His accomplishments are impressive, so its difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding in the same way. But with a full season at his disposal this time, Gwynn tailed off down the stretch, batting .328 over the final two months of the season.Last day at .400: July 14How short was he? 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)? Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with . According to Baseball-Reference, Bill Bergen has the worst career batting average in terms of points. A career.344 batting average ranks second to Ty Cobb, and he won six American League titles in the league. September 28, 1960 Hits 2,654 Career | Total Bases 6X (25th All-Time) | RBIs 4X (15th All-Time) the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. Again, yes. Do you have a blog? "By luck of the draw, we went to Korea at the same time," said future astronaut, John Glenn. Why? Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Nomar Garciaparra, 2000: .372Four players posted a .372 average in their chase of Williams from 1997-2004, one of the best offensive eras in baseball history. Colorado Rockies four-time All-Star Larry Walker (a five-timer in the Midsummer Classic overall) is the most recent hitter of the top four, as he posted a stellar .379 batting average back in 1999. On the morning of Sept. 28 - the last day of the 1941 baseball season - statistics showed Ted Williams, of the Boston Red Sox, leading the major leagues with a batting average of .400. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. As the story goes, Ted Williams entered the final day of the 1941 season with a .400 batting average and a chance to sit out Boston's scheduled doubleheader against the A's, a move that would clinch the first .400 season in 11 years. Ted didnt drink, so from time to time Id run into a bar room to get a drink, and hed wait outside until I got finished, drinking a soft drink. Hornsby's .424 batting average in . The Splendid Splinter led the league in walks eight times. by Handedness. Accurate description. Baseball has seen some great players over the years, as they have come and gone. In 1941, he had the highest batting average of his career when he hit for .406. 1. But not others. 6' 3" / 205. With the season complete, Williams led the Majors in batting average, on-base percentage (.553), slugging (.735), OPS (1.287), runs (135), home runs (37) and walks (147). The 18-time All-Star won the American League triple crown in 1942 and 1947. 'Ted Williams was the best pure hitter I ever saw,' Mays said. As mentioned above, Carew hit for .388 in 1977 and actually led the league in hitting on six different occasions. Musical hit .376 in 1948 but his success hitting went beyond that. Williams, a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger, hit.344 with 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, and 1,839 runs scored in his career. Ironically, along with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak that has stood the test of time since 1941, Boston Red Sox icon Ted Williams' .406 average put up that very same year is unsurpassed. He played his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox and is often referred to as the greatest hitter who ever lived. 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? In 1941, he also had the most hits in a single season with 230 and the most home runs with 37. 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? Williams, the only Major League Baseball player to hit over.400 in 1941, had an incredible year that year, batting.406. Three landmarks of baseball achievement are Ty Cobb's batting average of 0.420 in 1911. We're at 82 years and counting Strikeouts thrown by a pitcher in a . Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and . From June to August 1945, Williams went through the Corsair Operational Training Unit at Jacksonville. Ted Williams hits .406 in 1941 . In the last three-quarters of a century, no player has had the same kind of consistency needed reach just the .400 plateau, let alone tie Williams' .406.To put it in contemporary terms, think of it this way: If Daniel Murphy, the Majors' current batting average leader at .348, were to finish with 584 at-bats this season (his average over the last three years), he would have to hit roughly .472 (117-for-248) the rest of the way to join Williams in the .400 club. 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. Its unfortunate, but batting averages continue to decline in baseball with much emphasis put on home runs. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. These batting averapes cannot be compared directly because the distribution of major league batting averages has changed over the years. Following the 1942 season, which produced his first Triple Crown (.356, 36 HR, 137 RBIs), he joined the V-5 program with a view to becoming a Naval Aviator. In the two years that followed, he had batting averages of .388 and .328, respectively. (Age 42-029d) Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. In the season of 1941 he hit at the average of .406 and won the Triple Crown. The next four months were spent in the Preflight School at Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he turned out in the spring for the Chapel Hill Cloudbusters baseball team, featuring Pesky, Harry Craft, Buddy Hassett and Johnny Sain. All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. Beerball: A History of St. Louis Baseball. The Panama native racked up nearly three times as many career hits as strikeouts (3,053 vs. 1,028) and his 1,018 walks nearly equal the strikeout total. This was his fourth appearance, and the first against Boston. "My conscience is clear. .. an .800 batting average is good. Ted Williams one of the greatest hitters that ever lived. "Since