As he crosses home plate, he spits in the direction of the sportswriters. No other player has crossed the .400 line in a season since then, and probably never will. But after a red-hot summer, Brett woke up on the morning of Sept. 20 with an even .400 average -- the latest date that anyone on this list was at or above the magical mark. 93.4 - Ted Williams was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, his first year of eligibility, receiving votes from 93.4% of the writers. On September 28, 1960, at Boston's Fenway Park, Red Sox star Ted Williams hits a home run in the last at-bat of his 21-year career. He saw 17 seasons in which he hit for over .300 which ranks third-most in the modern era only behind Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 2. 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Back with the Red Sox in 1946, Williams hit the first spring training pitch he saw for a home run on February 26 and then led the team to the World Series. .406 Batting Average (1941) | .388 Batting Average (1957) Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". "Once, he was on fire and had to belly land the plane back in," Glenn said. Ted's last at-bat. Lou Gehrig, 5. Ted Williams Rookie Card | 1939 Play Ball Baseball Card (#92 | Checklist)Baseball Almanac Research Library. A left-handed batter, Williams got his start in professional baseball while still a high school senior, playing for the Pacific Coast League's San Diego Padres. He also hit for .388 in 1957, which Rod Carew tied in 1977. He'd gone 2-for-5 with a run scored in a rout of the Chicago White Sox, but all that did was improve his batting average . In 1957, the season in which he turned 39, that .388 average won the batting championship by more than 20 points over Mickey Mantle's career-best .365. Williams hit for a lifetime average of .344, which ranks 6th all-time, and he also holds the record for the highest on-base percentage of all time at .482. This was his fourth appearance, and the first against Boston. He was the last player to hit .400 in Major . Williams was batting cleanup, his customary spot in the lineup during the second half of that season (after generally batting third before the All-Star Game). Former Team: Boston Red Sox. 1. Albert Pujols ranks 11th with a career batting average of .296 although he is retiring. Seven hits shy of .400.T3. Ted Williams approached batting in a methodical way, he worked out his optimal strike zone where the odds were in his favour and he maintained the discipline to only swing if the ball was in that zone. Its unfortunate that the shortened-campaign stole a chance at baseball history, but the San Diego Padres Hall-of-Famers .394 in 1994 still stands as the closest anybody has come to the Splendid Splinter after all these decades. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again. Though Williams' .406 average was just a footnote in wire-service accounts in 1941, it's status grows more mythical with each passing year. Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. Here in 2016, Washington Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy enters play on Thursday with a .394 mark to lead the league, with no other guy within 40 points of the locked-in hitter. He was in Hawaii awaiting orders as a replacement pilot and playing ball with a Marine flight-wing team when the war ended. On September 28, 1941, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at-bats, raising his average to. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with . Its hard to say which one is more undeniable: Bill Bergen or Ty Cobb. Williams being sworn into the U.S. Navy Reserve on May 22, 1942. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Rather than sitting out one or both of the final two games of the season to protect his .400 average, the precocious slugger put it on the line and went 6-for-8 to secure his place in history. Its no surprise then, that Brett was able to get so close to reaching .400 back in 1980, when he finished with a .390 mark. Despite his.170 batting average, Bill Bergen is regarded as one of the all-time great players. Ted Williams Armed Forces Identification Card | Library of Congress Collection. He played his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox and is often referred to as the greatest hitter who ever lived. Ted Williams was born on Friday, August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California. "I'm tickled to death and I'm hoping I'll get into the air quick to start some slugging against the Axis," he told reporters. Gwynn, 1997: .372In his second chase of Williams, Gwynn flirted with the .400 mark until the middle of July, and remained above .390 until the middle of August, sparking hope that this could be the time he made history. He had a . He has the fourth-most free passes (2021) in MLB history, and his career on-base percentage . Ted Williams once commented about those that fail 'only' seven times out of ten attempts will be the greatest in the game. And 10 miles (at least according to Williams autobiography, My Turn At Bat). It does not store any personal data. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. . We'll start with Garciaparra, who carried a .400-plus average longer than anyone else (July 20) in the quartet and, fittingly, came the closest in this group to matching the Red Sox legend.Last day at .400: July 20How short was he? He was right about that and the list of batting champions below, reflects those great hitters who truly dominated during a single season of play. His accomplishments are impressive, so its difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding in the same way. Ted's batting average was .3996 rounded off by numbers-trackers to .400. 