Throughout baseball history there are so many stories to be told. Some sad, some funny and some up-lifting. Here are four that you may not have heard about. Although, I’m pretty sure you have heard of Babe Ruth, but not so much about what a great pitcher he was.

Edward James Delahanty (October 30, 1867 – July 2, 1903), nicknamed “Big Ed”, was a Major League Baseball player from 1888 to 1903 for the Philadelphia Quakers, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Infants and Washington Senators, and was known as one of the early great power hitters in the game.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.

Delahanty was also the victim behind one of “The Most Shameful Home Runs of All Time” according to the third edition of Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo‘s series, “The Baseball Hall of Shame.” In July 1892, when Delahanty’s Phillies hosted Cap Anson‘s Chicago White Stockings at Philadelphia’s Huntingdon Street Grounds (aka National League Park), Anson hit a fly ball to center in the top of the eighth inning. The ball hit a pole and landed right in the “doghouse,” a feature unbeknownst to everyone then until that moment; it was used to store numbers for the manually-run scoreboard. Delahanty tried to get the ball (it was still in play) by first reaching over the doghouse, then crawling down into it, but on the latter attempt, he got stuck, and by the time teammate Sam Thompson had freed Delahanty from the area, Anson crossed home plate on what the “Baseball Hall of Shame” book calls an “inside-the-doghouse home run.”

Eddie Gaedel gained immortality in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on Sunday, August 19, 1951. Weighing 65 pounds (29.5 kg), and standing 3 feet 7 inches (1.09 m) tall, he became the shortest player in the history of the major leagues. He made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number “⅛”, is displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Raymond Johnson Chapman (January 15, 1891 – August 17, 1920) played his entire career at shortstop for Cleveland Indians.

He is the second of only two Major League Baseball players to have died as a result of an injury received in a game (the first wasMike “Doc” Powers in 1909); Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays. His death led Major League Baseball to establish a rule requiring umpires to replace the ball whenever it became dirty. His death was also one of the examples used to emphasize the need for wearing batting helmets (although the rule was not adopted until over thirty years later). His death was partially the reason MLB banned the spitball after the season.

For the president of the Chicago Bears, see George Halas, Jr..

George Stanley Halas, Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed “Papa Bear” and “Mr. Everything”, was a player,coach, inventor, jurist, producer, philanthropist, philatelist, owner and pioneer in professional American football and the iconic longtime leader of the NFL‘s Chicago Bears.

Afterward, Halas played minor league and semi-pro baseball, eventually earning a promotion to the New York Yankees, where he played 12 games as an outfielder in 1919. However, a hip injury effectively ended his baseball career. The popular myth was that Halas was succeeded as the Yankees’ right fielder by Babe Ruth, but in reality it was Sammy Vick who was replaced by Ruth.

Rocco Domenico “Rocky” Colavito, Jr. is one of least appreciated ball players in baseball history. He is best known for his years in right field with the Cleveland Indians. Colavito was the fifth player in American League (AL) history to have eleven consecutive 20-home run seasons (1956–66), exceeding 40 home runs three times and 100 runs batted in six times during that span. He also led the AL in home runs, RBI and slugging average once each. Hitting all but three of his 374 career home runs in the AL, he ranked behind only Jimmie Foxx (524) and Harmon Killebrew (then at 397) among the league’s right-handed hitters when he retired. In 1965, playing every game, he became the first outfielder in AL history to complete a season with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage, and his 1272 AL games in right field ranked eighth in league history at the end of his career.

Rocky was chosen to six All-Star teams, including both All-Star Games in 1959, 1961 and 1962, when two were played annually. On June 10, 1959 he smashed four homers in consecutive at bats in a single game at the Baltimore Orioles‘ cavernous Memorial Stadium. He later hit four home runs on the same day while playing for Detroit, but they were distributed between the two games of a double header.

Babe Ruth won on opening day in 1916 for Boston Red Sox. He went on to have a sensational year for the Sox. His success against Walter Johnson and in the season’s biggest games had earned Ruth status as the ace of Boston’s pitching staff. At age 21, he was now arguably the best left-hander in baseball. Compiling a 23-13 record for the season, he ranked third in the American League in wins, innings (3232/3), and strikeouts (170) while setting a league record for left-handers with nine shutouts that still stands. Only Chicago’s Eddie Cicotte bettered Babe’s .657 winning percentage, and Ruth’s league-best 1.75 ERA has not been topped by a Red Sox pitcher since. He held opponents to a .201 batting average (also the lowest mark in the league) and when at the plate he batted .272 including 19 pinch-hitting appearances.