Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner died Thursday, at age 91. (NY Times obituary; Jayson Stark on the lighter side of Ralph.) Some notes on his playing days:

During his 10-year career (1946-55) with the Pirates, Cubs and Indians, Ralph Kiner led the majors with 369 HRs, 80 more than #2 Stan Musial. He ranked 3rd with his 1,015 RBI (behind Musial and Del Ennis) and 971 Runs (Musial and Pee Wee Reese), and 2nd to Musial in Times On Base and Total Bases.

Kiner topped 50 HRs in 1947 and ’49, joining Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx in an exclusive “2 x 50” club. Through 1996, only Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were added; then four more crashed the door in the next 7 years. All but Kiner needed at least eight years for admission; Ralph did it in four. His 54 HRs in ’49 were the most in MLB from 1939-54, and the NL’s best for 1931-97.

In 1948, he smacked his 100th HR in his 376th game, a record pace that would stand almost 60 years until Ryan Howard got there in 325 games. No one else has come within 13 games of Kiner’s pace.

Through 1970, Kiner was the only Pirate ever to top 35 homers in a season. Willie Stargell broke that string, then wrested the franchise career crown in ’73, finishing with 475. They’re still the only Pirates with a 40-HR year (5 for Kiner, 2 for Stargell), or more than 240 HRs in a Bucs uniform.

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Ralph Kiner was a Navy pilot during World War II, then became the first to complete a Hall of Fame career entirely after that war. As a player, he was very much of his time:

• Kiner averaged 111 walks per 162 games, his walk rate ranking 16th in modern history.
  –AND–
  His 10-year career (1946-55) almost perfectly fits the highest 10-year walk rate in MLB history (1947-56). The five highest seasonal rates in the modern era were from 1947-51; Kiner was in the middle of five players who averaged 110+ walks in that span.

• He stole just 22 bases, 2nd-lowest for a HOF outfielder and 16th-lowest out of 304 outfielders with 1,400+ games.
  –AND–
  The years 1946-55 had the 2nd-lowest SB rate of any 10-year span, 0.30 SB per game.

• As a rookie in 1946, Kiner hit .247 with 23 HRs. That would have been the lowest BA ever for a 20-HR man …
  –EXCEPT THAT– 
  … Pat Seerey hit .225 with 26 HRs that same year. Until 1948, no one with 30 HRs had batted under .268; that year, Kiner hit .265 with 40 HRs, and Hank Sauer hit .260 with 35 HRs. Andy Pafko trimmed that mark to .255 in 1951, and was undercut the next year by Kiner (.244 with 37 HRs) and Gil Hodges (.254, 32).

• Kiner retired with 369 HRs and a .279 career BA — to that point, the only one of the 13 men with 300+ HRs to bat below .304.
  –BUT–
  Within 10 years, eight more had joined that “300/sub-.300” club, five with a lower BA than Kiner. Today, that group has 111 members, 61 with lower BA than Kiner. During Ralph’s 10 years alone, six others smacked 200+ HRs while batting under .300.

• Kiner led both leagues with 109 strikeouts in his first year, the 12th-highest total to date, then averaged just 79 Ks per 162 games thereafter.
  –BUT–
  That rookie year came when the overall K rate spiked to its highest since 1916; it then shrank back for five years before climbing again. Overall, Kiner’s K rate was high, for his era; he ranked 2nd or 3rd three more times, with totals of 90 Ks or less, and his 749 career Ks ran a close 2nd for that span. Kiner’s K rate was higher than five of the seven 300-HR men who preceded him — but lower than 103 of the 127 who followed him.

• In June of 1953, Pirates GM Branch Rickey sent Kiner to the Cubs in a 10-player deal. For the rest of that year and the next, Kiner kornered the outfield with Hank Sauer, another right-handed slugger who was even older and slower than Ralph. In 1954, Kiner scored -1.2 dWAR in left field, Sauer -1.5 dWAR in right.
  –YET–
  The plodding corner tandem were hardly the worst of their era. In just the four years 1952-55, nine other teams had LF/RF mates who both scored -1.0 dWAR or worse. The ’53 A’s (Gus Zernial/Dave Philley) and the ’55 Senators (Roy Sievers/Carlos Paula) were the first teams with 2 corner OFs scoring -2.0 dWAR. Also scoring worse than Kiner/Sauer were the ’55 Pirates (Frank Thomas/Jerry Lynch; Branch Rickey’s 5-year plan at work), the ’53 Tigers (Bob Nieman/Don Lund), and … well … the 1955 Indians (Kiner/Al Smith).

