Spurgeon "The Surgeon" Lewis
Dominated the hitters of the USBL every year for nearly two decades. He led the majors in strikeouts for twelve consecutive years. He won the Pitching Triple Crown in back-to-back years in 1903 and 1904. Lewis pitched only for the Washington Capitals during his USBL career. His individual success was rightfully earned as he only saw two winning seasons from the Capitals in his first 12 seasons. Washington was routinely one of the worst teams in the Atlantic Conference. At the end of his career, the Capitals began to have some success with back-to-back 100+ win seasons in 1914 and 1915, including taking home the 1914 American Cup. Spurgeon won the last of his Pitcher of the Year Awards at the end of the 1915 season, while helping the Capitals to another Western Division Title. The Pitcher of the Year Award was renamed in honor of him after his enshrinement in 1921.
Martin Parsons
Martin Parsons was considered one of the best hitters in the early years of professional baseball. He lead the league in at least three categories each year for 20 out of his 24-year career. He led the league in OBP eighteen times, Walks seventeen times, Runs Scored fourteen times, Stolen Bases twelve times. When he retired in 1919, he was the Career leader in Runs, Walks, Stolen Bases, On-Base Pct. and WAR. He was also in the Top 5 of five more career categories.
George Smolarek
George Smolarek is often considered the best hitter in baseball history. His much talked about determination and drive mostly came from trying to outdo his contemporary Martin Parsons. While they were not enemies by any stretch of the word, they were not friends either. Smolarek would not lead any statistical categories during the time Parsons was in the WBC from 1912-1917. At his inauguration speech, he mentioned how much this ate him during his playing days. Smolarek would have plenty to be proud about as he was the leader in nine different career batting statistics when his playing days were over, including Average, Home Runs, Hits, RBI. He also had the highest single season USBL batting average at the time of his enshrinement at .397.
Kasch Kurtz
"The King of K" was a dominant force in major league baseball's early history. In the ten year span from 1895 to 1904, there was not a more feared pitcher in baseball. Kurtz would win 5 Pitcher of the Year Awards in that span, while going 182-58 with 2,316 Strikeouts and ERA of 2.19. He led the Omaha Jacks to six titles in that span. His 1.24 ERA in 1897 is still considered the lowest single season ERA in major league history. He never had a losing record in any season as a starter, and would go on to finish his career with 270 wins and 3,376 strikeouts.
Kit Rigdon
"King Kit" was the first superstar of baseball. People would travel from hundreds of miles to see him play. His was a celebrity of the time, presidents would woo Rigdon in the hopes of an endorsement to help them with their popularity. Team owners would raise ticket prices when Rigdon and his Boston Baseball Club would come to town. He would lead the league in homeruns eight times throughout his career and finish with 392 for his career, the most all-time at the time of his retirement by nearly a hundred homeruns. While he was already 31 years old when the USBL was founded and on the downside of his career, he would still draw the largest crowds for opposing teams. Rigdon was still one of the best players in the USBL despite his age as he would go on to win Player of the Year in 1904 at the age of 35.
