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Jim Bottomley

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Jim Bottomley was a well known baseball player. Jesse was elected to the Hall of Fame by Veterans Committee in 1974. His full name was James Leroy Bottomley and was nicknamed as Sunny Jim. Jim Bottomley was born on Monday, April 23, 1900, in Oglesby, Illinois. His height was 6 feet and weighed 180 pounds. Bottomley was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 18, 1922, with the St. Louis Cardinals which was his first game and his last game was played on September 16 1937. He played for St. Louis Cardinals from 1922 to 1932, Cincinnati Reds from 1933 to 1935 and St. Louis Browns from 1936 to 1937 teams.

A lefty cleanup man with a career slugging average of .500, Bottomley had a pleasant nature and smiling face, and the habit of wearing his cap tilted over his left eye. He batted his career-high .371 in his first full season in 1923. On September 16, 1924, against the Dodgers, he drove in a record 12 runs with two homers, a double, and three singles. The MVP, most valuable player, in 1928, he batted .325, led the league in 20, triples and 136 RBI, the Runs Batted In and tied Hack Wilson for the 31 home run lead. At 32 and no longer the .300 hitter he had been, the Cardinals sent Sunny Jim to Cincinnati for pitcher Ownie Carroll and outfielder Estel Crabtree a trade of washed-up players.

He was a powerful striker of the ball with a lethal shot who back-checked responsibly and played the game cleanly. He, with all his dedication and devotion in his play, has achieved many goals in his overall baseball career. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by giving some extra hard work and efforts.

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