Memorial weekend trivia
 

Just for fun (no prize beyond impressing your friends):

Two questions about going out in style, one easy and the other (probably) a lot harder:

1. What player led his league in Slugging Average for the first and only time in his last season in MLB?

2. What player made the All-Star team for the first and only time in his last season in MLB?

(There may be more than one, but I don't think there are many.)

Hint: Neither of the cases I have in mind resulted from the player's untimely death.

Ortiz for slugging?

yep - Ortiz
 

Told you that was easy!

The All-Star should be more challenging-

A hint, but it might also mislead (a counter-hint?): The All-Star's non-reappearance in the majors had a lot to do with his patriotic feeling and a desire to do something for his country (but this was not to join the US military).

Also, it's not prewar....

Jim Bunning?

He must have been on multiple AS teams and did not run for Congress until later in life. Also isn't Vinegar Bend Mizell.

Babe Ruth for the second

Wild guess (and I know it's wrong), but the hint points at Moe Berg.

The clues suggest to me it's a foreign player.

Babe Ruth is my guess. Wasn’t 1933 the first All-Star game?

Ruth's last season was 1935.

foreign, yes
 

Peter is correct - it wasn't patriotic feeling for the US but for his native country- and an Olympics was coming up...

Dave Nillson 1999, Australia.

He was only 29. I wonder why he didn't come back.

yup
 

Nilsson it is - interesting story about his movements in the SABR bio of him, involving the Australian Olympic team, Japanese BB, and more.