Paul Molitor carried one of the longest medical charts in baseball history yet still played two decades and collected over 3,000 hits. At the University of Minnesota, a broken jaw wired shut for eight weeks cost him 40 pounds, yet he rebuilt to become the Brewers' third overall pick in 1977. His fragile body forced the Brewers to shuffle him across nearly every position to keep his valuable bat in the lineup.

The player they called the Igniter turned constant breakdowns into strategic genius, mastering situational hitting and base running. After Milwaukee lowballed him in free agency, he reinvented himself as a designated hitter in Toronto.

• Set a World Series record with five hits in a single 1982 game
• Became the first position player to undergo Tommy John surgery, in 1984
• Won 1993 World Series MVP with Toronto, b ...