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Ralph Kiner, the Pittsburgh slugger who became the voice of the New York Mets, was born on this day in 1922 in Santa Rita, New Mexico — a copper-mining town that has since vanished, its site swallowed by an open-pit copper mine. Raised in Alhambra, California, he is still the only New Mexico native in the Baseball Hall of Fame. After flying for the Navy in World War II, Kiner reached Pittsburgh in 1946 and did what no hitter has ever matched: he led or shared the National League home run lead in each of his first seven seasons, through 1952. He hit 51 home runs in 1947 and a career-high 54 in 1949, when he also drove in a league-leading 127 runs and batted .310. His 54th came on the season's next-to-last day, two short of Hack Wilson's league record of 56 — and he had lost another homer to a rainout. Kiner drove in 100 runs five straight years and piled up 369 home runs and 1,015 RBIs in just 10 seasons. Then it unraveled: after the last-place 1952 season, general manager Branch Rickey cut his pay and told him, “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.” Traded to the Chicago Cubs in a 10-player deal in June 1953, he finished in Cleveland in 1955, where a bad back forced him to retire at 32, sixth on the all-time home run list. His second career lasted five times as long. Kiner joined the expansion Mets in their first season, 1962, alongside Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy — a trio that stayed together 17 seasons, a record for a broadcast team. His postgame show, Kiner's Korner, took its name from the Forbes Field corner his drives once reached, and fans treasured his malapropisms — “On Father's Day, we again wish you all happy birthday.” He was still broadcasting part-time in 2013, past his 91st birthday. Cooperstown nearly passed him by: elected in January 1975, in his final year on the writers' ballot, with 273 votes — one more than the 272 required. Kiner died on February 6, 2014, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at 91. ⚾ Seven straight home run titles and 369 homers in 10 seasons, and Cooperstown still came down to a single vote — is Ralph Kiner the most underrated slugger in the Hall of Fame? 👇️