the arrival of Cadet Williams, Pesky and the other ex-major leaguers," head coach, Lieutenant George D Kepler, told the Burlington Daily Times-News on July 14, 1943, "most of our games have been won by one-sided scores. He was neverbetter than in 1977 though, when he earned his lone AL MVP award. "Giant centerfield Willie Mays compared (Ted) Williams and (Stan) Musial to sportswriter Roger Kahn. Throughout his entire career, Williams batting average never dropped below .300. Ted Williams once said it was his goal in life to "walk down . Required fields are marked *. Ted Williams, Boston (1941) As already mentioned, Williams' .406 batting average is the highest off all-time while no other player has crossed the .400 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. They were all kids he never had seen before, and he hated this, Cronin said, according to Leigh Montvilles book Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero. Ted would rather face the best than someone he had never seen before. In the fourth, with the Sox now down 4-0, Williams smoked a double that slammed into the right-field wall, leaving a hole in a speaker mounted there. BOSTON Seventy years ago today, Ted Williams was hitting under .400. On July 12, 1943, a team of Armed Forces all-stars managed by Babe Ruth and featuring Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams played the Boston Braves in a fund-raising effort. 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. Credit: AP. At the park, Ted took early batting practice. . MVP Season 142 Runs, 38 HRs, 123 RBIs, 156 BBs, 343 TBs, .342 BA (1946) Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors Brett finished his career with more than 3,000 hits, 650 doubles, 130 triples, 300 home runs, and 200 stolen bases, to go alone with an elite .305/.369/.487/.857 slash line. Between the two, the Yankee Clipper's record-setting 56-game hitting streak and the Splendid Splinter's .406 season batting average have stood the test of time . As the story goes, Ted Williams entered the final day of the 1941 season with a .400 batting average and a chance to sit out Bostons scheduled doubleheader against the As, a move that would clinch the first .400 season in 11 years. It came up the runway about 1,500 feet before he was able to jump out and run off the wingtip. Allan Simpson. (Fun fact: A year earlier, John Olerud was still hitting .400 as of August 2, but he slumped down the stretch and finished with a .363 mark in 1993.). He struck out a batter every 5.56 at bats, a seven at bat differential between Ted and the rest of his opponents. 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. On September 28, 1960, exactly 19 years after he went 6-for-8 to hit .406, Ted Williams played his last Major League game for the only MLB team he had ever played for. Do you have a sports website? 20 - Ted Williams opened a Hitters Hall of Fame in Hernando, Florida in 1994, selecting the top twenty all-time hitters using his own "secret formula" which he stated was a combination of on base percentage and slugging average. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. He also had an incredible 2,654 hits, which ranks him 11th on the all-time list. Among the hundreds and thousands of ballplayers to have the opportunity over the past 75 years, not a single one has hit .400. He was 42 by the time the last game rolled around, but he was hitting well over .300 for the season and had 28 home runs. Given the fact that we are just weeks away from the close of the season, we can makea safe assumption that Williams ongoing streak will remain intact. Christy Mathewson, 6. Instead, the Splendid Splinter played both games, went . "He slid it in on the belly. Another single: an RBI and a batting average of .405. Babe Ruth, 2. Williams' response was not captured for posterity. Pearson was the usual talk of the camp, and photographers delighted in posing him with his much taller teammates. Ted Williams once commented about those that fail 'only' seven times out of ten attempts will be the greatest in the game. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for BATTING POSE PSA 4 VG-EX TED WILLIAMS 2013 TOPPS TRIPLE THREADS #1 GRADED *TPHLC at the best online prices at eBay! The camp was capped off by being presented with the Coaches Award for spirit and . Williams hit .356 in 1955 and .345 in 1956. One of our favorite websites, Baseball in Wartime, has put together the best biographies on every player who served. Babe Ruth (95.1% in 1936) AND Honus Wagner (95.1% in 1936), and 1. MVP in 1946 and 1949. He later said it was the hardest he had hit a ball to that point in his career. His career was marked by numerous records and accomplishments, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters of all time. It was during this discussion that I asked him, How do you want to handle it? Cronin said. To put it in perspective, Cobb hit .366 and it is the best of all-time. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960; his career . Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The charismatic outfielder by the way, had a 14-start hitting streak (he went 0-for-1 in a substitution appearance on August 4) at the time of the strike, so he was certainly showing signs of pushing the legendary figure. 2. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. iUniverse Publishing. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. Ted Williams Armed Forces Identification Card | Library of Congress Collection. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with the Boston Red Sox. