Vladimir Guerrero

Vladimir Guerrero swung at everything and hit most of it, the finest bad-ball hitter the game has seen, a man who could golf a pitch out of the dirt or reach across the plate and pull a ball off the outside corner into the seats. He batted .318 for his career with 449 home runs, threw runners out from right field with an arm that needed no cutoff man, and did it all with a joy that made pitchers miserable. He came from nothing in the Dominican Republic and turned a wild, fearless approach into a Hall of Fame career. The BBWAA elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2018.

Nizao

Guerrero was born on February 9, 1975, in Nizao, a poor town outside Baní in the Dominican Republic, and his childhood was hard in ways that are difficult to imagine. The family of seven lived in a shack with no running water or electricity, drank from puddles when they had to, and crowded into one room after a hurricane took the roof. He dropped out of school after the fifth grade and worked the vegetable fields and herded his grandfather's cattle, and the legend of the barefoot kid who could already hit grew out of those years. "I had to bring in the cattle," he said. "The bulls were stubborn, and I had to pull them until they did what they were supposed to do."

The Bad-Ball Hitter

Guerrero hit pitches that no coaching manual would let a batter swing at, and he hit them hard. He crushed balls in the dirt and balls over his head, batted .363 on first pitches, and refused to wear batting gloves, gripping the bat with pine tar like a throwback. The wild approach should have produced strikeouts, and instead he fanned less often than Stan Musial or Ted Williams ever did. Pitchers had no answer. "He's impossible to pitch around," the Cubs pitcher Kevin Tapani said. "He can hit any pitch, and I would never ever throw him the same pitch twice in a row."

The Arm in Right Field

Guerrero matched the bat with a glove and an arm, playing right field with a cannon that threw out runners who had no business being thrown out, sometimes firing the ball to the plate on a single hop from the warning track. He ran the bases the same way he hit, aggressively and without much caution, taking extra bases and getting caught and trying again. Bobby Valentine, who managed against him, summed up the arm with a shrug. "That guy doesn't need a cutoff or relay," Valentine said. "He needs a bigger ballpark." He was a complete and reckless talent, thrilling in every part of the game.

A Star in the Shadows

Guerrero spent his first eight seasons with the Montreal Expos, becoming one of the best players alive in front of crowds that barely filled the building. He hit in 31 straight games in 1999 and put together two 30-30 seasons, stealing 37 bases with 34 home runs in 2001 and going 40 and 39 in 2002, one home run short of the rare 40-40 club. The Expos were a dying franchise playing to empty seats, and his greatness unfolded where few people saw it. He was a superstar in obscurity, waiting for a stage that matched the talent.

The MVP in Anaheim

Free agency finally gave him one. Guerrero signed with the Anaheim Angels before the 2004 season, and in his first year he won the American League Most Valuable Player award, batting .337 with 39 home runs and 126 runs batted in and carrying the team to the division title. He hit .300 or better in 12 straight seasons, a run of consistency that few free swingers could match, and he stayed dangerous deep into his thirties. The patience the numbers showed was mostly the work of frightened pitchers, since roughly a third of his walks were intentional, the rest of the league simply refusing to let him swing.

The Last Stops

Guerrero chased a championship at the end and came close. He signed with the Texas Rangers for 2010 and helped them reach the first World Series in franchise history, though he went cold against the Giants and the Rangers lost in five. He played one more year, hitting .290 with 13 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles in 2011, and then his body gave out and the comeback attempts stopped. He retired in 2013 a few home runs short of 500, the round number that would have been the only thing missing from a career built on hitting.

Cooperstown in an Angels Cap

The writers nearly elected Guerrero on his first try, holding him 15 votes short in 2017, then put him in the next year with 92.9 percent. He went in wearing an Angels cap, the first player enshrined with the team, the choice a nod to the years when his greatness finally played in front of a contender. He was the first position player from the Dominican Republic to reach Cooperstown, and he made the honor a national one. "This award is for the entire Dominican Republic," he said. "It's for all of us. This is proof that you have to pursue your dreams." His son Vladimir Jr. was already on his way to stardom, carrying the swing into another generation.