Who He Was: Played 1871 to 1890 for the Cleveland Forest Citys, Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Reds, Buffalo Bisons, Detroit Wolverines, and Pittsburgh Alleghenys While James Laurie Deacon White is one of the two earliest players on this list, hes also the most recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, having received the honor in 2013. One of the best players of professional baseballs first two decades, White collected some huge lifetime numbers for an era when the seasons were shorter (he never played more than 125 games in a season, and many of those years consisted of fewer than 100 contests), including 2067 hits, 988 runs batted in, and 1140 runs scored. He led his league in batting average twice, RBI three times, and hits and triples once each.