of 26 due to years of serious drug and alcohol abuse. He was an all star several times and won the 2010 American League MVP award. A few pitchers who are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame are examples: Dazzy Vance did not win his first major league game until he was 31, but then became the most dominant pitcher in the National League for the next decade. Hoyt Wilhelm was already 29 when he first played in the majors, but by the time he retired, at 49, he had set a record for most games pitched with 1,070 and had gained recognition as one of the greatest relief pitchers ever. Among contemporary players, Edwin Encarnacion has been described as a late bloomer because he had a completely unremarkable career until the age of 29, after which he turned into a prodigious slugger. Pitcher Randy Johnson, who made his Major League debut at 25, but did not reach superstar status until he was 30, might also be considered a late bloomer. In boxing, heavyweight champions Ken Norton and Rocky Marciano did not take up boxing until their twenties, but both enjoyed successful careers at the highest level of competition. In chess, Rani Hamid started playing at the age of 34, and later became Bangladesh’s first Woman International Master in 1985, among other accomplishments. In cricket, Dirk Nannes who once was played for Delhi Daredevils ahead of the great fast bowler Glenn McGrath made his first class debut at 29. In field hockey, the great player Dhyan Chand did not play any hockey in his life until he joined the Indian Army. In football, Kurt Warner, who entered the NFL at age 28, went on to become a two-time MVP and Super Bowl champion. In ice hockey, Tim Thomas, an American professional ice hockey goaltender played for several years in the minor leagues and Europe, before making it to the NHL at age 28, with the Boston Bruins. He finally emerged as the Bruins' starting goaltender at age 32. Thomas is a two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy (2009 and 2011) as the league's best goaltender, and was a member of Team USA in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Thomas won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. He became the oldest player in league history to win the Conn Smythe