Posted By:
T206CollectorMichael Russell Laga
The Mike Laga, rare "Pink Jersey" version of his 1987 Topps (Topps airbrushed his Tigers jersey pink).
The stats speak for themselves:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lagami01.shtml
Now, he only hit .199 over his career, but 16 of his 84 career hits were home runs. That's 19% and just six percentage points shy of Ruth's 25%! Compare that stat with future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who only had 4% of his hits go for home runs. That is amazing.
And let's talk about his fielding. Only 4 errors over 9 big league seasons. A true master with the glove at first base and designated hitter.
But nobody talks about Mike Laga anymore. In fact, no one talked about Mike Laga when he was even playing. Mike Laga is the greatest player that no one has ever talked about. Now, you might be able to identify underrated players who do not get the attention that is reserved for lesser players, but can you identify another player as unidentifiable as Mike Laga -- a 9 year veteran of the Majors with a better home run per hit ratio and fewer errors over that period of time? Of course you can't. You should not even try.
Mike Laga. The greatest player no one has ever even spoken about.
(I was so overcome by the obviousness of Mike Laga's superiority that I had to edit this link about sixty times to do Mr. Laga's legacy justice.)