Overlooked. Underappreciated. Unenshrined. To most sports nuts, these are the words that come to mind when Gil Hodges is the topic of conversation. For anyone who lived in the New York metro area during the quarter-century following World War II—baseball fan or no baseball fan—the fact that he doesn't have a plaque in Cooperstown ranks among the game's greatest mysteries.

The most beloved player on the Brooklyn Dodgers, an original Met, and later the team’s manager during its folklorish 1969 championship, Gil was a fixture on the New York baseball scene, and an institution in the five boroughs. A quiet man whose competence as a ballplayer and field general was beyond question, he is regarded by millions of fans as undeniably deserving of Hall of Fame induction.

Gilbert Ray Hodges was born to Irene and Charlie Hodges on April 4, 1924, in Princeton, Indiana. Big Charlie was a coal miner who had more ambitious plans for Gil and his brother, Bob. The family moved from Princeton, in the state’s southwest corner, north to Petersburg in the early years of the Depression. There Hodges boys developed into terrific athletes, and both attracted attention from pro teams as teenagers.

Gil was a power-hitting shortstop who was scouted by the Detroit Tigers. They offered him a minor-league contract in 1941, but he declined. Gil planned to attend college, obtain a degree, and perhaps settle into a high-school or college coaching job. He followed through by accepting a scholarship from St. Joseph’s College of Indiana, which had a good Phys. Ed. depatment. He played baseball for the Pumas as a freshman, in the spring of 1942, and again during the 1943 season.

When World War II started, Gil found employment as a drill press operator in a local defense plant. It was not uncommon during this era for companies to hire college-trained workers who happened to possess athletic skills. They were paid well for their labor and expected to suit up for company teams, which provided diversion and a morale boost for other workers.

It was in one of these games during the summer of 1943 that Gil was spotted by Stanley Feezle, a part-time scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers (who would later discover Carl Erskine). He convinced the 19-year-old to sign a pro contract. Gil did so knowing he would soon be wearing another uniform, and gave the small bonus he received to his parents. Gil worked out at shortstop with the Dodgers, who saw right away he would not play this position in the majors. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn GM, suggested that he try catching. Gil appeared in one game with the team, at third base. Obviously nervous, he booted two of the five grounders hit his way, and did not touch the ball (two K’s and one BB) in three plate appearances.

A member of the Marines ROTC program at St. Joseph’s, Gil went into the service soon after. He stopped at Pearl Harbor before moving into battle zones at Tinian and Okinawa, and won a bronze star and attained the rank of sergeant before his discharge early in 1946. Gil managed to survive the war without any damage to his body, but picked up a heavy smoking habit during his time in the Pacific.

Gil got back into the swing of baseball in ’46 with Newport News of the Piedmont League. He caught the entire season and led the circuit in putouts, assists and fielding. Gil’s numbers were solid, with 42 extra-base hits and a .278 average in 129 games.

Gil made the big club out of spring training in 1947, and spent the season as one of Bruce Edwards’s backups (along with Bobby Bragan). In a pennant-winning year under manager Burt Shotten, Gil was one of Brooklyn’s few low lights, hitting just .158. Still, he demonstrated a feel for the strike zone that caught the organization’s eye. With Roy Campanella tearing it up in Montreal, Gil’s future may have seemed dim, but the genius of the Dodgers in the postwar years was their ability to stick with and, if necessary, repurpose their promising players.

Indeed, in the years following the Second World War, the Dodgers were blessed with a steady stream of star-quality players. Part of Brooklyn's depth came courtesy of several astute judges of talent who pulled off more than one shrewd trade. Another key was the team’s willingness to sign African-Americans. This combination of factors allowed the Dodgers to generate enough personnel to keep the club at or near the top of the standings for more than a decade.

In Gil’s case, the smart decision was a switch to first. Jackie Robinson had manned the position as a rookie in 1947, but he was a better fit at second base. The team sold second sacker Eddie Stanky to the Boston Braves and eventually moved Robinson over, opening the job for Gil. When manager Leo Durocher was fired after a so-so start and Shotten was reinstalled at the helm, Gil became the everyday first baseman. (The move was actually Durocher’s idea). He finished the year with 11 homers and 70 RBIs in 134 games—38 of which he played catcher.

Gil also met and married Joan Lombardi, a Bay Ridge native, in 1948. The couple made their home in Brooklyn and lived there for the next two decades, endearing themselves to the community.

