Sunny Days
s St. Louisans enjoy one last trot around the instructional slideshow, Bot-tomley is the runner, so we don’t get to see the grin that earned him the nickname “Sunny Jim, ” or the effervescent charm that led his obit in 1959 to canonize him as a “Ladies’ Day favorite.” And if what is visible seems a bit, well, bottomly, let’s remember that sporting trousers were baggier in the ’20s, and it does take a solid foundation to spend a decade driving in 100-plus runs per season, set the single-game RBI record (12), and earn a pair of World Series rings en route to Hall of Fame enshrinement. Weird fact: Bottomley’s rings are dated 1926 and 1931, exactly 80 years before Pujols’ (2006,2011). And like Pujols, after leaving to play for another team, Bottomley eventually returned to St. Louis. He played with the Browns for a bit before retiring and raising cattle near Bourbon, Missouri.