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Ralph hit 3 home runs in a game four times from 1947-51. The first two came in late ’47, each during a separate 4-game HR streak, the second one totaling 8 HRs in 3 days. He hit 23 HRs in his last 43 games that year, for his first 50-HR season. The first of those 3-HR games helped the Bucs set a club record of 7 home runs, which has been tied once. (Wait, Reggie Sanders had a 30-HR year for Pittsburgh?!?)

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Kiner’s last game-winning homer came on August 10, 1955, playing for Cleveland against Detroit. The defending AL champs were in a three-way dogfight, a half-game up on New York and Chicago, but trailed this one 4-2 in the 7th. Southpaw Al Aber came in to face Gene Woodling with the bags full and one out, so Al Lopez sent Kiner to bat; Aber whiffed him and got out of the jam. But Kiner stayed in the game, and came up in the 9th with the same score and the sacks loaded again. This time, he unloaded on Aber — the Tribe’s first walk-off slam in searchable history, and their only come-from-behind winning blast between 1950 (Luke Easter) and ’59 (Tito Francona).

Ralph had rarely subbed in before that year. His one hit in seven trips from 1946-54 was a game-breaking slam off Hank Borowy. But in his swan song, he was a beast off the bench, going 16 for 39 with 4 HRs and 16 RBI — tops in HRs, RBI, SLG and OPS among those with at least 20 PAs as a sub.

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On September 3, 1950, Kiner scored his highest WPA (for games with known play-by-play). In a wild game with five lead changes in the last six half-innings, Ralph hit 2 HRs and scored 4 runs, but his last trip really stands out. St. Louis had scored twice in their 10th, on hits by their three future HOFers, and Harry Brecheen went back to the hill expecting to end the Cards’ 4-game skid. But with 1 out, Pittsburgh drew even on back-to-back HRs, by PH Pete Castiglione (his only one ever as a sub) and Bob Dillinger (the only one of his 10 career taters that came for the Bucs). With 2 outs and the bases empty, but maybe still shell-shocked, Brecheen intentionally walked Kiner to gain the platoon edge on Gus Bell, a rookie. Bell won it with a double, his 4th hit of the game and 3rd XBH. The pass to Kiner was the only IBB with none aboard from 1946-52.

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With Kiner’s passing, B-R’s data show 55 living ex-players who were active before MLB was integrated, and 29 who were active in 1946, including Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr (age 95), Red Schoendienst (91) and Yogi Berra (88).

The oldest of those active in ’46 is Mike Sandlock, age 98 (born 10/17/1915); he’s one of nine modern players with 30+ games at both catcher and shortstop. Mainly a wartime replacement, Sandlock was back in the minors from 1947-52, but he returned at age 37 to catch for the ’53 Pirates. That made him teammates for a few months with both Kiner and Joe Garagiola, another still with us from 1946 (age 87). Sandlock wound up catching more than anyone else for that last-place club.

Next-oldest to Sandlock is Lennie Merullo, Cubs shortstop from 1941-47, and the last living Cub to play in the World Series. May 5 will be Lennie’s 98th birthday.

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Despite his defensive shortcomings, Kiner notched 36.3 WAR in his best 5-year run (1947-51) — 3rd overall in that span to his LF contemporaries Musial and Ted Williams, and 13th since 1901 for a player’s 2nd through 6th seasons (between Hornsby and Schmidt). He had three 8-WAR years in that span; only Williams and Barry Bonds had more such years as a LF, while the Babe and Rickey also had three. Kiner’s 149 OPS+ ranks 28th among all retired players with 5,000 PAs.

The man could mash. Rest in peace, Ralph. We will remember you.