Gil’s catching days came to an effective end in 1949, when he established himself as the league’s most productive first basemen. He led all NL first sackers with 23 homers, 115 RBIs, 94 runs, a .453 slugging percentage, 10 steals and 50 extra-base hits. More than nimble around the bag, he committed just seven errors and turned in a .995 fielding mark.

Gil batted in the heart of a powerhouse lineup that included Campanella, Robinson, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo and Pee Wee Reese. The teams’ pitching staff was anchored by young guns Don Newcombe and Ralph Branca, along with veterans Joe Hatten and Preacher Roe. The Dodgers were not expected to keep pace with the St. Louis Cardinals in ’49, but because of breakout years from players like Gil, they hung around just along enough to charge into first in the final week when St. Louis dropped four games. Brooklyn won the pennant by one game, beating the Phillies in 10 innings on the season’s final day.

The Brooklyn bats were silenced in the World Series, as the Yankees beat them in five games. After splitting a pair of thrilling 1-0 decisions, the Dodgers surrendered early leads in the next three contests and were forced to play catch-up, not an advisable strategy against New York. They lost the series 4 games to 1. Gil knocked in the winning run off Vic Raschi in his team's sole victory, and had a team-high 4 RBIs for the series. He hit a three-run homer in Game 5, but with Brooklyn trailing 10-2, it had no real impact.

The Dodgers found themselves in another gripping pennant race in 1950, this time with the Philadelphia Phillies. The fabled Whiz Kids looked as if they had things under control in September, but went on a losing skid that enabled the Dodgers to wipe out six games of a seven-game lead. In the season’s final contest, Brooklyn faced Robin Roberts needing a win to force a playoff with Philadelphia. With the game tied 1-1 in the ninth, Cal Abrams tried to score from second on weak-armed Richie Ashburn on a short single to center, but was gunned down at the plate. The Dodgers loaded the bases, but Gil and Furillo could not deliver the winning hit. In the 10th inning, Dick Sisler homered to give Philly the pennant.

Despite the campaign's disappointing conclusion, Gil had another superb year, with 32 homers, 113 RBIs and a .508 slugging average. He was the team's most productive power hitter and one of five players to score more than 95 runs. On August 31st against Milwaukee, Gil became the sixth player to slug four home runs in a game. His first came against Warren Spahn, and his final three off three other Braves pitchers. Gil added a single and totaled nine RBIs for the game, a 19-3 rout. At the time, his 17 total bases represented a major league record.

Gil was named to the All-Star squad for the second time, but did not play in the game. Ironically, he was not a “no-brainer” pick for top NL first baseman in ’50. Although he was the best from a defensive standpoint, Ted Kluszewski of the Cincinnati Reds could match him for raw-boned power, and Stan Musial—moved to first by the Cardinals that year—was the league batting and slugging champ.

Gil’s 1951 campaign showed he was still evolving as a hitter. He reached 40 homers, scored 118 runs and drove in 103. As his 93 walks demonstrated, enemy hurlers were starting to pitch around him, but at the same time he became more aggressive at the plate, with a league-high 99 strikeouts. Lost in the sauce were nine stolen bases, which along with his runs-scored totals were a reminder of Gil’s speed and baserunning instincts in his prime years.

The Dodgers played good ball in `51, but over the last month the New York Giants were nearly perfect, and caught Brooklyn to force a three-game pennant playoff. The teams split the first two games, and in the decider, Brooklyn built a 4-1 lead heading into the ninth. When Don Newcombe tired, first-year skipper Chuck Dressen pulled him for the hard-throwing Branca. Bobby Thomson greeted him with the "Shot Heard Round the World" to send the Dodgers back home for a second straight October.

Brooklyn finally returned to the Fall Classic in 1952, overcoming a 16-2 start by the Giants and mopping up on the NL’s cellar-dwelling teams to beat New York by 4.5 games. Newcombe was lost for the entire season to military service, but his absence was counteracted by rookie Joe Black, who came out of nowhere to pitch lights-out relief. Black won 15 games and saved 15 others, while starters Roe, Erskine and Billy Loes had great years.

Gil was now having pencil-it-in power seasons. He slugged 32 homers, knocked in 103 runs, walked 107 times and offset his.254 batting average with a .500 slugging mark. With Musial back in the outfield for St. Louis and Kluszewski suffering through an off year, Gil was once again the easy choice for the league’s best first baseman. His competition in the AL came from the likes of Ferris Fain, Luke Easter, Mickey Vernon and Eddie Robinson—good players, but with the exception of Easter, not the classic middle-of-the-lineup guys.

