Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. He was a tough, hard nosed, no-nonsense ballplayer who played most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. Signed in 1935 by Cardinals' scout Billy Southworth -- who later would manage the Cardinals. He started off with the Class D farm team in Martinsville, Va. Coming up in 1938, he played the game with abandon and nonstop hustle. He became a regular in the Cards infield in 1939. He was the first player so noted for running to first base when issued a base on balls. This trademark started in the minor leagues, where he began his energetic style. In 1936 in Columbus, Ga., his manager, Eddie Dyer, caught him walking off the field and confronted him. "He said. 'Son, if you're tired, I'll get somebody else.'" Slaughter recalled in a 1994 interview with the Associated Press. "From that day on, I ran from spot to spot." Slaughter is best remembered for his "Mad Dash" from first base that scored the winning run for the Cardinals against the Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1946 Series. With the score tied at 3-3, Slaughter opened the bottom of the eighth with a single. Two outs later, he was still on first base. With Harry Walker at bat, Slaughter took off for second on what he said later was nothing more than an attempted steal. Walker hit the ball over short and into center field. With Slaughter steaming around second, Leon Culberson fielded the ball. Third base coach Mike Gonzalez tried to stop Slaughter as Culberson relayed the ball to Johnny Pesky, but Slaughter ran right past Gonzalez. Pesky held the ball for an instant and then hurried his throw to catcher Roy Partee. Slaughter slid past the tag for the deciding run." On that particular play, he outran that ball the last 10 yards," Stan Musial said. "He just outran it. It was an exciting play and won the Series for us. "The "Mad Dash" is commemorated outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis by a bronze statue depicting Slaughter sliding home. Slaughter was not without controversy during his career either. He was accused of being of the leaders in the racist taunting of Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball's color line in 1947. There were allegations that Slaughter tried to lead the Cardinals in a strike against Robinson, but St. Louis sports writer Bob Broeg set the record straight in his autobiography. Broeg said: "It's a canard that the Cardinals were going to strike," he said. "I was there, and it never happened. I quote [National League president] Ford Frick in my autobiography as saying the Cardinals were more fair to Robinson than any other team. That was because of Dyer, who told his players, 'If you get Robinson mad, he'll beat you all by himself.' Slaughter always denied that he had anything against the Dodger star. "There's been a hell of a lot of stuff written on that because I was a Southern boy," he said in a 1994 interview. "It's just a lot of baloney." The spiking happened during a close play at first base in August 1947. Robinson later insisted it was intentional. Papers at the time never reported the spiking incident as intentional. Broeg said. "Nobody knows if Enos deliberately spiked him or not. That's just the way Enos played. The previous year, he put Eddie Stanky in the hospital twice." Slaughter also spiked Bill Rigney later that season in the Polo Grounds. "I spiked a lot of guys that I hadn't intended to because they had their foot blocking the basepaths," Mr. Slaughter wrote in his autobiography. "The color of Robinson's skin was the farthest thing from my mind while I was trying to beat out a low throw to first base." Reportedly, the so called "problems" with Robinson kept him out of the Hall of Fame for years. It should be noted that Giants outfielder Monte Irvin, another of baseball's first black stars, was a friend of Mr. Slaughter and was a member of the committee that elected Slaughter to the Hall of Fame. He served 3 years in the Pacific theater during World War 2, helping to organize baseball teams and leagues on Tinian and Saipan. The games drew huge crowds of 20,000 or more and was instrumental in helping build moral among the troops. Traded to the Yankees in 1954, he became a part-time player and devastating pinch hitter. He also spent some time with the Kansas City A's and the Milwaukee Braves as well. All told, he was a 10-time all-star, playing on five pennant winners and four World Championship teams. He coached the Duke University Blue Devils Baseball Team from 1971 to 1977. He was also active in support of the Person County Museum of History, the Piedmont Community College and the Duke Children's Classic. In 19 Major League seasons, Enos Slaughter accrued a lifetime batting average of .300, with 2,383 hits, 169 homers, and 1,304 RBIs in 2,380 big league games. He also stole 71 bases and scored 1,018 runs. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.