Texas Rangers: Mike Napoli Joins List of Unsung World Series Heroes

In a span of just four days in January, Mike Napoli, a 17th-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels back in 2005, was traded from the Angels to the Blue Jays, then to the Texas Rangers.

It was the kind of move that flew under the radar at the time, nothing major.

The real story was about the shock waves still being felt from December when the Boston Red Sox landed both Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford in the span of a week, and when the Philadelphia Phillies landed the biggest fish in the pitching market, Cliff Lee, who the year before helped get the Rangers to the World Series.

Part of the reason Lee left Texas for Philadelphia was that he felt that the Phillies offered him the best chance at the World Series title. Most baseball fans and writers didn't disagree with him.

Fast-forward nine months later to October. The Red Sox missed the playoffs, and the Phillies were dropped in the opening round by the St. Louis Cardinals. Meanwhile, the Rangers are one win away from claiming their first-ever World Series ring, thanks in large part to that little thought-of trade back in January.

After hitting the go-ahead runs in Game 5 and a critical three-run blast in the Game 4 win, and Napoli has already joined the likes of Mark Lemke and Jim Leyritz as the newest member of  the class of unsung World Series heroes, helping his Rangers seize a 3-2 series lead over St. Louis.

Lemke, a second baseman for the Atlanta Braves, was a career .246 hitter, hitting 15 triples in an 11-year career. In the 1991 World Series against the Minnesota Twins, Lemke became an unsung hero in nearly leading the Braves to a victory.

In that series, Lemke hit .417 with three triples in a seven-game gut-wrenching series forever leaving his mark in World Series lore.

Leyritz, who had a history of playoff heroics with the New York Yankees, cemented his World Series legacy with just one swing of the bat. In Game 4 of the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, the Yankees fought back from being down 6-0 to cut into the lead at 6-3 going into the eighth inning.

With two on and one out and one mighty swing of the bat, Leyritz tied the game and completely changed the momentum of the series. Three games later, the Yankees were celebrating their first World Series win since 1978.

Through five games, Napoli, a career .264 hitter who has averaged 54 runs batted in, has done for the Rangers what little baseball writers expected him to do: became their unsung hero.

Five games, Napoli is batting over .300 with a pair of home runs and nine RBI, including seven in his last three games.

Thanks in large part to Napoli's clutch hitting, the Rangers are now one game away from claiming their first World Series title, and the chants of "Nap-Oh-Lee" may soon turn to "M-V-P".