Former outfielder Mike Marshall: players who left the game on their own terms: one-time Dodgers slugger led Los Angeles with 82 RBI during a 1988 World Series-winning season.(Curtain Calls)

MIKE MARSHALL IS ONE OF A select few who won a Triple Crown in their baseball career.

The former Dodgers outfielder accomplished the feat in 1981, when he hit .373 with 34 homers and 137 RBIs for Albuquerque (Triple-A) of the Pacific Coast League.

"I remember with 10 or 12 games left, Del Crandall (Albuquerque manager) took me into his office. He said, 'I want to give you a day off so you can really take a run at this thing (the Triple Crown).' And I said, 'It's not that important to me.' And he looked at me and said, 'It should be,'" recalled Marshall.

The young Illinois native couldn't have dreamed of such an achievement when he was growing up. After all, in high school he didn't focus any more on baseball than he did on basketball, football, or golf.

It wasn't until his sophomore year that he began noticing scouts at his baseball games. His play eventually convinced the Dodgers to select him in the sixth round of the 1978 amateur draft.

In his first major league at-bat in September 1981, the towering outfielder socked a line drive over the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium that ricocheted off a stairwell back onto the field.

"Jack Clark (Giants right fielder) picked up the ball and threw it back to the infield and the umpires called it a double," he remembered. "The glare from those bleachers makes it tough to see, but Clark told me later it was a home run."