9 - Ted Williams had his number "9" formally retired by the Boston Red Sox on May 29, 1984, the first player in team history to receive the honor and one of two numbers they retired that same day - the other being #4, for Joe Cronin. Ted Williams had a .344 average over his career. The last player to hit just .400 in the majors was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941 before taking the next three seasons off . It's hard to knock him for effort, however, seeing as collected 262 hits to break George Sisler's 84-year-old record that season.Last day at .400: N/A.How short was he? Carew saw his average drop to .374 on Aug. 26, but the eventual American League MVP made one last run, batting .441 over his final 31 games to finish seven hits shy of .400. Though Williams' .406 average was just a footnote in wire-service accounts in 1941, it's status grows more mythical with each passing year. 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. 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). 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Find out more. 1. Ted Williams career batting statistics for Major League, Minor League, and postseason baseball . 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. The strike halted play in mid-August, denying Gwynn the opportunity to try and keep the four-plus months hot streak going. During the whole conversation all he kept repeating, over and over, was how determined he was to hit .400.. Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1966. 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. [Top 1,000 / On Base Percentage Record Book] Did you know that he once got on base in eighty-four straight games (in 1949), an incredible feat that remains unmated to this day? 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. Larry Walker, 1999: .379Two seasons after claiming the NL MVP Award, Walker followed up with his best season at the plate by average. despite complaining that the shift cost him 20 to 30 points on his lifetime batting average of . Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. 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. This article (among others) that . Hank Aaron, 4. 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. And 10 miles (at least according to Williams autobiography, My Turn At Bat). The two faced off again in the seventh. 1941-05-25 Ted Williams raises his batting average over .400 for 1st time in 1941. 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. . It does not store any personal data. Ted Williams Rookie Card | 1939 Play Ball Baseball Card (#92 | Checklist)Baseball Almanac Research Library. So he got some hitting in, reporting to the ballpark on Friday for extra batting practice at the suggestion of manager Joe Cronin. "Ted Williams is in a class by himself this season," said DiMaggio, quoted in . Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with . Former Team: Boston Red Sox. Cobb finished his career with a .366 batting average which is best of all-time. vs. NYY 4 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB, Last Game: Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, going 6-for-8 on the season's last day to raise his average from .3995. Ted flew as my wingman on about half the missions he flew in Korea.". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". .406 Batting Average (1941) | .388 Batting Average (1957) . ), Latest-in-season .400 bids since Ted Williams. 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. Regardless of your Barry Bonds opinion, the man hit for .370 in 2002 and also won the batting title in 2004 batting .362. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. One of our favorite websites, Baseball in Wartime, has put together the best biographies on every player who served. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. The Boston left fielder entered the last game of the season that year with a .3995 batting average. 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? 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. Its extremely difficult to hit a baseball and the sport considers players who are successful three out of 10 times in their careers to be Hall of Fame worthy. As mentioned above, Carew hit for .388 in 1977 and actually led the league in hitting on six different occasions. Did you know that prior to Ted Williams, the only inductees who received more votes were 5. - 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. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Statistics and Probability questions and answers. He played baseball for the base team, the Bronson Bombers, which won the Training Command championship that year. Copyright 1999- Not saying LH Joe DiMaggio would do better, no way to tell. He also won the NL batting title with a .372 average in 1997. MVP Season 142 Runs, 38 HRs, 123 RBIs, 156 BBs, 343 TBs, .342 BA (1946) 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 . It was during this discussion that I asked him, How do you want to handle it? Cronin said. For three hours. Ted Williams had a .344 average over his career. . Ted's batting average was .3996 rounded off by numbers-trackers to .400. Its unfortunate, but batting averages continue to decline in baseball with much emphasis put on home runs. 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. On the mound in the first game of the doubleheader was 20-year-old rookie Dick Fowler, making just his fourth appearance. 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. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again.". 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. Is he the greatest player of all-time? Williams returned to the United States in December and was discharged from the Marines on January 28, 1946. 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. Ted Williams served as a Naval Aviator during World War II and the Korean War. Williams being sworn into the U.S. Navy Reserve on May 22, 1942. Why? Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Its hard to say which one is more undeniable: Bill Bergen or Ty Cobb. 