Ted Williams is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, and there is no way to argue with that. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. He had a . The highest batting average ever recorded was by Ted Williams in 1941 when he hit .406. Seven hits shy of .400.T3. Hank Aaron, 4. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, going 6-for-8 on the season's last day to raise his average from .3995. 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. The next morning, Sept. 28, Williams and roommate Charlie Wagner, a 28-year-old pitcher, took a cab to the ballpark. 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. 2. Ted Williams, in full Theodore Samuel Williams, bynames the Splendid Splinter and Teddy Ballgame, (born August 30, 1918, San Diego, California, U.S.died July 5, 2002, Inverness, Florida), American professional baseball player who compiled a lifetime batting average of .344 as an outfielder with the American League Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960. One of the most impressive batting averages of all time belongs to Ted Williams. . But instead he chose to play, hitting 6 for 8 in the games, and finished the season at .406. Ted Williams hit .406 with the Boston Red Sox in 1941. . vs. BAL 3 AB, 1 H, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB. 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. Williams hit .356 in 1955 and .345 in 1956. The Splendid Splinter led the league in walks eight times. He could have sat out the games and achieved the .400 average for the year, through rounding. We walked for over three hours, and my feet were burning. . Born: Ty Cobb, 2. 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 major league minimum is $720,000. To put it in perspective, Cobb hit .366 and it is the best of all-time. Babe Ruth (95.1% in 1936) AND Honus Wagner (95.1% in 1936), and 1. Three innings later, Williams started the fifth with his 37th home run; he was now batting .402. He played baseball for the base team, the Bronson Bombers, which won the Training Command championship that year. . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Mel Ott), and sixth all-time in batting average (1. 1. On a given day, a player would hit three of every ten at bats if they hit 300 with a 300 average. 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. 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. Here is a look at our 10 best mlb hitters of all time of all time rankings list: 1. iUniverse Publishing. Ted Williams had 521 home runs over his career. He then went to NAS Pensacola in Florida for intermediate training where he set records in aerial gunnery. Williams joined them and they talked until midnight. . Ty Cobb, on the other hand, was one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and his accomplishments are incredible. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. To put it politely, the team didn't have talent like Ted Williams or Jackie Jensen blocking Pearson's path in the outfield. 1941 was a streaky year for the American League, literally. 8,629th in major league history) It does not store any personal data. Never much of a power hitter, Carew was still one of the most lethal offensive weapons in all of baseball through the late 1960s, all of the 70s, and into the early- and mid-80s. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. 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. inInverness,FL, High School: Herbert Hoover HS (San Diego, CA), Debut: Ted Williams averaged 300 hits while winning two Triple Crowns, the most of any Hall of Fame player. His incredible talent and dedication to the game earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966 and secured his legacy as one of the greatest hitters of all time. MVP Season 142 Runs, 38 HRs, 123 RBIs, 156 BBs, 343 TBs, .342 BA (1946) Last day at .400: July 11How short was he? Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 - July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. Here then, are the four batters since No. Again, yes. Rod Carew, 1977: .388Carew and Williams each batted .388 exactly two decades apart, but we'll start with Carew, who maintained a .400-plus average into July en route to his sixth career batting title. 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. Did you know that Tony Cuccinello (.30845) lost the batting championship in 1945, to Snuffy Stirnweiss (.30854), by .00009 - the closest finish in baseball history? . 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. Ted Williams had done it. us, Died: 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. 22 - Ted Williams was an inaugural inductee into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, one of twenty-two enshrined in 1995. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with the Boston Red Sox. "We were in the same squadron there. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Between games, the 41-year-old Grove was honored before taking the mound to start the nightcap. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. When the season is over, I'll get into the Navy as fast as I can.". Ted Williams. On September 28, 1941, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at-bats, raising his average to. ", Latest-in-season .400 bids since Ted Williams. Williams also had a batting average of .388 in 1942, .356 in 1947, .328 in 1948, .345 in 1949, and .317 in 1960. His career batting average of .344 is a testament to his greatness as a hitter. The night before the final game of the season I walked the streets of Philly with Ted, said Orlando, who was just a few years older than Williams. Ted's last at-bat. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. In his best year with . 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. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 2 - Ted Williams had two Triple Crown performances, first in 1942 (36 HRs / .356 AVG / 137 RBI), then a second time in 1947 (32 HRs / .343 AVG / 114 RBI). We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Ty Cobb is considered to be the greatest hitter of all-time, although that point is often argued to this day. In the second game Williams went 2-for-3 to finalize his average for the season at .406. 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. Its unfortunate, but batting averages continue to decline in baseball with much emphasis put on home runs. Nine hits shy of .400.5. By the time Ted Williams retired he had a .344 batting average, 521 home runs, and a 0.482 on-base percentage, the highest of all time. When they shifted on him, everybody to the right side, he still kept trying to pull the ball for hits. Thanks to the MLB strike of 1994, we never got the chance to see if the late Tony Gwynncould reach .400 that year. 'But Ted was stubborn. Beerball: A History of St. Louis Baseball. With more players looking to hit home runs, the more strikeouts occur which is good for pitching. 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. 