Mike Napoli
Two and a half seasons of Mike Napoli’s 12-year career were played in Boston, but he made a significant impact while he was here.
2013 was Nap’s first season with the Sox, and he played a key role in winning a championship for the city while it tried to heal from the Marathon Bombing. In the postseason, he collected four doubles and two home runs, including this seventh-inning blast off Justin Verlander to break up his shutout performance:
And this bases-clearing double off Adam Wainwright in Game 1 of the World Series to put the Sox on the board in the bottom of the first:
Napoli was a career .246/.346/.475 hitter with 1,125 hits, 224 doubles, and 267 home runs amassed across 1,392 regular-season games. Of over 20,000 MLB players throughout the league’s history, he’s in the top-300 all-time in career slugging percentage (249th), home runs (212th), at-bats per home run (58th), and strikeouts (80th).
If he’s not elected to Cooperstown, maybe there’s a Beard Hall of Fame somewhere that will gladly induct him.
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