The `52 World Series pitted the Dodgers against the Yankees once again. It went seven games, with New York overcoming a 3-2 Brooklyn lead by taking the final pair at Ebbets Field. The loss could easily have been pinned on Gil, who had perhaps the worst World Series ever for a player of his caliber. He went hitless in 21 at-bats, with six strikeouts. Instead of vilifying Gil, however, Brooklyn fans sent hundreds of gifts, good luck charms and supportive letters during the slump. When he came to bat, he received standing ovations. Gil never forgot this show of love, and years later he would still be remembered as Brooklyn’s favorite Dodger.

The slump actually continued into the first month of 1953, as Gil struggled to push his average over the .200 mark. He finally did, putting together one of his best seasons. He finished with 31 homers, 122 RBIs, 101 runs scored, a .301 batting average and .550 slugging percentage. The Dodgers, meanwhile, ran away with the NL pennant. The cast of characters was essentially the same, with one exception. In the team’s never-ending quest for a decent leftfielder, Robinson was moved to the outfield and Junior Gilliam was inserted at second. Gilliam proved to be an excellent table-setter, scoring 125 runs.

In the World series, the Dodgers fell again to the Yankees, this time 4 games to 2. It was an exciting six-game set, won on a ninth-inning single by Billy Martin. Gil improved significantly over the prior October with a .364 average, but failed to drive in runners in a handful of key situations. After the series, Dressen was replaced with young Walter Alston. Once again, it was "Wait ‘Til Next Year" in Brooklyn.

Unfortunately for Dodger fans, next year was 1954, and the Giants got an MVP season out of Willie Mays, a batting title out of Don Mueller, 21 wins out of Johnny Antonelli, and a near-flawless performance from a bullpen headed by old-timer Marv Grissom and knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. Brookyln had a good season, too, but their 92 wins didn't match New York's 97. At age 30, Gil enjoyed his best year as a Dodger, with 42 homers, 130 RBIS, 106 runs, a .304 average and a .579 slugging percentage. But this also happened to be the year Kluszewski led the NL with 49 homers and 141 RBIs. The combination of a Giant pennant and Big Klu’s big season kept Gil’s great performance on the back pages all year long.

The Dodgers bounced back in 1955 for the greatest triumph in franchise history. They won 98 times and had the pennant sewn up in early September. Newcombe rediscovered his past prowess to top the team with a 20-5 mark, while youngsters Clem Labine and Ed Roebuck anchored a superb bullpen. The Brooklyn offense featured the same cast of characters, with Robinson now the everyday third baseman. Sandy Amoros, a Cuban star plucked out of the Negro Leagues a few seasons earlier, took over as the leftfielder.

Gil’s stats drooped a bit to 27 homers and 102 RBIs, but his average and slugging marks were still among the best at his position. The '55 campaign marked the seventh year in a row he surpassed the 100-RBI plateau, and with more than 250 lifetime homers, he was within range of the league mark for righties (351), held by Ralph Kiner at the time.

Gil had a productive World Series against the Yankees, batting .292 with a homer and five RBIs. He came up big in Game 7, driving home both runs in Brooklyn’s 2-0 victory. With Johnny Podres silencing the New York bats, Gil gave the Dodgers the lead with a two-out single in the fourth, and added another run with a sac fly in the sixth. Brooklyn and its fans finally had their championship, and Gil was hailed as one of the borough’s conquering heroes.

The 1956 campaign found the Dodgers on top of the NL heap once again, as they staved off the fast-improving Braves and the powerful Reds. Newcombe did it all that season, winning 27 games. Brooklyn needed every one of those victories, because Podres spent all year in the military. The Dodgers took the pennant by one game over Milwaukee and two over Cincinnati.

For the fifth time in ten seasons, it was the Yankees and Dodgers in the World Series. Again the teams went to Game 7, with New York defying the odds by starting 22-year-old Johnny Kucks in the finale at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn fans expected a second straight championship, but Kucks handcuffed the Dodgers, limiting them to three hits in a 9-0 blowout. Gil did his part in the Dodger wins, knocking in a team-high eight runs and hitting .304. Unfortunately, he and Snider were the only men in blue to hit well against the Yankees.