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. . Helton's average remained at .390 all the way through Sept. 3, but a .284 average over Helton's final 26 games dropped him off the historic pace.Last day at .400: June 10How short was he? Five hits shy of .400.T3. Note: Ted Williams served in the Armed Forces (WWII & Korea) for almost 5 full seasons during his career, which makes his career stats all the more remarkable. However, the press and the fans were not happy and he enlisted in the Navy on May 22, 1942. Ted Williams is widely recognized as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. On September 28, 1941, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at-bats, raising his average to. For the casual baseball fan, you may unfortunately remember George Brett best fromwhen he went bonkers during the pine tar game. Aside from that, the career-long Kansas City Royal was one of the best hitters in baseball through the 1970s and 80s, taking the proverbial baton from Carew. The southpaw had pitched two innings against the Red Sox in 1940 but had spent most of 41 in the Minors. Walks 8X (4th All-Time) | Runs Created 9X (6th All-Time) He won three National League batting titles, hit .350 or higher four times (in five seasons,mind you), and won the 1997 NL MVP. Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. Here then, are the four batters since No. Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The Kid,Teddy Ballgame,Splendid Splinter,Thumper are nicknames for Ted Williams. Williams struck out one batter, Rudy York, on three pitches. despite complaining that the shift cost him 20 to 30 points on his lifetime batting average of . The Ted Williams World Series stats seen below include his World Series year-by-year hitting stats, World Series fielding stats, and World Series pitching stats (where applicable). What was Ted Williams' average? This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Did you know that after we heard the audio recording of that historic moment, we immediately created an entire page of research here on Baseball Almanac dedicated to those players who hit a home run in their last at bat? Ty Cobb, 4. 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. In 1958, the year Kubek played with him in the All-Star game, he won his sixth American League batting championship. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Find out more. When the pair returned to the team hotel, Cronin and a coach were sitting in the lobby. 2023 NBA Playoff Pools, Picks, Predictions, Odds, Super Bowl 58 Pools, Picks, Predictions, Odds, 2023 March Madness Pools, Picks, Predictions and Odds, 2023 College Basketball Conference Tournament Central, 2023 NHL Playoffs Pools, Picks, Predictions, Odds, 2023 Oscars Contenders Index & Information, 2023 Oscars Category Predictions & Forecasts, What is The Bullpen in Baseball & Why its Called That, Baseball Betting Strategies: Key Tips For Advanced Bettors. He then returned to Pensacola where he served as an instructor with the United States Marine Corps Reserve at Bronson Field. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. 8,629th in major league history) Number twenty was Ralph Kiner, number one was Babe Ruth, the full list of his Top 20 Hitters is in our Legendary Lists section. Highest Batting Average in a Season. 20 straight years he had an OBP of .350 or higher. He had a career batting average of .344, which is the sixth highest in Major League Baseball history. For part of the year, Williams' quest was overshadowed by New York Yankee star Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak. Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the culmination of Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak, as the Yankees star went 0-for-3 against Cleveland pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby on July 17, 1941.But while Joltin' Joe's record run captured the imagination of the American public, his friendly rival, Ted Williams, may have set an even more untouchable mark when he finished that 1941 season with a .406 average.Consider this: While DiMaggio batted .409 during his streak, Williams actually bested him with a .412 average during that same span. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Rookie Status: 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 was an eight-time National League batting champion, and he won five Gold Glove Awards for his outstanding defense. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. His season . 1941 was an iconic year in baseball history, highlighted by the great individual accomplishments of Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees and Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox. 5 - Ted Williams signed a five-year contract to manage the Washington Senators on February 21, 1969. Ted Williams was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1966. And 10 miles (at least according to Williams autobiography, My Turn At Bat). 1941 was a streaky year for the American League, literally. He flied out to left to finish 2-for-3, his average settling at .406 or .405701, rounded up. 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. Ted Williams impressive career totals are a testament to his skill as a hitter and his legacy as one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. The Red Sox trailed, 11-10, and Mack brought in his third pitcher of the day, Tex Shirley, a 23-year-old right-hander making his fifth appearance. by Retrosheet. Copyright 1999- But what made Williams so remarkable was his lifetime batting average, a staggering .344. Larry Walker, 1999: .379Two seasons after claiming the NL MVP Award, Walker followed up with his best season at the plate by average. 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. Not saying LH Joe DiMaggio would do better, no way to tell. Lou Gehrig, 3. 394 batting average in 1994 is the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 . 