Book excerpt: Napoleon Lajoie was the sixth player, and the first second baseman, to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his career, which lasted from 1896 to 1916, he was regularly called the "King of Ballplayers" and was widely regarded as the greatest baseball player of all time before Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth came along. Colorful, competitive, and often unpredictable, Lajoie was so popular that the Cleveland team was called the Naps in his honor while he played for them. He was a multiple batting champion, the American League's first Triple Crown winner, and the third member of the 3,000 hits club. This book is the first ever full-length biography of this long ago superstar.