The Dodgers' final, bittersweet season in Brooklyn saw the team unable to reproduce its old magic, as the Braves ran off with the 1957 pennant. The old stalwarts were beginning to fade away, and new blood—like Don Drysdale, Charlie Neal, John Roseboro and Sandy Koufax—was not yet strong enough for a complete transfusion. Bereft of table-setters, not a single Dodger reached 100 RBIs; Gil’s 98 were tops on the team. He and Snider, with 27 and 40 homers, respectively, generated Brooklyn’s only power. Hodges also was the recipient of the first Gold Glove. He won the award again in 1958 and 1959.

The move to the West Coast was a painful one for Gil, who hated to leave Brooklyn. He and Joan, in fact, kept their home there. The Dodgers would start life anew in Los Angeles without their spiritual center, Roy Campanella, who was paralyzed in a car accident. The new stadium in Chavez Ravine would not be ready for several seasons, so the club moved into the Coliseum, with its impossibly long rightfield fence and impossibly short leftfield fence, which included a high screen to prevent easy home runs.

There was nothing easy about 1958 for the Dodgers, who resisted a changing of the guard for much of the year as the team sank into the second division. Gil totaled 22 homers to tie Neal for the team lead, while lefties Snider and Furillo saw their power numbers plummet as they took aim at the faraway rightfield wall. Instead of turning would-be outs in doubles and homers, the screen in left ended up turning a lot of doubles and homers into singles. Everyone’s stats suffered.

Dodger fortunes reversed in 1959, as Alston hit on the right mix of old and new, and the players grew accustomed to their weird home field. Gil and Snider rediscovered their power stokes, and got plenty of days off to ensure they remained fresh for the stretch drive. Neal and Gilliam had nice seasons, as did newcomer Wally Moon, while rookie Maury Wills provided a spark off the bench. Drysdale topped the league in strikeouts, Podres combined with Roger Craig for 25 wins, and the Dodgers had just enough gas in the tank to catch the stumbling Braves in the final week of the season. In their best-of-three playoff, LA took two straight to capture the NL flag. Gil finished the year with 25 homers and 80 RBIs, and scored the pennant-winning run against Milwaukee in a dramatic 12-inning victory.

As surprising as it was to see the Dodgers back in the World Series, their foes were even more remarkable. For one fantastic season, the Chicago White Sox—led by Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio—had perfected small ball and eclipsed the powerhouse Yankees. After being shutout in Game 1, Los Angeles bounced back to take the next three games with timely hitting and great relief work by Larry Sherry. Gil supplied the power in the team’s crucial Game 4 victory, homering over the leftfield screen in the eighth to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win. After getting shutout in Game 6, the Dodgers won the series in Chicago with a six-run fourth inning. Gil was LA's best hitter with a .391 average.

The ’59 World Series turned out to be Gil’s swan song. At 36, there wasn’t much life left in his bat, and his knees were aching too much to play every day. In 1960, the new generation of Dodgers was taking over in LA, with Wills, Koufax, Frank Howard, Tommy Davis and Stan Williams all becoming regular contributors. Norm Larker assumed the starting role at first and hit .323. Gil’s average, by contrast, dropped below .200.

In 1961, Gil played a little more and did a little better, settling in as the righthanded half of LA’s first-base platoon. At season's end, though he batted .242 with eight homers, Gil was contemplating retirement. But when the Mets called his name in the expansion draft that winter, he agreed to keep going now that he was close to home.

Gil hit the first homer in Mets history in April of 1962, and split time with Marv Throneberry and five other guys at first. He ended up with nine long balls in 127 at-bats, along with a .252 average. His ninth round-tripper was his last, giving him 370 and, at the time, the NL record for home runs by a righthanded hitter.

Gil started the 1963 season with the Mets, but he was done. He had just five hits when ownership brokered a deal with another expansion club, the Washington Senators, for Gil to become their manager. New York received Jimmy Piersall in return. Gil retired and took the reins from Mickey Vernon and Eddie Yost, two former stars from the old Washington Senators.

Gil had long been considered managerial timber. He was extremely knowledgeable, communicated well with young players, and combined a sense of calm and control with an aura of impending menace. A big man with a big reputation, he was not only one of history’s most formidable sluggers, he was also rumored to have killed several Japanese soldiers during World War II with his bare hands. True or not, it was impressive enough to make anyone in his locker room respect him and scary enough to instill fear in his veterans.

