He was a line-drive machine for 20 seasons, a man who had more career extra-base hits (587) than strikeouts (528).
On Feb. 17, 1964, Luke Appling earned a spot in Cooperstown that was a foregone conclusion for most of his playing career.
Appling won a winner-take-all runoff election to become the only BBWAA candidate elected that year. In the initial 1964 BBWAA election, Appling garnered 70.6 percent of the vote -- the top total but still nine votes short of the necessary 75 percent needed for induction. The subsequent runoff ballot – a procedure that was discontinued following the 1967 runoff election – saw Appling receive 94 percent of the vote, five votes more than second-place Red Ruffing.
Appling broke into the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 and became entrenched at shortstop the following season. By 1936, Appling won his first All-Star Game selection en route to a .388 batting average -- the top single-season mark ever by a modern-era shortstop. That same season, Appling drove in 128 runs while hitting just six homers -- the second-best RBI total ever for anyone with less than 10 home runs in a season.