5 - Ted Williams signed a five-year contract to manage the Washington Senators on February 21, 1969. Statistics courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference, and Baseball-Almanac. Wins Above Replacement 6X (14th All-Time) | On Base Plus Slugging 10X (2nd All-Time) Frank Robinson . He then went to NAS Pensacola in Florida for intermediate training where he set records in aerial gunnery. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Williams joined them and they talked until midnight. For our next entry, we turn the calendar all the way back to 1977 toreview the magical year for Minnesota Twins All-Time great Rod Carew. update=copyright.getFullYear(); To put it in perspective, Cobb hit .366 and it is the best of all-time. In the second game Williams went 2-for-3 to finalize his average for the season at .406. Ted went 4-for-5 in the first game [box], bringing his batting average to .404, then went 2-for-3 in the second game [box], ending the season with a .406 batting average, making him the last player to bat over .400 in a season. He said, I want to play it out. The ride out was quiet, Wagner said. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. In 1936 the 18-year-old posted an impressive .271 batting average on 107 at bats in 42 games for the Padres. As well, he was the youngest player in the history of the game to achieve 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 hits. When Williams did take the bat off his shoulder, the results were staggering by any measure. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. And yet, despite all those league-leading numbers Williams finished second to DiMaggio for the AL MVP, likely because the Yankees won the pennant by 17 games over the Red Sox and DiMaggio stole the summer with his 56-game hitting streak. var pfHeaderImgUrl = '';var pfHeaderTagline = '';var pfdisableClickToDel = 0;var pfHideImages = 0;var pfImageDisplayStyle = 'right';var pfDisablePDF = 0;var pfDisableEmail = 0;var pfDisablePrint = 0;var pfCustomCSS = 'https://www.baseball-almanac.com/css/print.css';var pfBtVersion='2';(function(){var js,pf;pf=document.createElement('script');pf.type='text/javascript';pf.src='//cdn.printfriendly.com/printfriendly.js';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(pf)})(); Did you know that Ted Williams and Andre Dawson are the only two Major League ballplayers to have hit a home run off a father/son pitching duo? Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. However, the press and the fans were not happy and he enlisted in the Navy on May 22, 1942. Musical hit .376 in 1948 but his success hitting went beyond that. The Splendid Splinter led the league in walks eight times. Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today. The other thing Williams had to think about was the pitchers he would face three rookies who had all made their Major League debuts earlier that month. the fifth start of his career. Between games, the 41-year-old Grove was honored before taking the mound to start the nightcap. Bergen hit.170 in 3,028 at-bats during his career, his lowest average since his playing career began. Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Top 10 HIghest Batting Averages Since 1941. The future Hall of Famer didnt have much, though, giving up three runs in the first in what would be the last inning of his career. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with the Boston Red Sox. His lowest batting average in a year that he won a batting title was .336 or .337. Data Provided By So he got some hitting in, reporting to the ballpark on Friday for extra batting practice at the suggestion of manager Joe Cronin. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. In 1911 he led the AL in runs, hits, RBIs, batting average and slugging percentage and saw 400 hits in a season on three different occasions. 5.0. . Ted Williams one of the greatest hitters that ever lived. Did you know Ted Williams was there at the helm, due to their relocation from D.C. to Arlington, for the last Washington Senators game (September 30, 1971), AND the first Texas Rangers game (April 15, 1972)? Nine hits shy of .400.5. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. In the season of 1941 he hit at the average of .406 and won the Triple Crown. . That year, the mean and the standard deviation for batting averages were 0.28062 and 0.03281. . For WWII, 4 years - 1942-1945; for the Korean War, he effectively lost 1952 and 1953. . Short Answer. View Ted Williams's Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos). His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Ted Williams baseball stats page. Except for a stretch from July 11-24, when his batting average dipped as low as .393, he'd been hitting above .400 since May 25. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. The former Boston slugger is the only baseball player to ever hit for over .400. Larry Walker, 1999: .379Two seasons after claiming the NL MVP Award, Walker followed up with his best season at the plate by average. 