Baseball Prodigies : Best Major League Seasons by Players Under 21

This is a book about baseball players who performed in the major leagues before the age of 21. For years the dream of many boys has been to enter the world of professional sports. Out of millions of boys who have played baseball, over 17,000 have appeared in major league contests. Among them were several hundred who made their debut before their 21st birthday. However, most of these appeared in only a few games. Only 286 young men have played at least one season as a regular before or during the season in which they reached the age of 21. These 286 players are the subjects of this book. The text is divided into three parts. Part One deals with the careers of the ten prodigies who had the most productive seasons at the bat. Part Two discusses the ten young pitchers who had the most fruitful seasons on the mound (or in the pitcher's box.) Part Three provides short sketches of the 172 players with at least five eligible seasons who do not rank among the top twenty prodigies. Data on the 94 players with at least one but fewer than five eligible seasons are given in the Appendix.