The Senators went 42-79 under Hodges in ’63 and finished last. Looking back at the team’s roster, Washington did not have a single quality position player. The only good pitcher on the staff was Claude Osteen, who was one of the better young hurlers in the league.

Washington improved by six wins in 1964, clawing its way out of the basement thanks to Osteen’s 15 wins and good relief work by veteran Ron Kline. Rookie Eddie Brinkman shored up the infield, but the lineup was still devoid of impact hitters. This prompted the Senators, with Hodges guiding their hand, to cut a deal with his old team, the Dodgers. He traded his ace in the hole, Osteen, for Frank Howard, pitchers Phil Ortega and Pete Richert, third baseman Ken McMullen and first baseman Dick Nen (Robb Nen’s dad).

Osteen went on to have a terrific career for the Dodgers, and helped them win the 1965 World Series with a Game 3 shutout. But the players Gil grabbed off their roster transformed the Senators. Howard was one of the league’s most feared sluggers, McMullen became a solid everyday player, Nen held down half of the first-base platoon, and Richert and Ortega won 27 games between them. Washington bettered its record by eight more wins, and Hodges was earning respect for his handling of what was still an awful team.

In 1966, the Senators improved again, albeit by a single win, to 71-89. Gil had cobbled together a respectable lineup, and he had enough decent arms to keep most games within reach. A couple of kids with bright futures, Dick Bosman and Joe Coleman, also got a look in ’66.

In Gil’s final year in Washington, 1967, his team rose to 6th place in the AL with a 76-85 record. Howard had the season everyone had been waiting for, belting 36 homers, and Hodges worked wonders again with a no-name pitching staff.

That winter, the Mets came calling. The team wanted Gil in the dugout to develop a nucleus of exciting young players, including pitchers Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman and Tug McGraw. New York also had promising position players in Cleon Jones, Ed Kranepool, Ron Swoboda, Jerry Grote, Ken Boswell and Bud Harrelson. The Mets sent pitcher Bill Denehy and $100,000 to the Senators, who hired `50s star Jim Lemon to manage them. (The club promptly tumbled back into the cellar.)

Gil was delighted with the club he took into the 1968 campaign. New York had added a couple of underachieving outfielders over the winter, Tommie Agee and Art Shamsky, providing Gil with an everyday centerfielder and a potent lefthanded bat. In their brief history, the young Mets had known nothing other than losing, but they could run, field, throw, pitch and, every so often, put a charge into the ball.

The new manager’s first job was to convince his players that they belonged on the same field as the NL’s more established clubs, which took the better part of the season. By the end of the year, however, the Mets were beginning to believe they could compete. New York upped its record to 73-89, as Seaver and Koosman established themselves as the league’s best young pitching duo.

The only troubling aspect of the ’68 campaign was the mild heart attack Hodges suffered during a September game against Atlanta. Gil's smooth exterior masked the roiling stress every manager endures, and keeping things bottled up to the extent he did was just unhealthy. Figure his pack-a-day cigarette habit into the mix, and it was no wonder his heart was strained at 44. Doctors gave him a clean bill of health over the winter, but warned him about the risks of his lifestyle.

In 1969, Gil went to battle with a roster he loved, and the coaching staff to make something special happen. Yost, well-versed in the nuances of the game, had come over from Washington with him to man third base, Joe Pignatano and Rube Walker—both backup catchers from his old Dodger days—would handle the pitchers. And Yogi Berra, another catcher and New York icon, was the first base coach.

A loss on Opening Day to the expansion Montreal Expos seemed to suggest that it was going to be another one of those years for the Mets, but they played solid, mistake-free baseball and managed to stay in the hunt in the newly minted NL East. The Cards were the odds-on favorites, but a spring training tongue-lashing from owner Gussie Busch had created havoc in the St. Louis clubhouse. The club simply didn't seem to have the heart for a third straight pennant run. The Cubs featured a group of veteran stars, but Chicago had no bench and a thin bullpen. They could be taken.

The Mets, meanwhile, added a key ingredient when they acquired first baseman Donn Clendenon. His veteran presence and righthanded power gave the club a dependable cleanup hitter against lefthanded pitching.

