By Bartee Haile

In a double-header with the Kansas City Athletics on Sept. 17, 1958, Boston’s Pete Runnels hit safely in four of eight at-bats to raise his batting average to .322, four points better than Red Sox teammate Ted Williams.

James Edward Runnells was the name the doctor wrote on his birth certificate in 1928, but he was “Little Pete” to his father’s “Big Pete.”

Growing up in Lufkin in the heart of the East Texas pines, the natural athlete played quarte...