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. Highest Batting Average in a Season. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. 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). In the first game at Philadelphias Shibe Park on Sept. 27, 1941, right-handed knuckleballer Roger Wolff, 30 years old and playing in just his second Major League game, held him to one hit in four at-bats, dropping his average further to .39955, rounded up to .400 in some observers eyes (and the official record books). If he sat out, he would have been credited with a .400 batting average for the season. Williams was the last hitter to hit at least .400 after finishing with a batting average of .406 in 1941. Find out more. As mentioned above, Gwynn won the batting title in 1997 but Walker still led the majors in OPS and won the MVP. 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. 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. 14 hits shy of .400.T6. 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 cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Is he the greatest player of all-time? Part of the Baseball Almanac Family, Current Through End of 2023 Regular Season. First, lets back it up to the start of the season-ending three-game series in Philadelphia. Since Ted Williams achieved a lifetime batting average of .344, the highest batting average since his time has been held by Tony Gwynn with a career batting average of .338. The flip side is that Bob Feller's opponents hit only .228 against him in his 18 year career, 121 points lower than Williams hit against him. During the whole conversation all he kept repeating, over and over, was how determined he was to hit .400.. Other factors in Gwynns favor that season:He was hitting at least .300 since the first game,and his average had been steadily climbing since mid-May. 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. 1940 1942, 1946 1951, 1953-1960 Boston Red Sox AL. "I never thought of it as going 2-for-5 every day, but that's what it adds up to. 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. He was neverbetter than in 1977 though, when he earned his lone AL MVP award. 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. He was in Hawaii awaiting orders as a replacement pilot and playing ball with a Marine flight-wing team when the war ended. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate to Ted Williams, easily (one of) "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived": 1 - Ted Williams has the highest on base percentage ever put together by any Major League ballplayer in history! document.write(update); . (Voted by BBWAA on 282/302 ballots) He was an eight-time National League batting champion, and he won five Gold Glove Awards for his outstanding defense. 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. April 20, 1939 Ted Williams served as a Naval Aviator during World War II and the Korean War. [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. 2. Hornsby's .424 batting average in . Ironically, along with Joe DiMaggios 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. View Ted Williams's Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos). Did you know that Christian Yelich was the first Milwaukee Brewers player to win a batting title? Young Ted Williams, who had turned 23 less than a month earlier, woke up that morning hitting .39955 on the year, just .00045 below the hallowed .400 mark. In 1952, at the age of 34, Williams was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. Williams did enjoy his .406 season, right down to the final hit on Sept. 28, 1941 a rocket that crashed into a bulky loudspeaker atop a fence in right-center field. 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? Rookie Status: There is one major qualification to Walker's 1999 season, which is that his average in the thin home air at Coors Field (.461) was a full 175 points higher than his clip on the road (.286). Ted Williams career batting statistics for Major League, Minor League, and postseason baseball . But getting to know him a little later, the quote would be full . Instead, the Splendid Splinter played both games, went 6-for-8, and finished with a .406 average, the last time a player in the American or National Leagues finished a season with a batting average that high. 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? He batted .316 as a 42-year-old in 1960 and his lifetime average of .344 is only topped by Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Tris Speak. Significant homerunsIn the second game of a doubleheader against Kansas City.Williams knocks the ball six rows deep in the right-field grandstand and gives the Red Sox a 1-0 victory. Ted Williams, 1957: .388 At the age of 38, Williams found out first-hand how hard it is to record a .400 average. I had to maintain my focus throughout. 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. From 1939 to 1960, he spent his Major League Baseball career for 19 years mainly as a left fielder for the Boston Red Sox. * Ted Williams himself lists Joe D in his book as the 5th greatest hitter ever, and he would be 6th with Williams included on his own list. Has there ever been a player that was a "Top Prospect" longer than Royce Lewis? In the season of 1941 he hit at the average of .406 and won the Triple Crown. Ted flew as my wingman on about half the missions he flew in Korea.". He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, Did not play in major or minor leagues (Military Service), Salaries may not be complete (especially pre-1985) and may not include some earned bonuses, Note, this is done in an automated way, so we apologize for any errors, & please. 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). He won 2 MVP awards. He had a career batting average of .344, which is the sixth highest in Major League Baseball history. And in his 22-year major league career, Williams accomplished things on . His average was up to .40089. A piece of the loudspeaker . But not others. With new kids he never had faced or seen before, he lost his edge. In 1941, he also had the most hits in a single season with 230 and the most home runs with 37. Ted Williams had a .344 average over his career. .406 Batting Average (1941) | .388 Batting Average (1957) . For hitters though, the home run or bust approach has taken over which has seen a decline in batting averages as a result. Ted Williams is widely recognized as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Ted Williams was known by the nicknames "Teddy Ballgame . Ted Williams once said it was his goal in life to "walk down . It was during this discussion that I asked him, How do you want to handle it? Cronin said. But what made Williams so remarkable was his lifetime batting average, a staggering .344. After learning to fly the new Grumman F9F Panther at MCAS Cherry Point in North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33) in Korea. Copyright 1999- Facing Fowler to lead off the second, Williams singled to right. Stan Musial 5. Williams flew 39 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June of 1953 after an old ear infection acted up. He also had a career slugging percentage of .634, which is the third-highest of all time. Albert Pujols ranks 11th with a career batting average of .296 although he is retiring. He won eight NL batting titles and hit .338 over a 20-year . Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today. Year by Year Leaders for Batting Average Major League Baseball Batting Champions. From June to August 1945, Williams went through the Corsair Operational Training Unit at Jacksonville. The Kid,Teddy Ballgame,Splendid Splinter,Thumper are nicknames for Ted Williams. All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. Data Provided By Bergen hit.170 in 3,028 at-bats during his career, his lowest average since his playing career began. Friendly reminder that Ted Williams played from 1939 to 1960 and had the highest batting average, most home runs and most RBI's of any player in MLB during that period. His 120 RBIs were five shy of Joe DiMaggio's MLB-leading total and thus five short of the Triple Crown, something Williams would accomplish in 1942 and 1947. "Another time he was hit in the wingtip tank when I was flying with him. Join our linker program. he also finished with two of the most amazing . Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. A brief excerpt from Ted Williams biography appears below (we highly recommend you visit his page [Link] for the full story along with dozens of historical photographs): Williams had been classified 3-A in the military draft due to the fact that his mother was totally dependent on him. The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, Splendid Splinter or Thumper. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again.". "He slid it in on the belly. "Ted Williams is in a class by himself this season," said DiMaggio, quoted in . Williams returned to the United States in December and was discharged from the Marines on January 28, 1946. Let's break down the highest batting averages in a MLB season of all-time. Ted Williams once commented about those that fail 'only' seven times out of ten attempts will be the greatest in the game. In 1941, only his third season in the majors, Williams captivated the nation by chasing a .400 season batting average. Plenty of headlines the next day looked beyond the third decimal: Sox Top As; Williams Falls to .399Teds Average to .39955; Last Try at .400 TodayWilliams Batting Average Now .39955; Chips Down TodayTed Williams Slumps Below .400 With Two Games LeftWilliams Average Drops Below .400Ted Williams Slips Below .400 MarkRookie Drops Ted Williams To .399 MarkTed Williams Batting .399. Ted Williams hits .406 in 1941 . Many thanks to him. Yankees outfielder Paul ONeill actually finished 1994 with a .359 batting average and was hitting .400 later into the season too. Required fields are marked *. During his Major League career, he hit.482, which ranks third all-time, and his career slugging percentage of.634 ranks second. Stan Musial, one of the finest players in the majors during the late 1940s and in history, ended his holdout 75 years ago Saturday. Four of the top five players are also right-handed hitters, with Cano being the lefty of the bunch. Ted's batting average was .3996 rounded off by numbers-trackers to .400. Rogers Hornsby, 3. Ted Williams was born on Friday, August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California. Brett saw an impressive .390 batting average in 1980 which marks the latest a player has qualified for .400 since 1941. Homer off the blooper pitch . Bud still does presentations for groups about Ted Williams but said this year was his final fantasy camp. Say what you want about Walker playing in the steroid era and playing the majority of his games in notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field, but the Canadian could straight up rake (and run). 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? When the pair returned to the team hotel, Cronin and a coach were sitting in the lobby. 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. 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. Lets break down the highest batting averages in a MLB season of all-time. This was his fourth appearance, and the first against Boston. Bergens record-breaking batting average will always be remembered, whereas Cobb will be remembered for his incredible accomplishments and his status as one of the greatest players of all time. Ted Williams Batting Average. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Allan Simpson. 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. Tris Speaker). Ty Cobb, 4. vs. NYY 4 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB, Last Game: Regardless of your Barry Bonds opinion, the man hit for .370 in 2002 and also won the batting title in 2004 batting .362. Ted Williams was batting at .39955 going into the final day, a double-header, of the 1941 season. As mentioned above, Carew hit for .388 in 1977 and actually led the league in hitting on six different occasions. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. I am going to play ball this season, he announced. Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today. Ted Williams 4. Aside from winning two Triple Crowns and being a two-time Most Valuable Player, Williams was also a 17-time All-Star. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Ted Williams | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1966 (HOF). Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. He struck out a batter every 5.56 at bats, a seven at bat differential between Ted and the rest of his opponents. (Age 20-233d, despite complaining that the shift cost him 20 to 30 points on his lifetime batting average of . He was the last player to hit .400 in Major . He hit two All-Star-Game home runs at Fenway Park and finished the season at .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs, and was named the American Leagues Most Valuable Player. The runner-up in our five-part series documenting the best years of Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams brings us to his 1941 season. Wins Above Replacement 6X (14th All-Time) | On Base Plus Slugging 10X (2nd All-Time) MVP in 1946 and 1949. Most baseball fans know that Ted's last season was 1960 when he famously hit a home run in the last at bat of his legendary career. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. 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! 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. Carew began his career as an All-Star in 1967 and never looked back, making 18 straight teams until his final season in 1985. Well, it was the year Ted Williams set the record for the highest batting average ever in a MLB season. Ted Williams was a legendary hitter who is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game of baseball. 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).
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