In 1990 Luke Appling was voted the greatest Chicago White Sox player in history! Appling fouled off pitch after pitch until he got the one he wanted, fans in the ballpark would cheer 'Luke, Luke' after every foul ball. Being a popular player, Luke Appling was picked for eight All-Star games. He was an excellent fielding shortstop and led the league in assists seven different times, and in putouts twice. Appling was noted for his great fielding range.

Appling was the White Sox lead-off-hitter, three times he drew over 100 base-on-balls and his career on-base-pct was .399. He played over 20 years and in 2422 games he struckout only 528 times! Luke Appling batted over .300 in 15 different years including 9 straight seasons. In eight different years he scored over 90 runs.

This famous Hall of Famer career stats are .310 batting average, stole 178 bases, walked 1302 times, 528 strikeouts, scored over 1300 runs. Luke Appling, what a all-around player, you played to win! Baseball fans miss your style of play.

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Baseball Players

Around 70 percent of the men listed on American Heroes, including Jackie Robinson, served in the US Military, and we are proud to call them American Heroes... many who served saw battle action during World War I or II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War or were veterans in other conflicts.

Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson joined the military in 1918, was sent overseas to the Western Front, got a whiff of poison gas which caused Tuberculosis in both lungs and died in 1925 at age 45.

Red Sox slugger Ted Williams flew 42 missions over Korea in 1951-52 after also serving during World War II.