Ed "Ned" Williamson

A star of Cap Anson's Chicago White Stockings, Williamson hit 27 home runs in 1884 — helped by the tiny Lake Front Park dimensions — and that single-season mark stood for 35 years until Babe Ruth hit 29 in 1919. Period writers after his death sometimes called him the greatest player of the 19th century. A true pre-Ruth home-run marker, kept here as context rather than a collecting focus.