Rico Petrocelli played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox, which began as a late-season call-up in 1963.  The Sox kept him in Triple A for 1964, and he was anointed the starting Shortstop in Boston for 1965.  Named to the All-Star team in both 1967 & 1969, Petrocelli finished in the top six in Defensive bWAR each year from 1966 to 1969, and in 1969, he was first among all Position Players with a 10.0 bWAR.  As you can deduce, this was his best offensive season, where he was seventh in Batting Average (.297), fifth in On Base Percentage (.403), and fourth in Home Runs (40).  Petrocelli would finish seventh in MVP voting.

One of the most popular Boston Red Sox players of all-time, Johnny Pesky, had one of the best rookie seasons ever in 1942.  That season, he was Boston’s starting Shortstop, and he would lead the American League in Hits (205), batted .331, and was third in MVP voting.  Pesky would miss the next three seasons due to military service in World War II, and he returned exactly where he left off.

The story of Howard Ellsworth “Smoky Joe” Wood is common in that, and we have a power pitcher who was dominant for a short time, only for arm fatigue to cause an early end of his pitching career (though he would continue to play, but we’ll get to that later.)