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. Teddy Ballgame led the team to a winning season (86-76) that year, but then had four losing seasons, finishing out his contract with 273 wins, 364 losses, and a .429 winning percentage. copyright=new Date(); Did you know that Ted Williams was actually hitting .401 the day before [box], Red Sox manager Joe Cronin offered him to sit out of the game, Williams refused, went 1-for-4, and had his batting average (before the double header) drop to .3995? As mentioned above, Gwynn won the batting title in 1997 but Walker still led the majors in OPS and won the MVP. He had a .344 batting average, 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, 1,839 RBIs and 1,798 runs scored. Yankees outfielder Paul ONeill actually finished 1994 with a .359 batting average and was hitting .400 later into the season too. Ted Williams was born on Friday, August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California. His career on-base percentage of .482 is still the highest of all time, and his slugging percentage of .634 is the fourth highest of all time. Ted Williams lost 6 years to military service in the prime of his career. Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. MVP Season 150 Runs, 43 HRs, 159 RBIs, 162 BBs, 368 TBs, .343 BA (1949), Official Site for "The Splendid Splinter", MLB Hall Of Famer Ted Williams #9. 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. 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. During his 24-year career, he compiled a .366 batting average, which is the highest in Major League Baseball history. 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. He was a master of the art of hitting, combining great hand-eye coordination and power with a keen knowledge of the strike zone. Williams was also a power hitter, slugging . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Did you know that Christian Yelich was the first Milwaukee Brewers player to win a batting title? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Well, it was the year Ted Williams set the record for the highest batting average ever in a MLB season. Did you know that when Willie McGee won his 1990 batting title, he started the season in the National League, was traded to an American League team on August 29th, and became the first player in baseball history to win a batting a title in a league that they were not currently playing in? His .338 career batting average is the highest batting average since Ted Williams, and it is a testament to his skill and dedication as a hitter. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Babe Ruth? Only Robinson Cano and Trea Turner represent the other two of five active players with a career batting average above .300. The two faced off again in the seventh. So Ted and I were scheduled together. I want to play it all the way. As far as I was concerned, that was it.. View Ted Williams's Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos). Three innings later, Williams started the fifth with his 37th home run; he was now batting .402. Frank Robinson . 22 - Ted Williams was an inaugural inductee into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, one of twenty-two enshrined in 1995. During his Major League career, he hit.482, which ranks third all-time, and his career slugging percentage of.634 ranks second. Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, going 6-for-8 on the season's last day to raise his average from .3995. He also hit for .388 in 1957, which Rod Carew tied in 1977. (Williams was erased on a double play, but the Red Sox rallied with two outs. Ted Williams at bat. 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. I am going to play ball this season, he announced. Posting at least a .400 batting average across a full Major League Baseball season remains one of the most difficult tasks in the game. A good batting average is anything around the .300 range or even high-200s. He also had a career slugging percentage of .634, which is the third-highest of all time. Let's break down the highest batting averages in a MLB season of all-time. From September to December 1943, Cadet Williams took primary training at NAS Bunker Hill, Indiana. He hit 3,000 hits in his 2,135th game at the age of 34 years and 243 days, making him the youngest player in history to achieve the mark. But perhaps there is no better bridge to the legendary past of Ted Williams than the Red Sox hitter who won back-to-back AL batting titles in 1999 and 2000 . Regardless of your Barry Bonds opinion, the man hit for .370 in 2002 and also won the batting title in 2004 batting .362. Williams had one more at-bat coming, in the ninth. July 5, 2002 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. . In mid-August 1941, Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees center fielder who famously set a major league record by getting a hit in 56 straight games in a streak that ended on July 17 that season, was asked about overtaking Williams for that year's batting crown. Its mind-boggling that Walker finished only 10th in the 1999 NL MVP vote, as he was an All-Star, Gold Glove winner, and Silver Slugger, all while leading the league in batting average (.379), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.710), and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.168). .406 Batting Average (1941) | .388 Batting Average (1957) Ted Williams was batting at .39955 going into the final day, a double-header, of the 1941 season. On September 28, 1941, the last day of Major League Baseballs regular season, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at- He becomes the first player in nearly 80 years to hit. George Brett, 1980: .390The greatest hitter in Royals history actually began the 1980 campaign 1-for-7, and did not see his average rise above .300 until his last game of May.