Tuesday Trivia: Name that amazing rookie

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Wally Berger.

Yes! Wally Berger had a monster Rookie year in 1930 when he hit .310 in addition to his 38 round trippers. His 119 RBIs set a National League Record.

The 38-homer major league rookie mark, tied by Frank Robinson in 1956, stood for 57 years until Mark McGwire hit 49 in 1987. Albert Pujols drove in 130 runs in 2001 to break Berger’s 71-year-old National League rookie RBI record. Cody Bellinger finally broke the NL Rookie HR record in 2017 with 39. Berger still shares the record for being the fastest player to hit 20 home runs (51 games), shared with Gary Sánchez and Bellinger.

Berger was a not a one-hit wonder. He averaged 28 home runs and 103 runs batted in along with a .307 batting average over the first seven years of his career He hit 34 HRs in both 1934 (when he was the starting centerfielder in the first All-Star game) and again in 1935, leading the league in the latter year. His 34 home runs in 1935 were by far the most on the Braves that year, with Babe Ruth's 6 being the second highest tally on the team in Ruth's curtain call. Berger was a career .300 hitter and is in the top 100 all-time in OPS+ at 138 tied with the likes of King Kelly, Carlos Delgado, and others.

In 1936 at age 30, Berger suffered a shoulder and hand injury that limited him to 138 games and 534 at-bats and started the decline in his productivity that would end his major-league career just four seasons later.

Berger joined the Navy in February 1942, and served until October 1945, as a baseball coach at the Naval Air Training Station in San Diego. After discharge from the Navy, he scouted for the Giants in 1947 and 1948. He also scouted for the Yankees and managed their Manchester, New Hampshire, team in the New England League in 1949.