Bob O'Farrell

The longevity tells the real story here. Twenty-one seasons behind the plate during baseball's dead-ball-to-live-ball transition, when catching was a grueling, gear-light profession that chewed up bodies. O'Farrell caught over 1,400 games in an era when most catchers lasted half that long.

His MVP season came at age 29, the peak for a position that typically ages players fast. While 51 career homers seems modest now, it represented solid power for a catcher in the pre-Ruth era, when backstops were valued almost exclusively for their ability to handle pitchers and control the running game.