Hack Wilson

Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he ranked among the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. That year he hit 56 home runs, a National League record that stood for 68 years, and drove in 191 runs, a Major League record yet to be approached. The closest any player has come to that RBI total came the very next season, when Lou Gehrig recorded 185 for the New York Yankees. "For a brief span of a few years," wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."

Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era. His drinking and fighting contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, to his premature death in 1948. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.