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THE BASEBALL HISTORY COMES ALIVE BLOG
Please note: As we compose new blog entries, we will now send each one out to all our subscribers as we post them. Here’s a link to see the entire Blog Archives -GL
New Blog Topic: THE .400 HITTER – GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
March 30, 2021
It’s one of baseball’s magical, yet elusive numbers. So elusive that it hasn’t been achieved in 80 years, not since the great Ted Williams finished the 1941 season with a .406 batting average. Yep, that’s the number, .400, and it’s considered one of baseball’s supreme achievements. Yet in the long history of the game, since the National League was formed in 1876, that number has only appeared in season-ending statistics 28 times and reached by just 20 ballplayers. I’ll say it again. In the long history of the game.
A further breakdown of those numbers indicates just how difficult it is to reach that number over a full baseball season. In the pre-modern era, from 1876 to 1899, an era of changing rules and a lack of stability in franchises, 12 different players hit .400 or better 15 times, topped by Hugh Duffy’s .440 average for the Boston Beaneaters in 1894. Duffy, who was a .326 lifetime hitter, had a miraculous season in which he played in 125 games yet had 237 hits in 539 at-bats, including 51 doubles, 18 home runs, and 145 RBIs. A good number of his homers were of the inside-the-park variety. Still, truly amazing and by far his best season.
There were some other great players, Hall of Famers, from that early group. Ed Delahanty reached the magic mark three times, in 1894, 1895, and 1899, while the great Wee Willie Keeler hit .424 in 1897. Jesse Burkett also recorded two seasons of plus .400 averages. All three are in the Hall of Fame.
Once the so-called modern era began with the formation of the American League in 1901, the .400 mark has been reached just 13 times by only eight different players. Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie began it all with a .426 mark for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1901. It was no fluke. The Hall of Famer won five batting titles during his career. Ten years later Ty Cobb joined the club with a .420 average, and that same year Shoeless Joe Jackson batted .408. A year later, Cobb was right back with a .409 mark. But perhaps surprisingly, those were the only .400 marks during the Dead Ball Era which, in a way, was more conducive to high batting averages with mostly huge outfield dimensions and not very many home runs.
But it was in the early 1920s when the .400 hitter really thrived. Rogers Hornsby three times, George Sisler twice, Cobb again and Harry Heilmann all topped the .400 mark between 1920 and 1925. Hornsby was especially lethal, also winning the Triple Crown twice and averaging .400 over five consecutive seasons with a high of .424 in 1924. Far from a punch-and-judy hitter, he had 42 and 39 homers in his Triple Crown years and drove home 152 and 143 runs in those respective seasons. He proved that a .400 hitter could also be a slugger and run producer.
But after that, the run of .400 hitters all but stopped. In 1930, the Giants’ Bill Terry batted .401 in a year that everyone in the National League hit amid stories the ball had changed. And then came the great Ted Williams, the last player to reach the coveted mark with his .406 season of 1941. Everyone pretty much knows the story of how Ted was hitting .3995 going into the final doubleheader of the season. It would have been recorded as .400 if he chose to sit, but the Splendid Splinter opted to play and got six hits in eight trips in the double bill to finish at .406. A complete hitter if there ever was one, Ted also had 37 homers and 120 RBIs that season. Pitchers feared him so much that they walked him 147 times. And in 606 plate appearances, he struck out just 47 times, another key to reaching the .400 mark. And, oh yes, in 1957 at the age of 38, Ted Williams won his fifth batting title with a .388 average. He was just five hits shy of yet another .400 season.
But no one has done it since. There have certainly been other great hitters. Why not .400 then. And will it ever be done again?
My guess is that it’s not likely. Let’s look at the last three players who have come close. In 1977, Rod Carew of the Twins hit a sizzling .388. It was no fluke. Carew was a great, all-around hitter who went to all fields and was also the best bunter in the game then. He won seven batting titles and in 1977 had 239 hits as well as 14 homers and 100 runs batted in. And he only struck out 55 times in 694 plate appearances. Just eight more hits and he would have joined the .400 club.
Then in 1980 the Royals George Brett, always a fine hitter, had a huge season in which he batted .390. The problem was that Brett was limited to 117 games by injury. Still, the three-time American League batting champ had 175 hits, 24 home runs, and 118 RBIs. That’s an RBI a game. With just five more hits he would have had claim to being a .400 hitter. And that year Brett struck out just 22 times in 515 plate appearances. Had he not been hurt would he have hit .400? Good question and one without an answer. But he sure had the chance.
And finally, there’s Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres, one of the finest pure hitters ever with a .338 lifetime average and eight batting titles to his credit. In 1994 Gwynn was hitting a robust .394 after 110 games when the baseball season came to a sudden halt due to the players’ strike. He already had 165 hits in 419 at-bats, 12 homers, and 64 RBIs and, amazingly, had fanned just 19 times. With only three more hits he would have been credited with a .400 season. And had there been no strike there’s a good chance he could have done it. His batting style was almost slump-proof and he hit all kinds of pitchers. During his career he also had batting averages of .372, .370, .368, .358, .353 and .351. Sounds like a guy who played in Cobb’s era.
As for today, I just don’t think it will be done. There are very few pure hitters left. D.J. LeMahieu is one I can think of, but most are free swingers going for home runs and with high strikeout totals. Even Mike Trout, considered the best player in the game over the last 10 years, never hit higher than .326 and once fanned 184 times in a season. No one player will ever come close to .400 again while taking all those slow walks to the dugout.
Yes, the .400 hitter is gone, but definitely will not be forgotten. It’s still a magic number.
Bill Gutman
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