Thomas Francis Holmes was an American right and center fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played nearly his entire career for the Boston Braves. He hit over .300 lifetime and every year from 1944 through 1948, peaking with a .352 mark in 1945 when he finished second in the National League batting race and was runner-up for the NL's Most Valuable Player Award. Holmes was born in Brooklyn, New York. "Kelly," one of the most popular Boston Braves especially in the twilight of his career, finished second in MVP voting in the National League in 1945 after leading the NL in hits, home runs and doubles. That season, he set a modern NL record by hitting safely in 37 consecutive games from June 6 through July 8, a mark surpassed 33 years later in 1978 by Pete Rose, with a 44-game streak that tied Keeler's and came the closest to Joe DiMaggio's MLB record 56 in 1941. Holmes struck out just 9 times in 1945, and his ratio of home runs to strikeouts that season is one of the best in baseball history. 

March 29th, 1917 in Brooklyn  /  Died:   Apr 14th, 2008 - at the age of 91,natural causes