1942-11-03 Boston Red Sox outfielder . Throughout his entire career, Williams batting average never dropped below .300. Walker would win the title the very next year however, but clearly 1997 was the best hitting year for seasonal batting average leaders Tony Gwynn and Larry Walker. The jacket has patches showing the wartime duty, Williams' record-setting year with the .406 batting average, and his career average. [Ted Williams Quotes], Ted 'The Splendid Splinter' Williams Autograph on a 1976 Topps Sporting News All-Time All-Stars Baseball Card (#347 | Checklist), Ted Williams Miscellaneous Items of Interest. Ted flew as my wingman on about half the missions he flew in Korea.". The now-70 year-old posted career-highs in pretty much every offensive category and led the league too, in runs scored (128), hits (239), triples (16), batting average (.388), on-base percentage (.449), and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.019). Accurate description. In 1957, at the age of 39 and while playing for a lackluster team, Williams became the oldest man to win a batting title, with a spectacular .388 average, and then won the title the next year (.328). Number twenty was Ralph Kiner, number one was Babe Ruth, the full list of his Top 20 Hitters is in our Legendary Lists section. by Handedness. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. document.write(update); Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. It is the reason we mentioned those three specific stats up above and to date, Ted Williams remains the only player in the American League to put together two Triple Crown seasons. . He retired in 1960 with 521 home runs, 1,839 RBIs, and a .344 batting average highlighted by a .406 performance in 1941, his third year in the majors. Todd Helton, 2000 .372One year after Walker ignited the Rocky Mountains with his .400 chase, teammate Helton gave it a try. Ted Williams Boston Red Sox MLB . Bill Bergen, who played from 1901 to 1911, holds the record for the lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats. 16 hits shy of .400.Ichiro Suzuki, 2004: .372Hard as it is to believe, Ichiro actually did not spend a single day of his 2004 season at or above .400. Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. In addition to his .406 batting averageno major league player since Williams has hit .400the left fielder led the big leagues with 37 homers, 135 runs and a slugging average of .735. A career.344 batting average ranks second to Ty Cobb, and he won six American League titles in the league. The Red Sox were coming off a three-game series in Washington where Williams went 2-for-10, dropping his average from .406 to .401. Hornsby's .424 batting average in . The Cardinals star missed out on the NL Triple Crown by just one home run, and he hit remarkably better on the road (.415) than at home (.334) that season. Ted Williams | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1966 (HOF). August 30, 1918 Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. He retired in 1960 and went on to become manager of the Washington Senators. The As started 22-year-old Fred Caligiuri, making wanna guess? Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 12:52AM. During his time in the Major Leagues, Ted Williams hit an impressive 521 home runs and had a career batting average of .344. 9 who have come closest to reaching the hallowed mark. copyright=new Date(); This article (among others) that . Tony Gwynn, 1994: .394Many who watched Mr. Padre during the 1994 season will still argue that he could have topped .400 if his season hadn't been cut short by the players' strike in mid-August. When they shifted on him, everybody to the right side, he still kept trying to pull the ball for hits. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. - Batting Champion (1939-1940) Joe DiMaggio in The 100 Greatest American Athletes (Martin Gitlin, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 10/15/2018, They Said It, Page 254), During the 1968 season, Carl Yastrzemski had the lowest batting average that was still high enough to lead the American League. MVP Season 142 Runs, 38 HRs, 123 RBIs, 156 BBs, 343 TBs, .342 BA (1946) Comparing batting averages Three landmarks of baseball achievement are Ty Cobb's batting average of 420 in 1911, Ted Williams's 406 in 1941, and George Brett's 390 in 1980. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. He flied out to left to finish 2-for-3, his average settling at .406 or .405701, rounded up. In 1977 Carew played in 85 total games and is the only player to have multiple league-leading batting average seasons with over 85 games played. But not others. BOSTON Seventy years ago today, Ted Williams was hitting under .400. Stan Musial 5. The two faced off again in the seventh. The Splendid Splinter posted the highest single-season batting average in the modern era by a player 38 years of age or older -- 10 points higher than 38-year old Ty Cobb's .378 in 1925. copyright=new Date(); Ted Williams, 1957: .388 A full 16 years later, Williams proved he had plenty of magic left in his bat in 1957. Ted Williams, 1957: .388 At the age of 38, Williams found out first-hand how hard it is to record a .400 average. Did you know that in both of those historic seasons, The Kid did not win the Most Valuable Player Award (losing to Joe Gordon in '42 and Joe DiMaggio in '47)? Do you know what National League player had the lowest average, but still won the batting title? At season's end, Williams was five hits shy of .400 and eight knocks shy of besting his trademark .406.Last day at .400: June 5How short was he? Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. It was during this discussion that I asked him, How do you want to handle it? Cronin said. 5.0. It is no surprise, then, that Williams lifetime batting average remains one of the most impressive accomplishments in the history of baseball.
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