The season seemed to tilt New York's way during an early July series against the Cubs at Shea Stadium. Seaver, baseball’s hottest pitcher, came within an out of throwing a perfect game and the Mets took two of three. In Chicago later that month, light-hitting utilityman Al Weis homered twice to beat the Cubs, as New York won two of three again. The team slumped briefly in August, allowing Chicago to increase its lead to 9.5 games. But with Leo Durocher playing his veterans every inning down the stretch, the Cubs began to show their age. The Mets roared past them in mid-September to reach 100 victories and claim the division by eight games.

The Mets defied the odds again in the first-ever NLCS, trouncing the mighty Braves with 27 runs in a three-game sweep. The magic continued, as Gil turned to his pitching and defense against the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. In an astounding five-game victory, the Mets stunned the baseball world. Matched against the irascible Earl Weaver and his 109-win O’s, Gil cemented his reputation as a managerial genius. In Game 5, with his team trailing 3-0, he strolled out of the dugout to suggest that his batter, Cleon Jones, had just been struck on the foot with a pitched ball. He showed the umpires the shoe polish smudge on the horse hide and Jones was awarded first base. Clendenon then drilled a ball over the leftfield fence, and New York began a comeback that resulted in a 5-3 win and a world championship.

Age, injury and the law of averages prevented the Mets from repeating in 1970, as New York faded to third with a 83-79 record. The Mets, Cubs and Pirates were all there in September, but it was the Bucs who produced winning baseball down the stretch.

Gil entered the 1971 campaign with essentially the same club, and finished with exactly the same record, as the Pirates captured the division again. He knew full well what it took to win a pennant, but when he looked up and down his lineup, he did not see any Jackie Robinsons or Duke Sniders. And pitching, no matter how good—and New York's was excellent—only got the team so far.

The 1972 season looked like a promising one for the Mets. Jon Matlack, a highly rated lefty, was due to join Seaver and Koosman in the rotation, young slugger John Milner was ready to be an everyday player, and veteran stars Jim Fregosi and Rusty Staub had been acquired in trades. Like everyone else in the game, however, Gil had to wait out a players strike, which delayed the beginning of the campaign.

On Easter Sunday, with no games and no practice scheduled, Gil played 27 holes of golf with coaches Walker, Pignatano and Yost. As they finished the final hole, the manager collapsed—Gil died from a massive heart attack just two days shy of his 48th birthday.

Berra stepped into the manager’s role and guided the Mets to another 83-win season. In 1973, he took the team Gil had assembled and came within a victory of a second world championship.

Gil became eligible for Hall of Fame induction as a player in 1969, and at the time voters gave a fair amount of consideration to him. After his death, and in an era when a lot of “borderline” stars from the 1920s and 30s were enshrined by the Veterans Committee, the general assumption was that Gil would eventually have his own plaque in Cooperstown, if not solely as a player, then on his combined playing and managing resume. He was on the baseball writers’ list until 1983, and during this time he received more Hall of Fame votes than other future enshrinees every single year. For some reason, however, he never quite got over the hump.

Since then, Gil has come close to the necessary number of votes from the Veterans Committee, but he has fallen short each year. In 2005, he and Ron Santo needed just eight more ballots each for enshrinement. By almost any measure, both men belong in Cooperstown—Santo was as good a third baseman in his day as Gil was a first baseman, and each ranked at or near the top of his craft for a solid decade.

During the 1950s, Gil topped all major league first basemen with 310 home runs and 1,001 RBIs. He finished his career with 370 homers and 1,274 RBIs, and was an everyday player for a perennial contender for 12 seasons. His lifetime average of .273 is occasionally mentioned as a drawback, but the Dodgers were paying him to swing for the fences, and his last few seasons as a part-timer ate into his career mark. Outside of his Gold Gloves, Gil never won any major awards or led the league in a significant offensive category. However, MVP voters recognized him every year from 1948 to 1954, and again in 1957 and 1959. He finished seventh in ’57, and all but one of the Top 10 players that year are in the Hall of Fame.

The historical record on Gil includes seven pennants (six as a starter), eight All-Star nominations (he played in six games), and three Gold Gloves (he would have won five to seven more had the award been instituted earlier). For some, however, he was even more memorable as a manager. In his five seasons in Washington, he transformed the Senators from the league laughing stock to a solid club that battled hard every game. With the Mets, he produced a World Series title that belonged as much to him as it did to any player or fan.

There is a bridge named in memory of Gil Hodges that spans the Pike River in Indiana. A blank spot at the bottom of the dedication inscription has been left blank, in anticipation of his Hall of Fame inscription.