138 Home Runs.  Mazeroski never batted .300, but his lifetime Batting Average of .260 was respectable, though his .299 career OBP did hamper him, and did reflect on this list.  Still, nothing he ever did with his bat will be remembered as much as the walk-off Home Run that won Game 7 in 1960 over the favored New York Yankees, which is the only of its kind to date.

Defensively, Mazeroski stakes a claim as the best defensive player of the 1960s.  Mazeroski was an eight-time Gold Glove winner who also had eight years where he had a Defensive bWAR over 1.5.  He is currently the all-time franchise leader in Double Pays turned and Total Zone Runs.

Mazeroski declined in the 1970s, but he would help Pittsburgh win the 1971 World Series, making him and Roberto Clemente the only two players on the 1960 and 1971 Championship rosters.

The Veteran’s Committee inducted Mazeroski to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Pirates retired his number 9 in 1987.

Sam Leever played the entirety of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team he first joined in 1898.

After playing five Games in 1898, at age 27, Leever had a good rookie year in 1899, leading the NL in Games Pitched (51) and Innings Pitched (379), though he had a losing record (21-23) and had a 3.18 ERA.  Leever never had a season where he pitched over 300 Innings again, and he was far more effective, never having an ERA over three and winning the ERA Title in 1903.  He had four 20-Win seasons, winning 194 Games against only 100 Losses, an excellent record even if you don’t hold a Pitcher’s winning percentage in high regard.

Although he did not pitch in the Series, he was a member of the Pirates team that won it all in 1908, their first championship.  Leever retired after the 1910 season with 847 Strikeouts and a 2.47 ERA and is one of the most forgotten stars in Pirates history.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Miami Marlins.

Along with the Colorado Rockies, the Florida Marlins came into existence in 1993, although they have been far more successful than their expansion counterparts.

The Marlins won the Pennant in only their fourth year of existence, but surely, they could not beat the New York Yankees for the World Series!  Florida did precisely that, shocking the world, and then they surprised everyone by conducting a fire sale, dismantling the team, and starting from scratch.

Florida again built a good team in 2003 and once again befuddled the baseball world by winning their second World Series.  True to form, they repeated what they did after 1997 by cost-cutting and getting rid of the parts that won it for them.

Since that time, the Marlins changed their team name to the Miami Marlins but have remained to operate as a small market team.

Our Top 50 lists in Baseball look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2021 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always, we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Giancarlo Stanton

2. Hanley Ramirez

3. Josh Johnson

4. Luis Castillo

5. Miguel Cabrera

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for our more material coming soon!

As always, we thank you for your support.