12 Facts About Lefty O'Doul

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul was an American Major League Baseball player who went on to become an extraordinarily successful manager in the minor leagues.

Lefty O'Doul was a vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan.

Lefty O'Doul had some major-league success with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from 1919 to 1923 as a reliever.

Lefty O'Doul pitched for the Red Sox in one notable game at Cleveland on July 7,1923, that would go down in the record books.

Relieving for starter Curt Fullerton, Lefty O'Doul gave up 16 runs over 3 innings of relief, with 14 of those runs coming in the 6th inning alone.

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Lefty O'Doul's hit total broke the previous National League record of 250 by Rogers Hornsby of the 1922 St Louis Cardinals.

Lefty O'Doul had 6 five-hit games between 1929 and 1933, recording two each in 1929 and 1930 with the Phillies and one each in 1931 and 1933 with the Dodgers.

Lefty O'Doul then returned to the Pacific Coast League as manager of the San Francisco Seals from 1935 to 1951, later managing several other teams in the circuit and becoming the most successful manager in PCL history.

Lefty O'Doul was instrumental in spreading baseball's popularity in Japan, serving as the sport's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II.

Lefty O'Doul was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Lefty O'Doul was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2013.

Besides the ineligible Shoeless Joe Jackson, Lefty O'Doul has the highest career batting average of any player eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame who is not enshrined.