"Long" Levi Meyerle (1845-1921) played for the Philadelphia Athletics and Whites, the Chicago White Stockings, and the Cincinnati Reds of the National Association and National League from 1871 to 1877, and is best remembered for his 1871 season, in which he led the fledgling league in Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, Sluggling Percentage, Total Bases, and Home Runs, and batted an incredible .492, tops all time for a single season.

Levi played most of his career at third base, but also spent significant time at second and in the outfield. Because of his short career and the historical haze over 19th Century Baseball, he is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, although he was one of the best hitters of the early major leagues.

According to a book by the folks at SABR (Nineteenth Century Stars by James Smith), Meyerle's career ended abruptly not because of a drinking or gambling problem, as was often the case in those days, but due to a severe ankle sprain. He played in independent and minor league games for a time, and had an unsuccessful three game stint with the Philadelphia Keystones of the short-lived Union Association in its only year of operation, 1884.




Sources: www.baseballreference.com, www.baseballlibrary.com, the SABR message boards. For the perverts: His nickname stems from his height of 6'1", pretty tall for the time. AND NOTHING ELSE.

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