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. Throughout his entire career, Williams batting average never dropped below .300. Williams then attended gunnery training at Jacksonville where he once again set gunnery records. The ride out was quiet, Wagner said. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. 2. Last day at .400: July 10How short was he? "By luck of the draw, we went to Korea at the same time," said future astronaut, John Glenn. 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. Bob Feller (93.8% in 1962), 4. Ted's last at-bat. 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. 'Ted Williams was the best pure hitter I ever saw,' Mays said. Ted Williams | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1966 (HOF). But its not quite so simple as a choice between Sit or Play. When his classification was changed to 1-A following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he made an appeal to his draft board which was upheld. But more importantly, his average was now at .406593 or .407. Williams roommate, Wagner, drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single, then shut down the As for a 12-11 victory.). 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. 20 straight years he had an OBP of .350 or higher. Copyright 1999- iUniverse Publishing. six batting titles and finished with a batting average more than 100 points higher than league average during those six years. 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. 20 hits shy of .400.It's been 16 years since we've even seen a hitter sit above .380 at the All-Star break, signifying that the chances of seeing anyone break the .400 barrier in a season may be getting slimmer and slimmer. document.write(update); As already mentioned, Williams .406 batting average is the highest off all-time while no other player has crossed the .400 mark. "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. Musial is the best all around hitter.'" Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The dedication Williams showed to being the best hitter he could be on the field was responsible for his success on the field, but it will almost certainly never be duplicated. 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. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. He also had a career slugging percentage of .634, which is the third-highest of all time. His accomplishments are impressive, so its difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding in the same way. 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. update=copyright.getFullYear(); update=copyright.getFullYear(); He was a master of the art of hitting, combining great hand-eye coordination and power with a keen knowledge of the strike zone. He then went to NAS Pensacola in Florida for intermediate training where he set records in aerial gunnery. Because of his ability to hit for both average and power, he was one of a kind and a truly special player. . To put it politely, the team didn't have talent like Ted Williams or Jackie Jensen blocking Pearson's path in the outfield. Ted Williams played for 1 team, the Boston Red Sox. Three innings later, Williams started the fifth with his 37th home run; he was now batting .402. . Walks 8X (4th All-Time) | Runs Created 9X (6th All-Time) the fifth start of his career. 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. Ted Williams Batting Average. Number twenty was Ralph Kiner, number one was Babe Ruth, the full list of his Top 20 Hitters is in our Legendary Lists section. Did you know that during the opening ceremonies he invited one active player to be attendance and it was Tony Gwynn? Ted Williams was born on August 30, 1918. 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. Ted Williams was known by the nicknames "Teddy Ballgame . He flied out to left to finish 2-for-3, his average settling at .406 or .405701, rounded up. Fans today look at the lofty batting average from Williams in . 6 - Ted Williams collected six hits across two games of a doubleheader played on September 28, 1941, the last two games of the season. . 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)? 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 had one more at-bat coming, in the ninth. Brett saw an impressive .390 batting average in 1980 which marks the latest a player has qualified for .400 since 1941. One of the most impressive batting averages of all time belongs to Ted Williams. Pearson finished the year with a .288 batting average, and he set career highs with 96 bases on . He would bat a more human-like .304 over his final 13 games to finish five hits shy of history.Last day at .400: Sept. 19How short was he? Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. As he crosses home plate, he spits in the direction of the sportswriters. His lifetime batting average was .344. 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. He also had an incredible 2,654 hits, which ranks him 11th on the all-time list. (Williams was erased on a double play, but the Red Sox rallied with two outs. Use the batting championship data above to find the first from every team, the first to win back-to-back titles, the first to win in each league, the first to win with an average less than .350, and hundreds of other variations Honus Wagner (8 batting titles), Tony Gwynn (8 batting titles) and Ty Cobb (12 batting titles) are truly in a class by themselves. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 9 who have come closest to reaching the hallowed mark. 18 July 2001. Did you know that those who finished ahead of The Thumper were 7. Joe Posnaski in 2009 listed DiMaggio as the 11th best hitter . Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 - July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Seven hits shy of .400.T3. The jacket has patches showing the wartime duty, Williams' record-setting year with the .406 batting average, and his career average. He had a . Ted Williams is widely recognized as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. 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. Homer off the blooper pitch . (Voted by BBWAA on 282/302 ballots) In the All-Star Game in Detroit that year, Williams hit a game-winning home run. Walker finished his career with 383 career home runs, a .313/.400/.565/.965 slash line, and 230 stolen bases for good measure. The Hawk became the second member when he went deep off Pedro Borbon on June 10, 1977 then off his son Pedro Borbon (Jr.) on August 16, 1995. At season's end, Walker stood nine hits shy of history.Last day at .400: May 26How short was he? Ted Williams Boston Red Sox MLB . Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. Ted Williams was born on Friday, August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California. After a a three-year military stint he returned in 1946 to hit a league-high .342 with 38 HR. He Mysteriously Retired in 1955. Babe Ruth, 2. I have my mother to support. 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. .. an .800 batting average is good. Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. Do you have a sports website? Has there ever been a player that was a "Top Prospect" longer than Royce Lewis? The Splendid Splinter answered when his country called 3 - Ted Williams surrendered three hits during his two innings of work when he took the mound on August 24, 1940. Thats a debate for another day (or article). The 1994 strike interrupted Tony Gwynn's bid to become first player to bat .400 since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941 . Williams moved from left field to the pitcher's mound during a 12-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Nine hits shy of .400.5. A lifetime .298 batting average he hit a home run every 15.11 at bats. 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? 6' 3" / 205. 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. Williams struck out one batter, Rudy York, on three pitches. From September to December 1943, Cadet Williams took primary training at NAS Bunker Hill, Indiana. (Age 42-029d) What was Ted Williams' average? MVP in 1946 and 1949. 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. I had to maintain my focus throughout. 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. 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? These batting averapes cannot be compared directly because the distribution of major league batting averages has changed over the years. In the last 80 years, the highest career batting average RH 324.6, Joe DiMaggio. 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. 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 . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. inInverness,FL, High School: Herbert Hoover HS (San Diego, CA), Debut: 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. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. When the pair returned to the team hotel, Cronin and a coach were sitting in the lobby. In 1941, he had the highest batting average of his career when he hit for .406. "It was something that required a kind of nonstop consistency," Williams said on the 50th anniversary of the feat in 1991. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 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. document.write(update); Musical hit .376 in 1948 but his success hitting went beyond that. 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? We're at 82 years and counting Strikeouts thrown by a pitcher in a . 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. Williams hit .356 in 1955 and .345 in 1956. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Data Provided By 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. "Giant centerfield Willie Mays compared (Ted) Williams and (Stan) Musial to sportswriter Roger Kahn. Thanks to the MLB strike of 1994, we never got the chance to see if the late Tony Gwynncould reach .400 that year. Williams' batting average was 47 points higher than Washington's Cecil Travis, who was second. Part of Teds great success as a hitter was the way he studied pitchers. Bats/Throws: L/R. Standard Batting; Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards; 1936: 17: BOS-min: AA: 42: 107: 107: 18: 29: 8: 2: 0: 11: 2 . 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. * 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. 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. He saw it the same way. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Posting at least a .400 batting average across a full Major League Baseball season remains one of the most difficult tasks in the game. 22 - Ted Williams was an inaugural inductee into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, one of twenty-two enshrined in 1995. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Williams received his pilot's wings and commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps on May 2, 1944. Statistics courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference, and Baseball-Almanac. 1941 was a streaky year for the American League, literally. The As started 22-year-old Fred Caligiuri, making wanna guess? 1941-05-02 MLB player Ted Williams' lowest average (.308) in year he hit over .400. Pujols and Cabrera are the only players with five-digit career plate appearances. His batting average in 1941 concluded at .406, the highest ever. Albert Pujols ranks 11th with a career batting average of .296 although he is retiring. During his time in the Major Leagues, Ted Williams hit an impressive 521 home runs and had a career batting average of .344. In 1958, the year Kubek played with him in the All-Star game, he won his sixth American League batting championship. In his first career season with the Boston Red Sox, his batting average was .329. In the sixth, Mack went to his bullpen, calling on 22-year-old left-hander Porter Vaughn. Required fields are marked *. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The Splendid Splinter led the league in walks eight times.
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